KANSAS CITY ROYALS 4, MINNESOTA TWINS 3 IN KANSAS CITY
Date: Sunday, September 27, 1970.
Batting stars: George Mitterwald was 2-for-3 with a double. Tony Oliva was 2-for-4 with a triple. Brant Alyea was 2-for-4.
Pitching star: Luis Tiant pitched four innings, giving up two runs on six hits and a walk and striking out two.
Opposition stars: Bobby Floyd was 4-for-4 with two doubles. Lou Piniella was 3-for-4. Amos Otis was 2-for-4 with a double and two runs. Jim Rooker pitched 7.2 innings, giving up three runs on eight hits and two walks and striking out seven.
The game: Kansas City jumped out to an early lead. In the first inning Otis led off with a single and Piniella followed with a one-out single. The Twins had Piniella picked off first, but an error, put men on second and third and a wild pitch brought home the game’s first run. Ed Kirkpatrick then singled to make it 2-0 Royals.
There were a few threats before the next run scored. In the second Floyd led off with a double and Tommy Matchick followed with a single, putting men on first and third with one out. A strikeout, a popup, and a fly out ended the inning. In the third, Mitterwald led off with a single and went to second on a two-out walk to Frank Quilici, but Harmon Killebrew struck out to end the threat. In the fourth, Alyea had a one-out single and Bob Allison followed with a walk. A balk put men on second and third, but Rick Renick and Mitterwald were each caught looking to strand the runners. Oliva tripled with one out in the sixth, but a strikeout and a fly ball left him on third.
The Royals broke through in the sixth, as doubles by Bob Oliver and Floyd brought home a run. They added one more in the seventh when Otis doubled and scored on Piniella’s single, making it 4-0.
The Twins got a one-out double in the seventh from Mitterwald, but again could do nothing with it. They finally got on the board in the eighth. Killebrew singled with one out. With two out, Alyea singled and Allison hit a two-run double. Rich Reese followed with an RBI single, making the score 4-3.
But that was as much as the Twins could do. A ground out ended the inning, and the Twins went down in order in the ninth.
WP: Rooker (10-15).
LP: Luis Tiant (7-3).
S: Ted Abernathy (14).
Notes: Quilici was at second, with Danny Thompson moving to short and Leo Cardenas getting the day off. Renick was at third with Killebrew moving to first and Reese on the bench, although he would pinch-hit. Allison was in right, with Oliva moving to center and Cesar Tovar on the bench, although he would also pinch-hit.
The Twins had clinched the division title, and this was in the days of September call-ups and before thirteen-man pitching staffs, so they used a lot of bench players. Nine of them, to be exact. They used six pinch-hitters and two pinch-runners. I kind of miss that.
Tiant had his best year at the plate in 1970, batting .406/.424/.531 in 32 at-bats. Oliva was batting .322. He would finish at .325. Tovar was batting .299. He would finish at .300. Rod Carew was injured much of 1970. He batted .366 in 191 at-bats.
Jim Kaat made 34 starts and pitched well over two hundred innings in 1970, yet he pitched two innings of relief in a meaningless game and was probably quite happy to do so. Put that in your file of “things that would never happen today.”
Bobby Floyd batted .326 in 43 at-bats in 1970. Take away this game and he batted .256.
While Tiant was injured much of 1970, he pitched pretty well when he could pitch, going 7-3, 3.40 in 92.2 innings (17 starts). Makes you wonder why the Twins were so quick to give up on him. In their defense, he had a poor year in 1969 and would have another one in 1971 before his career resurgance.
Record: Kansas City was 64-94, in fourth place in the AL West, 31 games behind Minnesota. They would finish 65-97, tied for fourth with Milwaukee, 33 games behind Minnesota.
The Twins were 95-63, in first place in the AL West, 8.5 games ahead of Oakland. They would finish 98-64, in first place, 9 games ahead of Oakland.
Random Record: The Random Twins are 7-6 (.538).