Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game Fifty-eight

KANSAS CITY 5, MINNESOTA 1 IN KANSAS CITY

Date:  Friday, June 19.

Batting stars:  Rod Carew was 3-for-4.  Jim Holt was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Tom Hall struck out three in 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk.  Steve Barber pitched two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Amos Otis was 3-for-4 with a double.  Bob Oliver was 2-for-4 with a double and two runs.  Joe Keough was 2-for-4.  Dick Drago pitched a complete game, giving up an unearned run on seven hits and one walk and striking out five.

The game:  There was no score until the third, when Bobby Floyd led off with a walk, went to second on a ground out, and scored on a Cookie Rojas single.  The Royals added two in the fourth:  Oliver and Keough led off with singles and Lou Piniella followed with an RBI double.  Ed Kirkpatrick was intentionally walked, loading the bases with still none out.  All Kansas City could get out of that was one more, on a ground out, but it put the Royals up 3-0.  Kansas City added two more in the fifth.  Otis hit a one-out single and scored on Oliver's double.  Oliver went to third on Keough's single and scored on a ground out to make it 5-0 Royals.

The Twins didn't mount a lot of threats.  They had a walk and a single with two out in the second.  They got a pair of one-out singles in the seventh.  Their lone run scored in the eighth when Cesar Tovar reached on a two-base error and scored on a Carew single.

WP:  Drago (5-4).

LP:  Bert Blyleven (2-2).

S:  None.

Notes:  Holt was in left in place of Brant Alyea.  Charlie Manuel pinch-hit for Hall in the seventh.  Paul Ratliff pinch-hit for George Mitterwald in the ninth.

Carew was batting .373.  Tony Oliva was 0-for-4 and was batting .324.  Harmon Killebrew was 0-for-4 and was batting .310.  Hall had an ERA of 2.30.  Barber had an ERA of 2.87.

Manuel was batting .176.  Manuel had been with the Twins all season and had appeared in twenty games, all as a pinch-hitter.  That's a tough way to try to succeed.  He was in his age twenty-six season.  I'm sure he was happy to be in the majors, but it sure wasn't a way to try to develop a young-ish player.

This was Blyleven's first poor start.  He allowed five runs in 4.1 innings, giving up seven hits and two walks and striking out two.

I don't remember that I've ever heard of Bobby Floyd.  He played in parts of seven major league seasons, from 1968-1974, but only once got as many as a hundred at-bats in a season (134 in 1972).  He was an infielder, playing 98 games at shortstop, 56 games at second base, and 48 games at third base.  He batted .219/.264/.266 in 425 at-bats.  1970 was his best season at bat, as he batted .311/.360/.400 in 45 at-bats.  He was tied with me in major league career home runs, as we both hit zero.  He did have a lengthy career as a minor league manager and coach.

Record:  The Twins were 38-20, in first place in the American League West, five games ahead of California.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–December 3

3 Comments

Billy McLean (1835)
Bennie Tate (1901)
Joe Collins (1922)
Ray Bellino (1932)
Clay Dalrymple (1936)
Chico Salmon (1940)
Jerry Johnson (1943)
Wayne Garrett (1947)
Pat Putnam (1953)
Gene Nelson (1960)
Damon Berryhill (1963)
Darryl Hamilton (1964)
Paul Byrd (1970)
Chad Durbin (1977)
Andy Oliver (1987)
J. T. Chargois (1990)

Billy McLean was the umpire in the first National League game ever, April 22, 1876.  He umpired in the National League through 1890.

Shortstop Ray Bellino played and managed in the Twins minor league system and also was a scout for them.

If I ever write a novel, I think I'll call one of the characters "Dalrymple".

Andy Oliver was drafted by Minnesota in the seventeenth round in 2006, but did not sign.

We would also like to wish a happy birthday to DK.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–December 3 →

WGOM Radio

The World’s Greatest Online Magazine Presents The Half-Baked Podcast: 11. In Just Before The Deadline

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Yes! Got it in before the lockout!*

Wow, the game of baseball can (very occasionally) move fast. We recorded this over Monday and Tuesday night and well over three quarters of this is definitely old news. The WGOMPTHBP, your home for breaking news several days after it happened (and punched mouth noises).

Anyway, DK, DG, N**, and HJ (me) at different times and spaces all get together to discuss the Wolves (well, that one game)! The Gophers (would that it was)! The Vikings (passingly)! The Wild (okay, we talk about the Wild for awhile)! And throughout there's a lot Twins talk with much celebration of the Buxton extension and discussion of a certain pitching strategy that WE TOTALLY STARTED TALKING ABOUT BEFORE ANYONE ELSE AND HAVE THE RECEIPTS TO PROVE IT!

* Technically not true as this was posted in the early Friday morning CST hours
** "N" means nibbish. I just did that for the sake of continuity. Maybe he should add an extra word to his handle so I can initialize it.

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game Fifty-seven

WASHINGTON 3, MINNESOTA 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Wednesday, June 17.

Batting star:  Leo Cardenas was 2-for-4 with a double.

Pitching stars:  Jim Kaat struck out eight in eight innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on five hits and two walks.  Bill Zepp pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  George Brunet struck out ten in eight innings, giving up one run on four hits and three walks.  Tim Cullen was 2-for-4 with a stolen base.

The game:  Ed Stroud led off the game with a double, went to third on a fly ball, and scored on an error to give the Senators a 1-0 lead.  The Twins tied it in the second when Rick Renick singled, went to third on a Cardenas double, and scored on a ground out.

There was only one base runner in innings three through five, and that was on an error.  In the sixth, Washington went back into the lead.  Frank Howard walked, went to third on Rick Reichardt's single and scored on a ground out to make it 2-1.  They got an insurance run in the seventh.  Paul Casanova and Cullen singled and Brunet reached on an error to load the bases with none out.  All they got out of it was a sacrifice fly, but it made the score 3-1.

The Twins threatened in the eighth.  With one out Cesar Tovar doubled and Rod Carew followed with a bunt single, putting men on first and third with Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva coming up.  It looked good, but they both struck out and the inning ended.  All the Twins could get in the ninth was a two-out single by Cardenas.

WP:  Brunet (4-5).

LP:  Kaat (5-5).

S:  Darold Knowles (13).

Notes:  Renick was again at third base, with Killebrew moving to first.  Jim Holt pinch-ran for Brant Alyea in the seventh inning and remained in the game in left field.  Bob Allison pinch-hit for Kaat in the eighth.

Carew was 1-for-4 and was batting .364.  Oliva was 0-for-4 and was batting .329.  Killebrew was 0-for-2 and was batting .316.  Zepp had an ERA of 2.89.

In his last eleven games, Cardenas was 18-for-43 (.419).  He had raised his average from .260 to .292.

Brunet was near the end of a long career, and was not having a particularly good season.  His ERA after this game was 5.17.  This was his second-best start (by game scores) of the season, bested only by a game in mid-July.  He would be traded to Pittsburgh at the August deadline and pitched very well for them out of the bullpen in September.

After all the Senators players with Twins connections in yesterday's game, there were none in today's game.

The Twins would next go on an eleven-game road trip, going to Kansas City, Milwaukee, and Chicago.  Those teams were in fifth, sixth, and fourth place in the AL West, respectively.

Record:  The Twins were 38-19, in first place in the American League West, five games ahead of California.

Remodeled basement. Same half-baked taste.