OAKLAND 7, MINNESOTA 3 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Monday, August 10.
Batting stars: Leo Cardenas was 2-for-2 with two walks and a stolen base. Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-3 with a home run (his thirty-fifth) and a walk.
Pitching star: Pete Hamm pitched two shutout innings, giving up three hits.
Opposition stars: Rick Monday was 4-for-5 with a home run (his eighth), two doubles, two runs, and two RBIs. Tony LaRussa was 3-for-4 with a double. Tommy Davis was 3-for-5. Don Mincher was 3-for-5. Diego Segui was 2-for-3. Segui also pitched six innings, giving up two runs on five hits and six walks and striking out three. Mudcat Grant pitched three innings, giving up one run on three hits and no walks and striking out two.
The game: It was close most of the way. In the second, Sal Bando doubled and scored on Frank Fernandez' single to get the Athletics on the board. The Twins got two on in the bottom of the second but did not score. Monday homered with one out in the third to make it 2-0 Oakland.
The Twins eventually tied it, but missed on some good chances to get ahead. In the bottom of the third Bill Zepp led off with a single-plus-error and Cesar Tovar had a bunt single to put men on first and third. A double play scored a run. A single and a walk followed that, but a ground out ended the inning. In the fourth a single by Cardenas and walks to Tom Tischinski and Charlie Manuel loaded the bases with one out, but all the Twins could manage was a sacrifice fly, tying the score 2-2.
The Athletics put two on with two out in the sixth but did not score. In the seventh, however, Monday doubled, went to third on a Davis single, and scored on Mincher's single to put Oakland up 3-2. They put it out of reach in the eighth. LaRussa led off with a double and Grant followed with a bunt single. Bert Campaneris had an RBI single, Monday drove in a run with a double, and Davis and Mincher hit RBI singles to make the score 7-2.
Killebrew led off the eighth with a homer, but that was the last run the Twins scored. They got a pair of two-out singles in the eighth, but a popup ended the inning and thpie Twins went down in order in the ninth.
WP: Segui (7-8).
LP: Ron Perranoski (7-4).
S: Grant (20).
Notes: The switch to Holt in center and Tovar in left appears to be permanent, as the Twins did it again in this game. Danny Thompson was again at second base in place of Rod Carew. Tischinski was behind the plate in place of George Mitterwald.
Manuel pinch-hit for Zepp in the fourth. Rick Renick pinch-hit for Perranoski in the seventh and stayed in the game in left field, with Tovar moving to second base and Thompson leaving the game. Brant Alyea pinch-hit for Tischinski in the eighth, with Paul Ratliff going behind the plate. Jim Kaat pinch-hit for Dick Woodson in the ninth.
Tony Oliva was 1-for-5 and was batting .321. Zepp allowed two runs in four innings and had an ERA of 2.87. Perranoski gave up an unearned run in one inning and had an ERA of 2.16. Stan Williams had a rare bad game, allowing three runs in a third of an inning, and had an ERA of 2.09.
I don't understand using Kaat as a pinch-hitter when Mitterwald and Frank Quilici were still on the bench, unless for some reason they were unavailable that day. I know Kaat was always considered a good hitter, but he was "a good hitter for a pitcher" rather than an actual good hitter. At this point in the season, he was batting .177 with an OPS of .401. His career numbers are a batting average of .185 and an OPS of .494. Not that Mitterwald and Quilici were great batters, but they were clearly better than that.
Once again, ex-Twins came back to haunt the Twins.
The loss was the Twins' third in a row and meant that they ended their homestand 5-5. They next had a seven-game road trip, three in Washington and four in Boston.
Record: The Twins were 69-41, in first place in the American League West, 6.5 games ahead of California.