CHICAGO 4, MINNESOTA 2 IN CHICAGO
Date: Friday, June 26.
Batting stars: Harmon Killebrew was 3-for-4. Cesar Tovar was 2-for-3 with a double. Rich Reese was 1-for-3 with a home run (his fifth) and a walk.
Pitching star: Dick Woodson struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.
Opposition stars: Luis Aparicio was 2-for-3 with a walk, a stolen base (his fourth) and two runs. Bob Miller pitched five innings, giving up two runs on six hits and a walk and striking out two. Jerry Crider pitched four shutout innings, giving up two hits and striking out three.
The game: Tovar led off the game with a double but did not score. In the bottom of the first Aparicio singled, went to third on Syd O'Brien's double, and scored on a sacrifice fly to give the White Sox a 1-0 lead. In the second, Rich McKinney reached second on an error. Ken Berry walked and Miller singled home a run. Berry then stole third and scored on another sacrifice fly to make it 3-0 Chicago.
The Twins got on the board in the third. Jim Kaat was hit by a pitch, Tovar singled, a ground out moved the runners up, and another ground out brought home a run. Reese homered leading off the fourth to cut the lead to 3-2.
But that's as close as the Twins got. In the fifth Aparicio walked, went to third on a stolen base-plus-error, and scored on, yes, another sacrifice fly to make it 4-2.
The Twins had two on with none out in the sixth but did not score. They got a one-out single in the ninth, bringing the tying run to bat, but again could not do anything with it.
WP: Miller (3-3).
LP: Kaat (6-6).
S: Crider (1).
Notes: Jim Holt remained in left in place of Brant Alyea. Danny Thompson was at second base in place of Rod Carew.
Herman Hill and Bob Allison pinch-hit for pitchers. Paul Ratliff pinch-hit for George Mitterwald in the ninth. Rick Renick pinch-hit for Thompson in the ninth.
Tony Oliva was 0-for-4 and was batting .315. Killebrew was batting .309. Bill Zepp did not give up a run in two-thirds of an inning and had an ERA of 2.70. Woodson had an ERA of 1.86.
Thompson was batting zero (0-for-7). Hill was batting zero (0-for-5). Mitterwald was 0-for-3 and was batting .195.
Kaat pitched 5.1 innings, giving up four runs (two earned) on six hits and four walks and striking out two.
Both White Sox pitchers had pitched for the Twins in 1969.
The Twins had scored thirteen runs in their last five games. In each of those games, the opposition started an average to below average pitcher.
The Twins were 3-5 in their road trip against some of the worst teams in the league.
Record: The Twins were 41-24, in first place in the American League West, two games ahead of California.