Tag Archives: Gerry Janeski

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game One Hundred Fifty-two

MINNESOTA 8, CHICAGO 1 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Sunday, September 20.

Batting stars:  Cesar Tovar was 3-for-5 with a double, a stolen base (his thirtieth), and two runs.  Jim Holt was 3-for-5 with a double.  Tony Oliva was 3-for-5.  Paul Ratliff was 2-for-4 with a home run (his fourth), a walk, and two RBIs.  Rich Reese was 2-for-5.

Pitching star:  Bert Blyleven pitched a complete game, giving up one run on three hits and one walk and striking out four.

Opposition star:  Ed Herrmann was 2-for-3.

The game:  Ratliff homered in the second to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  Bill Melton led off the second with a double and scored on Herrmann's single to tie it 1-1.

It was all Twins after that.  In the third Tovar singled, stole second, went to third on a passed ball, and scored on a ground out to put the Twins up 2-1.  In the fourth Harmon Killebrew singled, went to third on a Holt double, and scored on a ground out to make it 3-1.  In the fifth Tovar doubled, Leo Cardenas reached on a sacrifice/fielders' choice, putting men on first and third, Oliva singled in a run, and yet another run scored on a ground out to make it 5-1.

The Twins put it away in the seventh.  With two out Killebrew walked, followed by consecutive singles by Reese, Holt, and Ratliff, bringing in three runs and making the score 8-1.

The White Sox had only one hit after the second inning, and that runner was erased by a double play.

WP:  Blyleven (10-8).

LP:  Gerry Janeski (10-16).

S:  None.

Notes:  Holt was in center field, with Tovar moving to left.  Ratliff was behind the plate in place of George Mitterwald.  Danny Thompson was at second base in place of Rod Carew.  Frank Quilici went to third base in the seventh inning in place of Killebrew.

Oliva was batting .320.  Tovar was batting .302.

Since Carew went out, Bill Rigney's standard defensive move was to put Quilici at second base and move Thompson to third.  In this game, for some reason, he left Thompson at second and put Quilici at third.  Maybe he just wanted to get Quilici a little practice at third base in case a situation came up where he was needed there in the playoffs.  Is it a big deal?  No.  It just seems kind of odd.

This was Gerry Janeski's only full season as a rotation starter.  He went 10-17, 4.77, 1.51 WHIP.  He was only twenty-four, though, and one would think leaving him in the rotation all year meant the White Sox thought he was a promising young player.  Instead, they traded him after the season for Rick Reichardt.  He pitched poorly for them in a half-season, was sent to AAA, and stayed there through 1974, making only four more appearances in the majors.  His career numbers are 11-23, 4.73, 1.55 WHIP.

Oakland lost to California 4-2, so the Twins lowered their magic number by two.  It gave them the chance to clinch the division the next day, when they played at Oakland.

Record:  The Twins were 92-60, in first place in the American League West, 8.5 games ahead of Oakland.

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game Eleven

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CHICAGO 7, MINNESOTA 5 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Thursday, April 23.

Batting stars:  Paul Ratliff was 2-for-3 with two runs.  Cesar Tovar was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his fifth.

Pitching stars:  Steve Barber pitched 2.2 innings, giving up one run on four hits and a walk and striking out two.  Stan Williams struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up on hit.

Opposition stars:  Luis Aparicio was 3-for-4 with a walk and two RBIs.  Bobby Knoop was 3-for-5 with a home run, his second.  Gail Hopkins was 2-for-3 with a double.

The game:  Each team got a man to second in the first, but there was no score until the second, when Hopkins doubled and scored on Buddy Bradford's single.  The White Sox put two on again in the third and scored again in the fourth on singles by Bradford, Knoop, and Aparicio.

The Twins got on the board in the fifth:  Ratliff singled, Leo Cardenas walked, a bunt advanced the runners, and a sacrifice fly scored Ratliff.  Chicago got the run back in the sixth when Knoop singled, was bunted to second, and scored on an Aparicio single.

The Twins took the lead in the bottom of the sixth.  With one out Harmon Killebrew walked and Rich Reese singled.  With two out Ratliff delivered an RBI single and Cardenas followed with a two-run double, putting the Twins up 4-3.  They put two in the seventh with one out, but did not add to their lead.

It cost them, as Chicago went into the lead to stay in the eighth.  Knoop led off the inning with a home run to tie the score.  Syd O'Brien pinch-hit a single and was bunted to second, with bunter Walt Williams also reaching base on a fielder's choice.  Aparicio then reached on a three-base error on pitcher Ron Perranoski, putting the White Sox up 6-4.  A sacrifice fly then made it 7-4.

The Twins got one in the ninth.  Tovar singled and went to second on a wild pitch.  Killebrew reached on an error, scoring Tovar and bringing the winning run up to bat.  But pinch-hitter Rick Renick flied out to center to end the game.

WP:  Tommie Sisk (1-0).

LP:  Perranoski (0-1).

S:  Wilbur Wood (3).

Notes:  Ratliff was again behind the plate in place of George Mitterwald.  Mitterwald would pinch-hit for him in the eighth and go behind the plate.

Rod Carew started the game, but was pinch-hit for in the first inning by Minnie Mendoza.  One assumes he was dealing with an injury or illness.  Charlie Manuel and Bob Allison pinch-hit for pitchers.  It was the first action Allison had seen in what would be his last season.  Jim Holt replaced Brant Alyea in left field in the seventh.  Renick pinch-hit for Reese in the ninth.

Bill Zepp started and pitched three innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on seven hits and one walk and striking out one.

Alyea was 0-for-2 and was batting .419.  Tovar was batting .383.  Tony Oliva was 1-for-5 and was batting .340.  Ratliff was batting .333.  Manuel was 0-for-1 and was batting .333.  Killebrew was 1-for-4 and was batting .324.  Holt and Renick were each 0-for-1 and each was batting .300.  Zepp had an ERA of 2.25.  Perranoski gave up four runs (one earned) in two innings and had an ERA of 2.53.  Tom Hall struck out the only man he faced and had an ERA of zero.  Williams also had an ERA of zero.

Reese was 1-for-4 and was batting .161.

This was the last good season Perranoski would have, and part of the reason may be that Bill Rigney seemed determined to drive him into the ground in April.  In the space of five games, Perranoski had come in four times, pitching a total of 8.2 innings.  I know men were men back then, but even so, this seems like overdoing it, especially in the first month of the season.

The White Sox' starter was Gerry Janeski.  He pitched 5.2 innings, allowing four runs on five hits and three walks and striking out four.  He was a rookie, and this was just his third major league start.  He started the season strong, with a 2.91 ERA in his first eight starts, but would end going 10-17, 4.77, 1.51 WHIP.  1970 was his only full major league season.  He would be traded to Washington after the season and would make 27 more appearances (11 starts) over two seasons for the Senators/Rangers.  His career numbers were 11-23, 4.73, 1.55 WHIP.  After baseball, Janeski had a successful career in real estate in California.

This would be the last win of Tommie Sisk's career.  He'd had some solid seasons with PIttsburgh, but had a poor year in 1969 with the expansion San Diego Padres and would struggle in 1970, his last major league season.  The White Sox traded him to Cleveland in June and he was traded to Montreal after the season, but he never pitched in the majors for either of those clubs.

The loss snapped a four game winning streak for the Twins.  They had won four, lost two, then won four again.  We'll see if they go on to lose two again.

Record:  The Twins were 8-3, in first place in the American League West by winning percentage, but a half game behind California.