CALIFORNIA 2, MINNESOTA 1 IN CALIFORNIA
Date: Friday, July 10.
Batting star: Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-2 with a double and two walks.
Pitching stars: Jim Kaat pitched six innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and two walks and striking out two. Stan Williams struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up two hits.
Opposition stars: Jim Fregosi was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer. his fifteenth. Jarvis Tatum was 2-for-4. Andy Messersmith struck out thirteen in a complete game, giving up one run on six hits and three walks.
The game: All the scoring came in the first inning. For the Twins, Jim Holt hit a one-out single and scored on Killebrew's two-out double. For the Angels, Tatum hit a one-out single followed by Fregosi's two-run homer.
And that was it. California opened the fourth with a pair of singles, but a fly out and a double play ended the inning. In the fifth Cesar Tovar drew a one-out walk and went to second on a wild pitch, but there he stayed. The Angels loaded the bases with one out in the sixth, but again a double play took them out of the inning. They got two on in the seventh with one out but did not cash it in. The Twins got a man on in the eighth and again in the ninth, but did not advance him past first base.
WP: Messersmith (8-8).
LP: Kaat (7-7).
S: None.
Notes: Holt was in left field in place of Brant Alyea. Paul Ratliff was behind the plate in place of George Mitterwald. Danny Thompson remained at second base in place of Rod Carew. Herman HIll and Rick Renick were used as pinch-hitters for pitchers.
Oliva was 0-for-4 and was batting .326. Killebrew was batting .321. Tovar was 0-for-3 and was batting .311. Williams had an ERA of 1.48.
Hill was 0-for-1 and was batting .111.
It's not exactly rare, but it is unusual to have a game in which all the runs are scored in the first inning. I'm sure this is nowhere near the record for most runs scored in a game like that, but I do wonder what the record is.
Neither team got a hit with a man in scoring position. The Twins were 0-for-3 and California was 0-for-6.
I don't remember Fregosi as a power hitter, but he hit double-digit home runs six times. His high was 22, set in 1970. He hit 151 homers in his career.
1970 was the one year Jarvis Tatum got some decent playing time. He got 181 at-bats in 75 games, batting .238/.302/.276. An outfielder, he started 44 of those 75 games. He stole 99 bases in the minors, so he presumably had some speed and was considered a good defender. He hit for a decent average in AAA and hit some home runs in the Pacific Coast League, but it didn't translate to major league success. He is one of two major league players with the first name "Jarvis", the other being ex-Twin Jarvis Brown.
The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for the Twins.
Record: The Twins were 53-27, in first place in the American League West, five games ahead of California.