MINNESOTA 5, OAKLAND 3 IN OAKLAND
Date: Friday, April 6.
Batting stars: Ron Jackson was 2-for-4. Roy Smalley was 1-for-3 with a walk. Ken Landreaux was 1-for-3 with a walk.
Pitching star: Dave Goltz pitched 8.1 innings, giving up three runs on eight hits and a walk and striking out three.
Opposition stars: Mickey Klutts was 2-for-3 with a double. Dave Revering was 2-for-4 with a double. Dave Heaverlo retired all eight men he faced.
The game: The Twins put men on first and second in the first, but did not score. In the second, Revering hit a one-out double and Tony Armas delivered a two-out RBI single to make it 1-0 Athletics.
The pitchers then took over for a while, as neither team got a hit in innings three through five. In the sixth, Mike Cubbage led off with a single, was bunted to second, and went to third on a ground ball. Jackson then tied it with an RBI single. Glenn Adams followed with a run-scoring double and scored on a Butch Wynegar single. The Twins led 3-1. They got a couple more in the seventh. Willie Norwood hit a one-out triple and Jose Morales was hit by a pitch. A fielder's choice scored Norwood and Smalley's RBI single put the Twins up 5-1.
Oakland got a run back in the bottom of the seventh. Singles by Jeff Newman and Revering put men on first and third and a force out made it 5-2. A double play took them out of the inning. They threatened again in the ninth. Mitchell Page tripled and Newman walked, bringing the tying run to the plate. Mike Marshall came in to pitch for the Twins. Revering hit into a force out, cutting the lead to 5-3. It was the second out, however, and Mike Edwards then struck out to end the game.
WP: Goltz (1-0). LP: Rick Langford (0-1). S: Marshall (1).
Notes: Opening day of 1979. This was a period where it seemed like every year the Twins opened the season on the west coast.
Cubbage opened the season as the Twins' third baseman. He held the job until the middle of May, when he was replaced by John Castino. Castino would go on to win the Rookie of the Year award.
The Twins' outfield on opening day was Landreaux, Norwood, and Rick Sofield, with Adams at DH. Landreaux was a good player, but the Twins were shuffling various mediocre players in the other outfield spots with, understandably, mediocre results. In addition those mentioned above, Hosken Powell, Dave Edwards, and Bombo Rivera saw significant time in the outfield in 1979. Adams was a decent batter but was more suited to DH. The highest OPS among the others was Powell at .739.
Wilfong was in a platoon with Bobby Randall at second base. As the left-handed batter, Wilfong got the majority of at-bats and actually had a pretty good year, batting .313.
Ron Jackson was a pretty mediocre first baseman, but "Papa Jack" is a great nickname.
Record: The Twins were 1-0, tied for first place in the American League West with Kansas City and Seattle. They would finish 82-80, in fourth place, six games behind California.
The Athletics were 0-1, tied for fifth place in the American League West with Chicago and California. They would finish 58-104, in seventh (last) place, thirty-four games behind California.