MINNESOTA 12, CHICAGO 0 IN CHICAGO
Date: Tuesday, April 7.
Batting stars: Brant Alyea was 4-for-4 with two three-run homers and seven RBIs. Tony Oliva was 2-for-5 with a double and three runs. George Mitterwald was 2-for-5 with a double. Rod Carew was 2-for-5 with a stolen base and two runs.
Pitching star: Jim Perry pitched a complete game shutout, giving up six hits and four walks and striking out six.
Opposition star: Bill Melton was 3-for-4 with a double.
The game: The Twins jumped on White Sox starter Tommy John early, scoring three runs in the first inning. Cesar Tovar led off the game with a triple and scored on Carew's single. Carew stole second and went to third when Oliva reached on an error. A pickoff error scored Carew and moved Oliva to second. Alyea followed with an RBI single to make it 3-0.
The White Sox started the first with two walks, but could not do anything with them. Each team got a pair of singles in the fourth, but it stayed 3-0 until the fifth. Two-out singles by Harmon Killebrew and Oliva were followed by Alyea's three-run homer to make it 6-0 Twins.
Chicago put men on first and third with two-out in the sixth but again did not score. The Twins put it completely out of reach with a six-run seventh. With one out, Carew singled, Killebrew walked, and Oliva hit an RBI double. Alyea followed with another three-run homer to make the score 10-0. Rich Reese then singled, Mitterwald doubled, Leo Cardenas drove in a run with a single, and Perry hit a sacrifice fly, bringing it to 12-0. The White Sox got a man into scoring position in each of the last three innings, but did not advance any of them past second.
WP: Perry (1-0).
LP: John (0-1).
S: None.
Notes: Frank Quilici pinch-ran for Killebrew in the seventh and remained in the game at third base. Jim Holt replaced Alyea in left in the eighth.
Killebrew mostly played third base in 1970, with Reese at first. Tovar, who had played all over the diamond, settled in mostly in center field. He did play a substantial number of games in left as well, but rarely played in the infield.
With the release of Johnny Roseboro, Mitterwald became the regular catcher, although Paul Ratliff also played a significant number of games behind the plate.
Alyea was acquired in a trade with Washington, with Joe Grzenda and Charley Walters going to the Senators. It would be hard to have a better debut with your new team than what he had: 4-for-4, two three-run homers, seven RBIs. He would go on to have what was easily the best season of his career, although he had just 290 plate appearances.
It has to be discouraging to lose on opening day at home 12-0 with your best pitcher on the mound. John was an excellent pitcher, and he would go on to have a fine season. But he apparently didn't have it on this day.
We don't have pitch counts for games in 1970. It goes without saying that today, no pitcher would be left in to finish a 12-0 game, but I said it anyway. It was Bill Rigney's first game as manager of the Twins--he had to be thinking this was going to be an easy job.
Record: The Twins were 1-0, tied for first in the American League West with California and Oakland.
