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Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game One Hundred Fifty

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MINNESOTA 5, CHICAGO 4 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Friday, September 18.

Batting stars:  Jim Holt was 2-for-3 with a triple, a walk, and two RBIs.  Tony Oliva was 2-for-4.  Cesar Tovar was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Bill Zepp pitched 6.1 innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk and striking out three.  Ron Perranoski pitched 2.2 innings, giving up one run on three hits and no walks and striking out two.

Opposition stars:  Bobby Knoop was 2-for-3 with a walk.  Bill Melton was 1-for-3 with a home run (his twenty-ninth) and two runs.  Don Eddy struck out four in two shutout innings, giving up a walk.

The game:  The Twins came out firing in the first.  Tovar led off with a single, Leo Cardenas walked, and Oliva delivered an RBI single.  The next two batters went out, but Holt hit a two-run triple, giving the Twins a 3-0 lead before the White Sox came to bat.

Chicago did come to bat, of course, and in the second they got back in the game.  Melton was hit by a pitch and went to third on Syd O'Brien's one-out double.  A ground out scored one run and Knoop single home another, cutting the Twins lead to 3-2.  But the Twins got the runs back in the third.  With two out Rich Reese singled and Brant Alyea and Holt walked, loading the bases.  George Mitterwald then delivered a two-run single to make it 5-2 Twins.

The White Sox got one back in the bottom of the third when Luis Aparicio tripled and scored on a ground out.  They had two on with two out in the fourth but did not score.  They had a man on second with none out in the seventh but did not score.  Melton homered in the eighth to make it 5-4.  Chicago had the tying run on second with two out in the eighth and on first with two out in the ninth, but neither reached home plate and the Twins had the victory.

WP:  Zepp (9-4).

LP:  Bart Johnson (3-6).

S:  Perranoski (31).

Notes:  Holt was in center field, with Tovar moving to third base and Harmon Killebrew again out of the lineup.  I don't know if Killebrew was injured or ill or was simply given a little time off with the division nearly settled.  Danny Thompson was at second base in place of Rod Carew.  Steve Brye went to left field in the seventh in place of Alyea.

Oliva was batting .318.  Tovar was batting .302.  Perranoski had an ERA of 2.30.

Brye was 0-for-1 and was batting .143.

Johnson was the starter for Chicago.  He pitched seven innings, giving up five runs (three earned) on eight hits and four walks and struck out four.

This was the start of a nine-game road trip:  three in Chicago, three in Oakland, and three in Kansas City.  It appeared likely that the Twins would clinch on the road.

Oakland defeated California 3-2, so the Twins' magic number was only reduced by one.

Record:  The Twins were 90-60, in first place in the American League West, 7.5 games ahead of Oakland.  Their magic number was five.

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game Sixty

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MINNESOTA 11, KANSAS CITY 2 IN KANSAS CITY

Date:  Sunday, June 21.

Batting stars:  Bob Allison was 2-for-3 with a walk, a stolen base, and three runs.  Rod Carew was 2-for-4 with a walk.  Leo Cardenas was 2-for-5 with a double and three RBIs.  Rich Reese was 2-for-5.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-4 with a home run (his seventeenth) and a walk.

Pitching stars:  Jim Perry struck out seven in 6.2 innings, giving up two runs on five hits and no walks.  Ron Perranoski pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up two hits and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Joe Keough was 2-for-4 with a double.  Lou Piniella was 2-for-4.  Al Fitzmorris pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit.

The game:  The Twins opened the scoring in the second.  Allison led off with an infield hit.  While Rick Renick was batting, Allison somehow went to second on an error on the shortstop.  He then stole third and scored on a throwing error on the catcher, giving the Twins a 1-0 lead.

The Twins put two on in the third but did not score.  In the fourth, however, the Twins took control of the game.  Allison reached on an error and Renick walked.  Cardenas delivered a two-run single-plus error, taking second on the play.  Reese singled, putting men on first and third, and George Mitterwald singled home a run.  A bunt moved the runners up and a sacrifice fly brought home one more, making it 5-0 Twins.  Killebrew homered leading off the fifth to make it 6-0.

The Royals had only one hit through the first six innings.  In the seventh, consecutive two-out singles by Bob Oliver, Keough, Piniella, and Ed Kirkpatrick brought home two runs and chased Perry from the game.  Perranoski came in to retire Hawk Taylor and keep the score 6-2.

The Twins put it away with five in the ninth.  Cesar Tovar doubled and scored on a Carew single.  Killebrew walked and Allison was hit by a pitch, loading the bases.  An error brought home one run and Cardenas hit a three-run double to bring us to the final score of 11-2.

WP:  Perry (10-5).

LP:  Bill Butler (2-6).

S:  Perranoski (16).

Notes:  Allison was in right field, giving Tony Oliva his first day off of the season.  Renick was in left in place of Brant Alyea.  Jim Holt replaced Renick in the seventh inning.  Frank Quilici pinch-ran for Killebrew in the ninth and stayed in the game at third base.

Carew was 7-for-12 in his last three games and raised his average to .378.  Perry was 1-for-2 and was batting .368.  Killebrew was batting .305.  Perry had an ERA of 2.82.  Perranoski had an ERA of 1.82.

I really don't know how Allison got to second in the second inning.  The play-by-play says "Baserunner Advance; Allison to 2B/Adv on E6".  My best guess is that he was trying to steal second and would've been out, but the shortstop dropped/missed the throw.  The catcher should get an assist on that, though, and nothing indicates that he did.

It seems strange to bring your closer into a game in the seventh inning of a 6-2 game, but of course it would not have been nearly has strange in 1970.  Plus, the game was arguably on the line--Kansas City had just scored two runs and had two men on.  On the other hand, the batter was Hawk Taylor, who wasn't exactly Babe Ruth--a career .218 average with a career OPS of .578.  Today they surely would've brought someone else in to pitch the ninth, with the Twins leading 11-2, but that just wasn't the way they did things back then.  At that time, they figured, Perranoski hasn't pitched since June 15, he's all warmed up, he might as well finish it up.

The Royals starter, Butler, would pitch for the Twins in 1974-1975 and 1977.  In this game, he pitched six innings, giving up six runs (three earned) on eight hits and three walks and striking out three.  Kansas City made five errors in the game, leading to four unearned runs.  They had made three errors in yesterday's game and two in the game before that, making ten for the series.  Yet, they won two out of three.

The Twins would now head for Milwaukee for the next leg of their three-city road trip.

Record:  The Twins were 39-21, in first place in the American League West, four games ahead of California.

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game Eighteen

MINNESOTA 4, CLEVELAND 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Thursday, April 30.

Batting stars:  Leo Cardenas was 3-for-4 with a home run (his second) and a double.  Brant Alyea was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer, his fifth.  Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-4 with a home run, his fourth.  Paul Ratliff was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Luis Tiant pitched 5.2 innings, giving up one run on four hits and one walk and striking out three.  Stan Williams pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up two hits and a walk.  Ron Perranoski pitched two perfect innings.

Opposition stars:  Ted Uhlaender was 2-for-4 with a double.  Graig Nettles was 1-for-3 with a home run and a walk.  Bob Miller pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits and striking out one.

The game:  The Twins got two singles in the first but did not score.  The Indians got on the board in the fourth on Nettles' homer, taking a 1-0 lead.  The Twins countered in the bottom of the fourth.  Killebrew homered to tie it, Rich Reese singled, and Alyea hit a two-run homer to make it 3-1 Twins.  Cardenas homered in the fifth to make it 4-1.

Cleveland threatened in the sixth.  Uhlaender led off with a double.  He was still on second with two out, but then Tony Horton walked and Roy Foster singled, loading the bases.  But Ray Fosse grounded out to end the inning.  The Indians again threatened in the eighth when Uhlaender led off with a single and Nettles walked, but they never moved off of first and second.  Well, they did once the inning was over, but you know what I mean.  Cleveland went out in order in the ninth.

WP:  Tiant (4-0).

LP:  Steve Hargan (1-2).

S:  Perranoski (4).

Notes:  Paul Ratliff was again behind the plate in place of George Mitterwald.  Frank Quilici was at second in the continuing absence of Rod Carew.  Jim Holt pinch-ran for Alyea in the eighth and stayed in the game in left field.  Minnie Mendoza replaced Killebrew in the ninth.

Alyea was batting .415.  Ratliff was batting .357.  Killebrew was batting .317.  Tony Oliva was 1-for-4 and was batting .316.  Tiant had an ERA of 2.79.  Williams still had an ERA of zero.  Perranoski had an ERA of 1.98.

All three of the Indians designated as "stars" are ex-Twins.

If you were asked "Who led the Twins in homers in the first month of 1970", your default answer would probably be Killebrew.  If you were told that was wrong, you'd probably say "Oliva".  You might even say "Rich Reese".  But unless you're really familiar with the 1970 club, you probably wouldn't say "Brant Alyea".  But that's who it was, with five home runs.  Those five home runs represent thirteen percent of his career total.

Ratliff was batting nearly two hundred points higher than the Twins' "regular" catcher, Mitterwald.  He obviously wouldn't sustain that, but I would assume there were some who thought Ratliff should be the regular catcher.  If so, Bill Rigney didn't listen to them, because Ratliff would get just 149 at-bats.  This was the only good offensive season Ratliff had, as he batted .268 with an OPS of .806.  In fact, not only was it his only good offensive season, it was the only season in which he batted over .200 or had an OPS over .700.

This game closed out a ten-game homestand.  The Twins would now go on a nine-game road trip, traveling to Baltimore, Detroit, and Cleveland.

Record:  The Twins were 12-6, in first place in the American League West by winning percentage, but tied with California in games.