MINNESOTA 5, BOSTON 2 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Friday, June 12.
Batting stars: Leo Cardenas was 4-for-4. Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-2 with three walks.
Pitching stars: Jim Perry pitched six innings, giving up one run on five hits and two walks and striking out four. Ron Perranoski pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and striking out two.
Opposition stars: Tom Satriano was 2-for-3 with a home run. Mike Andrews was 2-for-4.
The game: In the second Brant Alyea reached on an error, went to second on a Cardenas single, and scored on a Perry single to give the Twins a 1-0 lead. The Twins loaded the bases in the third on two walks and a single but did not score. In the fifth Tony Oliva singled and went to second on a wild pitch with two out. Alyea then delivered an RBI double and scored on a Cardenas single to put the Twins up 3-0.
Satriano homered leading off the sixth to make it 3-1. A pair of singles gave the Red Sox two on with one out, but they could do no more. In the seventh, singles by Rico Petrocelli, Satriano, and Mike Fiore plated another run to cut the lead to 3-2.
A strikeout ended the inning, however, and the Twins got the runs back in the eighth. Jim Holt walked, Cardenas got another single, and George Mitterwald singled home a run. With two out, Carew hit an RBI double to make the score 5-2. Boston got a one-out single in the ninth from George Scott but did not get the tying run up to bat.
WP: Perry (8-5).
LP: Gary Peters (3-7).
S: Perranoski (14).
Notes: Rick Renick was at third base, with Harmon Killebrew moving to first. Holt pinch-ran for Alyea in the fifth and stayed in the game in left field. Charlie Manuel pinch-hit for Perry in the sixth. Rich Reese pinch-hit for Renick in the seventh and stayed in the game at first base, with Killebrew moving to third. Frank Quilici pinch-ran for Killebrew in the eighth and stayed in the game at third base.
Carew was 1-for-5 and was batting .371. Oliva was 1-for-4 and was batting .333. Killebrew was batting .315. Perry was 1-for-2 and was batting .313. He also had an ERA of 2.81. Stan Williams gave up a run in two-thirds of an inning and had an ERA of 2.21. Perranoski had an ERA of 2.00.
It was fun when teams had deeper benches and could make lots of in-game moves with position players. I miss that.
This was the start of a six-game homestand for the Twins against Boston and Washington. They had only eight home games in the month of June.
Record: The Twins were 35-17, in first place in the American League West, 2.5 games ahead of California.