BOSTON 5, MINNESOTA 1 IN BOSTON
Date: Tuesday, June 2.
Batting stars: Jim Perry was 2-for-2. Rich Reese was 2-for-4 with two doubles.
Pitching star: Dick Woodson pitched three shutout innings, giving up three hits and two walks and striking out one.
Opposition stars: Mike Andrews was 4-for-5 with a double. Tom Satriano was 2-for-3 with a walk. Billy Conigliaro was 1-for-2 with a home run (his third), a walk, and two runs. Ray Culp struck out nine in a complete game, giving up one run on eight hits and three walks.
The game: Andrews led off the first with a single, Carl Yastrezemski walked, and Rico Petrocelli hit an RBI double to put the Red Sox up 1-0. They missed a chance to get more, however, as they left the bases loaded.
The Twins missed chances to tie it, wasting a leadoff double in the second and stranding two runners in the third. Conigliaro led off the fourth with a home run. With one out, Satriano and Culp singled and Andrews had an RBI double to make 3-0. Again, Boston missed a chance to get more, as they again left the bases loaded.
The Twins got on the board in the fifth when Perry singled, Cesar Tovar walked, and Rod Carew hit an RBI double. Again, though, the Twins stranded two men. Boston got the run back in the bottom of the inning when Conigliaro was hit by a pitch and scored on a Luis Alvarado double.
Reese again had a leadoff double in the sixth and went nowhere. The Red Sox added one more run in the bottom of the sixth when Andrews, Yastrzemski, and George Scott singled. The Twins did not get a hit after the Reese double leading off the sixth.
WP: Culp (4-6).
LP: Perry (6-5).
S: None.
Notes: Paul Ratliff was again behind the plate in place of George Mitterwald. Mitterwald entered the game in the sixth as part of a double switch. Charlie Manuel pinch-hit for Woodson in the ninth.
Carew was 1-for-4 and was batting .390. Tony Oliva was 1-for-4 and was batting .328. Harmon Killebrew was 0-for-2 and was batting .325.
Perry was "a good hitter for a pitcher". His lifetime batting numbers are .199/.228/.247.
Teams were trying to avoid pitching to Killebrew when they could. He had drawn at least one walk in each of his last five games, and in thirteen of fourteen. He had drawn nine walks in his last five games.
The 1970 Red Sox would've score a lot of points in Scrabble. Yastrzemski, Petrocelli, Conigliaro, Alvarado, and Satriano were all in their lineup in this game. At one time, one of the marks of a true fan was being able to spell "Yastrzemski".
This was the first of a seven-game road trip which would take the Twins to Boston, Washington, and New York.
Record: The Twins were 31-14, in first place in the American League West, 1.5 games ahead of California.