OAKLAND 4, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Friday, July 19.
Batting star: Tony Oliva was 2-for-3 with a walk. Cesar Tovar was 1-for-2 with two hit-by-pitches.
Pitching star: Ron Perranoski struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up two hits.
Opposition stars: Blue Moon Odom pitched eight innings, giving up two runs on six hits and three walks and striking out two. Bert Campaneris was 4-for-4 with a stolen base, his twenty-seventh. Sal Bando was 2-for-3 with a walk. Reggie Jackson was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer, his sixteenth.
The game: With two out and none on in the first, Rick Monday and Bando singled and Jackson hit a three-run homer. In the bottom of the first, Tovar was hit by a pitch, Rich Reese singled, and Oliva walked, loading the bases with one out. A wild pitch brought a run home and led to an intentional walk to Ted Uhlaender. Frank Quilici hit a sacrifice fly, cutting the lead to 3-2.
And that was pretty much it. Neither team got a man past first again until the sixth. Campaneris singled, was bunted to second, and scored on Bando's single to make the lead 4-2. The Twins never were able to get a man past first again, and 4-2 was the final score.
WP: Odom (8-6). LP: Jim Merritt (5-11). S: Diego Segui (1).
Notes: Reese was at first base. This was the year Harmon Killebrew was injured in the all-star game and missed two months of the season. He'd been having a poor season before that, batting just .204 when he was injured.
Rick Renick was at shortstop. The Twins used four players at short in 1968, with Jackie Hernandez getting the most games there with 79. Ron Clark had 44, Renick 40, and Tovar 35. The only one of the who hit much was Tovar, but he was needed elsewhere and was probably stretched defensively at shortstop anyway.
Frank Quilici was at third. The Twins used four players at third base, too, not counting Killebrew, who played 11 games there. Tovar played the most, at 77. Rich Rollins was there for 56, Ron Clark 53, and Quilici 40. Again, Tovar was the only one who hit much. The Twins played Tovar all over the diamond, but unfortunately they could only play him in one position at a time.
In this game Tovar was in left field in place of Bob Allison. Allison may have been dealing with some minor injury, as he played sparingly or not at all for about a week.
Rollins pinch-hit for pitcher Merritt in the seventh. Bruce Look pinch-hit for Renick in the ninth. Hernandez pinch-ran for Johnny Roseboro in the ninth. Allison pinch-hit for pitcher Perranoski in the ninth.
The only Twin over .300 at this time was Quilici, who was batting .315. He would bat .212 in the second half of the season and finish at .245. The leading batter for the Twins would be Oliva at .289, which was good for second in the league. The Twins would bat .237, which was also good for second in the league. Oakland led at .240.
With Killebrew missing so much time, Allison led the team with 22 home runs and Oliva was second with 18. Killebrew hit 17. The Twins hit 105 home runs, sixth in the league. Detroit led with 185, which was 52 more than the second place team (Baltimore).
Merritt pitched seven innings, giving up four runs on seven hits and two walks and struck out three. He pitched very well after the first inning, but unfortunately the rules don't allow mulligans. Think how good Brad Radke would've been if they did. On paper the Twins' rotation looks really good, although this was the Year of the Pitcher. Dean Chance led in starts with 39 and went 16-16, 2.53. Merritt was 12-16, 3.25. Jim Kaat was 14-12, 2.94 and Dave Boswell was 10-13, 3.32. When a fifth starter was needed, it was Jim Perry, who was 8-6, 2.27.
The bullpen was essentially four pitchers, five if you count Perry. Perranoski was 8-7, 3.10 with 6 saves. Al Worthington was 4-5, 2.71 with 18 saves. Bob Miller was 0-3, 2.74 with two saves and Jim Roland was 4-1, 3.50.
The Twins were sixth in the league in ERA at 2.89. Cleveland led at 2.66. The Twins were fourth in WHIP at 1.14. Cleveland led there, too at 1.11.
Record: The Twins were 43-47, in sixth place in the American League, 15 games behind Detroit. They would finish 79-83, in seventh place, 24 games behind Detroit.
The Athletics were 44-47, in fifth place in the American League, 14.5 games behind Detroit. They would finish 82-80, in sixth place, 21 games behind Detroit.
Random record: The Twins are 41-41 in Random Rewind games.