MINNESOTA 3, NEW YORK 0 IN NEW YORK
Date: Tuesday, May 30.
Batting stars: Harmon Killebrew was 3-for-4 with a double. Cesar Tovar was 2-for-4 with a double.
Pitching star: Jim Merritt struck out eleven in a complete game, giving up two hits and no walks.
Opposition star: Hal Reniff pitched three shutout innings, giving up only a walk and striking out two.
The game: With one out in the first, Rod Carew doubled. Zoilo Versalles drove him in with a single and went to second on an error. Killebrew drove him in with a single and went all the way to third on an error. Tony Oliva drove him in with a single and the Twins had a 3-0 lead.
And there it stood the rest of the game. The Yankees never threatened. Horace Clarke got a leadoff single in the second but never got past first base. He reached on an error in the third but again stayed at first. Bill Robinson reached on an error in the fifth and had a similar fate. Charley Smith hit a one-out double in the seventh and went to third on a ground out, but stayed there.
WP: Merritt (3-0). LP: Fritz Peterson (0-4). S: None.
Notes: Earl Battey was injured much of 1967, catching only forty-one games, so Jerry Zimmerman was the regular catcher.
Tovar was in center field in this game in place of Ted Uhlaender. As you probably know, Tovar could play pretty much anywhere on the diamond. In 1967 he played 72 games at third base, 64 in center field, 35 at second base, 10 in left field, 9 at shortstop, and 6 in right field. I can't tell you how good he was defensively, but he was good enough that his managers kept making sure he was in the lineup someplace. In 1967 he led the league in games played with 164 (I assume there were a couple of games that were called for weather as ties or something), plate appearances at 726, and at-bats at 649.
This was Merritt's best year in the majors. He went 13-7, 2.53, 0.99 WHIP. Some might say his best years were 1969-1970, when he went a combined 37-21 for Cincinnati (winning twenty games and making the all-star team in 1970), but his ERA, his WHIP, and his FIP are all substantially lower in 1967. This was one of four shutouts he pitched that year--he had no more than one in any other season and nine for his career. This was only his second start of the season--he had started the year in the bullpen. His first start, on May 26, was a shutout of Kansas City.
I like the good old days, when the Twins could beat the Yankees.
Record: The Twins were 20-21, in sixth place in the American League, 6.5 games behind Detroit. They would finish 91-71, tied for second place, one game behind Boston.
The Yankees were 17-22, in ninth place in the American League, 8.5 games behind Detroit. They would finish 72-90, in ninth place, twenty games behind Boston.