June 21, 1971: Blue’s 13 strikeouts, Mitterwald’s errant throw spark Oakland win

Vida Blue set the baseball world ablaze during the first half of the 1971 season. The 21-year-old Oakland Athletics left-hander from Louisiana was playing in his third big-league season. Blue debuted in 1969 but pitched less than 50 innings in the 1969 and 1970 campaigns. After a 1971 Opening Day loss to the Washington Senators, when he pitched only 1⅔ innings and walked four batters,1 Oakland’s young phenom won 10 consecutive decisions. Those victories included five shutouts and five additional complete games,2 earning him an appearance on the cover of the May 31 Sports Illustrated. Heading into the Monday evening matchup against the Minnesota Twins, Blue was 14-2 with a microscopic 1.42 earned-run average and 133 strikeouts in 139⅓ innings. The lanky lefty threw a dynamic fastball, a good curveball, and an effective changeup.3     

The Twins ended May 1971 with a 25-24 record, vying for second place, only percentage points behind the Kansas City Royals and seven games behind the American League West Division-leading Athletics. In a topsy-turvy three weeks in June, Minnesota went 3-8 from June 1 through June 13, then won six straight before losing the final game of a four-game series to the Chicago White Sox. As reigning AL West champion, the Twins had been selected to repeat as division winners in a spring-training poll of 307 members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, edging out the California Angels and Athletics, though the Baltimore Orioles were favored to repeat as AL pennant winners.4 However, Oakland was the dominant AL West team early in the season. After losing their first three games, the Athletics compiled a 17-8 April record and threatened to run away with the division title.

The Twins’ potent offense was led by second baseman Rod Carew, who was just 25 years old and was on his way to his fifth All-Star selection in his first five years, and veteran first baseman Harmon Killebrew, who had moved with the ballclub from Washington in 1961. Perennial All-Star outfielder Tony Oliva and underrated César Tovar were enjoying stellar campaigns. The pitching staff was anchored by longtime Twins Jim Perry and Jim Kaat, with 20-year-old emerging ace Bert Blyleven pitching in his first full season.

The youthful Athletics led the AL West, seven games ahead of the second-place Royals entering the three-game series against Minnesota. Oakland manager Dick Williams was in his first year guiding the team after spending three seasons managing in Boston. The Athletics featured a balanced offensive attack behind slugging outfielder Reggie Jackson, with third baseman Sal Bando adding power and shortstop Bert Campaneris leading off. As the season started, Blue and Rollie Fingers were the top two starting pitchers, before Fingers became Oakland’s closer.5

Twins manager Bill Rigney selected rookie right-hander Ray Corbin to face Oakland. Corbin was 4-3 with three saves and a 3.71 ERA in 43⅔ innings. He had debuted on April 6, but made his first start only four days earlier against the White Sox, when he allowed three runs and struck out six hitters in six innings, but didn’t receive a decision as Minnesota won the game in extra innings. Rigney commented after that game, “I think I’ve found our fourth starter.”6 In 1970 Corbin led the Charlotte Hornets, Minnesota’s Double-A affiliate, with 208 innings pitched and a 2.86 ERA. He impressed Twins coaches in spring training with a “good fast ball and good breaking stuff [but] he has been four years in the farm system.”7

Oakland’s veteran leadoff hitter Campaneris singled to center field. Joe Rudi sacrificed Campaneris to second base. Jackson and recent acquisition Mike Epstein both walked, and Corbin immediately experienced trouble with the bases loaded and one out. Bando hit a grounder to third baseman Killebrew, who elected to throw out Bando at first base instead of attempting to throw out Campaneris at home.8 Corbin got Angel Mangual to ground out and escaped further damage.

Blue continued dominating AL hitters. Tovar, leading off in the Twins first, popped out to first base, and Carew and Killebrew struck out as Minnesota was quickly retired. In the second inning, both teams stranded a runner. The Twins reached Blue in the third frame. Rich Reese started the rally with a left-field triple. Corbin singled him home, earning his first major-league run batted in, to tie the score. Tovar forced Corbin, then stole second. Carew struck out a second time. Killebrew singled to left field, just past third baseman Bando, plating Tovar and giving Minnesota a 2-1 lead. Oliva walked, but a fly out ended the rally.

Over the next two innings, Corbin combined groundouts and lineouts to prevent Oakland from scoring. In contrast, Blue struggled with his curveball,9 striking out three more hitters but also walking three in the fourth and fifth innings. Unable to pad their lead, Minnesota stranded two runners in each inning.

In Oakland’s sixth with one out, Epstein doubled to right field. Bando singled to send Epstein to third. Corbin nearly wiggled out of another jam, striking out Mangual. However, Dave Duncan tied the score by singling home Bando. Blue regained his control in the bottom half, striking out the bottom third of Minnesota’s lineup in order and reaching double digits in strikeouts for the fifth time in the season.

Corbin tired in the seventh inning. Blue, leading off, was hit on the left instep by a breaking pitch. Campaneris reached first on a failed sacrifice attempt as Blue was forced out at second. With one out, Rudi singled and Oakland had runners at the corners. Left-hander Tom Hall relieved Corbin to face lefties Jackson and Epstein. After Jackson popped out, Rigney addressed his pitcher and catcher George Mitterwald about holding the ball if Rudi attempted to steal second. On the third pitch to Epstein,10 Mitterwald’s throw to second base to catch Rudi on a delayed double-steal attempt sailed into center field, allowing Campaneris to score an unearned run and Rudi to reach second. Mitterwald’s throw was likely influenced by his manager’s words just before the play unfolded. “Something made me throw it. I knew I wasn’t supposed to throw it. But something made me,” he said after the game.11 With Rudi in scoring position, Epstein flied out. Oakland was ahead 3-2.

The Twins’ bats fell silent against Blue. He struck out Tovar, the hurler’s fourth consecutive strikeout, and got two groundouts in the seventh inning. Hall was equally effective; he retired the remaining six batters he faced. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Reese led off with an infield popout. Pinch-hitter Steve Braun grounded out. Tovar walked, raising the fans’ hopes, but Blue ended the game by striking out Carew for the third time as Oakland squeaked out a 3-2 victory. 

Blue improved to 15-2, though the two runs he allowed increased his ERA from 1.42 to 1.46. His 13 strikeouts tied his season and career high to that point. (He struck out 17 Angels on July 9 when he pitched 11 shutout innings against California.) Blue was happy with his fastball but not his curveball, noting, “My fastball was humming in the last few innings. That carried me through.”12 Although Blue was halfway to a 30-win season, Williams downplayed the possibility of his reaching the mark. “We don’t want to take any chances on ruining a young pitcher’s career just to give him a chance to win 30,” the manager said. “We’ll give him his proper rest and an extra day when we can.”13

The Twins struggled throughout the 1971 season. They fell to fourth place in mid-July and bounced between fourth and fifth for the rest of the season. They finished fifth with a 74-86 record, 26½ games behind Oakland and 5½ games ahead of the last-place Milwaukee Brewers.

After an incredible first half, Blue slowed during the second half. He started and earned the win for the AL squad in the 1971 All-Star Game.14 In his first full major-league season, Blue went 24-8 with an AL-leading 1.82 ERA and eight shutouts in 312 innings pitched. His 301 strikeouts were a career best, and the only time he exceeded 200 strikeouts in a season during his career. He was second to Mickey Lolich, only seven behind Lolich’s league-leading 308. Blue won the 1971 AL Most Valuable Player Award and the Cy Young Award; he finished with 14 first-place votes and 268 voting points, ahead of teammate Bando’s 182 points.15 Blue finished with 14 first-place votes for the Cy Young Award, narrowly ahead of Lolich.16 Oakland’s superstar was even featured on the cover of Time magazine’s August 23, 1971, issue during his dream season.

Sources

Besides the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Almanac.com, Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and the following:

Greene, Chip, ed. Mustaches and Mayhem: Charlie O’s Three-Time Champions: The Oakland Athletics: 1972-74 (Phoenix: Society for American Baseball Research, 2015): 37-43.

James, Bill. The New Bill James Historical Abstract (New York: The Free Press, 2001).

Thorn, John, and Pete Palmer, et al. Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball (New York: Viking Press, 2004).

Notes

1 Ron Bergman, “Swingin’ A’s Get No Runs,” Oakland Tribune, April 6, 1971: 45.

2 “Off to a Sizzling Start,” Sports Illustrated, May 31, 1971: 18.

3 Bill James and Rob Neyer, The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers: An Historical Compendium of Pitching, Pitchers, and Pitches (New York: Fireside Books, 2004), 136.

4 Chris Roewe, “Writers Predicting Repetition in Races,” The Sporting News, April 10, 1971: 8.

5 Ron Bergman, “Blue Is Beautiful as No. 1 Resident on A’s Hill,” The Sporting News, April 17, 1971: 3.

6 Dan Stoneking, “Twins’ Comeback Legion led by ‘German General,’” Minneapolis Star, June 18, 1971: 30.

7 Bill Hengen, “Pitching Problem for Twins,” Minneapolis Star, April 3, 1971: 14.

8 Ron Bergman, “Vida Fans 13, Wins 15th,” Oakland Tribune, June 22, 1971: 39.

9 Bergman, “Vida Fans 13.”

10 Jon Roe, “Blue Beats Twins for 15th Win,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, June 22, 1971: 25.

11 Dan Stoneking, “’Something Made Me Throw,’” Minneapolis Star, June 22, 1971: 39.

12 “Vida Blue: The Big Difference?” San Francisco Examiner, June 22, 1971: 48.

13 Bergman, “Vida Fans 13.”

14 Associated Press, “Reggie’s Smash Turns It Around,” Oakland Tribune, July 14, 1971: 41.

15 Ron Bergman, “Vida Adds MVP Award,” Oakland Tribune, November 17, 1971: 53.

16 Ron Bergman, “Vida Wins Cy Award,” Oakland Tribune, October 26, 1971: 37.