September 29, 1970: Royals’ 6-run ninth ruins Jim Perry’s chance for 25-win season

Minnesota Twins manager Bill Rigney had a plan for the game on Tuesday against the Kansas City Royals. With three games to go in the regular season and the American League West title already clinched, Rigney wanted to get his players ready for the playoff opener Saturday against the AL East champion Baltimore Orioles.

His plan worked . . . for eight innings. “Head football coaches have game plans,” said Rigney, “I had a game plan. Jim Perry was going to pitch five innings, Stan Williams three, and Ron Perranoski one. The game plan backed up a little bit.”1

Perry was going for his 25th win of the season. He left the game with a 9-5 lead after five innings, and although he gave up five runs (four earned) on nine hits, his offense had given him the runs needed to qualify for the win. Williams did his part by pitching his three innings and surrendering only two hits. Perranoski came in, but couldn’t put the Royals away, and with the help of two errors by Cesar Tovar, the Royals scored six runs in the ninth inning to give them an 11-9 lead. What was left of the 5,473 people in attendance had just witnessed the beginning of the wildness, which was capped when the tiebreaking run was driven home in the 12th inning by a Kansas City relief pitcher batting .125.

Amos Otis led off the game by lining out to Twins shortstop Leo Cardenas. George Spriggs singled, and Perry retired Lou Piniella and Ed Kirkpatrick to retire the side.

The Twins jumped all over Paul Splittorff, who relieved starter Al Fitzmorris before the latter even threw a pitch. Fitzmorris came up with a sore shoulder while warming up. Against Splittorff, Tovar walked, then came singles by Cardenas, Tony Oliva, and Harmon Killebrew. Cardenas and Tovar scored on Killebrew’s hit. Splittorf grabbed Jim Holt’comebacker and started a 1-6-3 double play, then struck out Brant Alyea to limit the damage to two runs.

Bob Oliver led off the top of the second by hitting a single to left, but Perry retired Cookie Rojas, Bobby Floyd, and Tommy Matchick on fly balls to keep the Royals scoreless.

In the bottom of the second, George Mitterwald singled to center. Danny Thompson grounded into a 1-6 fielder’s choice, retiring Mitterwald at second. Perry struck out. Tovar singled, Cardenas walked to load the bases, and Tony Oliva’s single drove in Tovar, chasing Splittorff. Reliever Dave Morehead retired Killebrew, but the Royals were now down 4-0 after two innings.

The pitcher’s spot was scheduled to lead off the top of the third, and Morehead stepped into the batter’s box and struck out. Amos Otis followed with a double to left field. Pat Kelly ran for Otis and stayed there as Spriggs struck out and Piniella grounded to second. Kelly stayed in the game to play center.

Jim Holt led off the bottom of the third with a base hit to center but was erased when Alyea grounded to short for a 6-4-3 double play. Mitterwald walked, stole second, and scored on Danny Thompson’s single to center. Perry singled to left and Tovar walked, filling the bases. Morehead got Tovar to ground out to second to again stop a big inning, but the Twins led 5-0 after three innings.

Kirkpatrick grounded out shortstop to lead off the Royals fourth and probably felt bad later when he discovered that of the first seven batters of the inning, he was the only one who did not hit a single. After Kirkpatrick’s out, Oliver, Rojas, Floyd, Matchick, Billy Sorrell (pinch-hitting for Morehead), and Kelly all singled before Kelly was picked off first and Spriggs grounded out to end the inning. The Royals scored five runs on six hits to tie the game, 5-5.

The Twins regained the lead in the bottom of the inning on a two-out, two-run double by Mitterwald. Perry faced the Royals’ 3-4-5 hitters in the top of the fifth and retired them one-two-three.

Perry finished his five innings as planned, and Bob Allison batted for him to start the Twins’ fifth. Allison reached second on an error by Kelly in center field. Two batters later, Cardenas singled in Allison. Oliva singled, and, with Ken Wright now pitching for the Royals, Killebrew reached on another error by Kelly in center with Cardenas scoring the second unearned run of the inning and giving the Twins a 9-5 lead.

Stan Williams pitched the next three innings, surrendering two singles. For the Royals, Wright pitched the sixth inning and Jim York pitched the seventh and eighth. They held the Twins to one hit in their 3⅔ innings on the mound.

After eight innings the Twins led 9-5 with their closer, Ron Perranoski, coming in to preserve Perry’s 25th win of the season.

The Royals had other thoughts. Rojas and Floyd both singled to begin the top of the ninth. Matchick grounded out to first, moving the runners up. Sorrell singled to right, scoring Rojas and Floyd and cutting the Twins lead to 9-7. Jackie Hernandez, pinch-hitting for Kelly, singled to center. Rich Severson grounded into a fielder’s choice with Sorrell taking third. Piniella grounded to Tovar at third, but he booted the ball. Sorrell scored and Severson took second. Kirkpatrick doubled to center, scoring Severson and Piniella, and Kirkpatrick took third on the throw home. Third baseman Tovar bobbled Oliver’s grounder and Kirkpatrick scored. Rojas grounded out to end the inning, in which the Royals scored six runs to take an 11-9 lead.

Ted Abernathy came in with the save opportunity for the Royals in the bottom of the ninth. Carew struck out but Rich Reese walked. Frank Quilici ran for Reese. Paul Ratliff, pinch-hitting for Steve Brye, singled to right. Herman Hill ran for Ratliff. Tovar struck out, but Cardenas singled to center, scoring Quilici, and Charlie Manuel, pinch-hitting for Bill Zepp, singled to right to drive in Hill and tie the game, 11-11. Killebrew struck out to send the game into extra innings.

Both teams were scoreless in the 10th, then the Royals scored twice in the top of the 11th. Ellie Rodriguez walked and was sacrificed to second by Abernathy. Piniella singled Rodriguez home. Piniella stole second and took third on a bad throw by catcher Rick Dempsey. Kirkpatrick singled, driving in Piniella, giving the Royals a 13-11 lead.

With Abernathy still on the mound for the Royals in the bottom of the 11th, Quilici lined out to second. Cotton Nash walked. Tovar doubled to right, then Cardenas singled to center, scoring the two runners and tying the game again. It was Cardenas’s fifth hit of the game. Manuel struck out looking and Jim Kaat, batting for Steve Barber, lined out to right.

Pete Hamm, relieving for the Twins, walked Floyd to lead off the 12th. With one out, Sorrell singled to right. Rodriguez popped out to first for the second out. With no position players left on the Royals bench, manager Bob Lemon let pitcher Abernathy bat, and he responded with a single to right, scoring Floyd and giving the Royals a 14-13 lead. Piniella flied out to end the inning.

After Jim Holt hit a leadoff single in the bottom of the 12th, Abernathy retired the Twins to preserve the victory.

The game lasted 4 hours and 5 minutes and set a major-league record by using 49 players, beating the old record by one. Of the 49 players in the game, 27 were Twins.2 The two teams had 40 hits, 36 singles and four doubles.

“I didn’t have any extras left,” said Lemon. “All I had was starting pitchers. If Abernathy had given up one more hit, he would have been out of there.”3

“It seems like quite a while since we’ve gotten a lot of runs,” Rigney had said the day before after the Twins beat the Royals 1-0.4

The Baltimore Orioles, the Twins’ playoff opponent beginning four days after this game, did not gain an advantage by Rigney’s use of five relievers. The Orioles also had a long day, playing a doubleheader with both games going extra innings.

Sources

baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN197009290.shtml

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1970/B09290MIN1970.htm

Notes

1 “Royals Foil Rigney’s Game Plan,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 30, 1970: 23.

2 “Royals Foil Rigney’s Game Plan.”

3 “Royals Foil Rigney’s Game Plan.”

4 Dick Couch (Associated Press), “Twins Lose in 12th on Hit by Pitcher,” Kane (Pennsylvania) Republican, September 30, 1970: 5.