California Angels | |
Season: | 1970 |
League: | American League |
Division: | West |
Ballpark: | Anaheim Stadium |
City: | Anaheim, California |
Owners: | Gene Autry |
General Managers: | Dick Walsh |
Managers: | Lefty Phillips |
Television: | KTLA |
Radio: | KMPC (Dick Enberg, Don Wells, Dave Niehaus, Jerry Coleman) |
The 1970 California Angels season involved the Angels finishing third in the American League West with a record of 86 wins and 76 losses.
Coming off a disappointing 71-91 1969 season, the Angels rebounded to finish 86-76, tying their 1962 season as their best in franchise history up to that point. As of 2024, this is the only season that saw the Angels hold a winning record for all 162 games of a season, starting the season 5-0 and never falling back to .500 from there on.
On July 3, Clyde Wright pitched a 3-walk no-hitter against the Athletics, the first no-hitter at Anaheim Stadium since its first game in 1966. Wright would go on to be only the 2nd 20-win starter in franchise history that year and finished 6th in Cy Young voting.[5] His 22 wins that year are a franchise record as of 2024, tied with Nolan Ryan's 1972 season.[6]
Throughout the year, Alex Johnson was involved in a tight batting race with Carl Yastrzemski, Tony Oliva, and Luis Aparicio. After 161 games, Johnson was trailing Yastrzemski by only .0013. On the last day of the season, Johnson went 2 for 3 against the White Sox, legging out an infield single on his 3rd at-bat to beat Yastrzemski by .0004. As of 2024, Johnson is the only batting champion for the Angels.[7]
The Angels remained in the American League West race throughout the season, and by September 3, they were only 3 games back of the division lead heading into a 3-game set against the division-leading Twins in Anaheim.[8] However, after being swept by them, the Angels collapsed, losing their next 6 in a row and going 5-17 from September 4 to September 26 to fall out of the postseason race for good. According to Alex Johnson, it was as though the team gave up on the season following being swept by the Twins.[9]
1970 California Angels | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Roster | |||||||||
Pitchers | CatchersInfielders | OutfieldersOther batters | ManagerCoaches | ||||||
Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
Pos | Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
C | 114 | 351 | 85 | .242 | 2 | 25 | ||
1B | 146 | 511 | 140 | .274 | 12 | 68 | ||
2B | 162 | 672 | 169 | .251 | 2 | 36 | ||
SS | 158 | 601 | 167 | .278 | 22 | 82 | ||
3B | 124 | 422 | 98 | .232 | 14 | 61 | ||
LF | 156 | 614 | 202 | .329 | 14 | 86 | ||
CF | 119 | 320 | 76 | .238 | 11 | 39 | ||
RF | 137 | 407 | 97 | .238 | 18 | 47 |
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
79 | 210 | 50 | .238 | 4 | 20 | ||
80 | 181 | 44 | .243 | 3 | 30 | ||
75 | 181 | 43 | .238 | 0 | 6 | ||
68 | 134 | 37 | .276 | 5 | 25 | ||
59 | 120 | 30 | .250 | 1 | 6 | ||
68 | 107 | 26 | .243 | 0 | 12 | ||
26 | 92 | 28 | .304 | 1 | 12 | ||
17 | 63 | 17 | .270 | 0 | 7 | ||
18 | 55 | 7 | .127 | 0 | 4 | ||
17 | 25 | 8 | .320 | 0 | 3 | ||
24 | 24 | 2 | .083 | 0 | 1 | ||
15 | 15 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | ||
9 | 6 | 1 | .167 | 0 | 1 | ||
5 | 4 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | ||
4 | 4 | 1 | .250 | 0 | 0 | ||
3 | 3 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 1 |
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
39 | 260.2 | 22 | 12 | 2.83 | 110 | |
39 | 227.0 | 16 | 13 | 4.24 | 99 | |
38 | 208.2 | 7 | 13 | 4.01 | 164 | |
37 | 194.2 | 11 | 10 | 3.01 | 62 | |
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
32 | 74.2 | 5 | 6 | 2.65 | 53 | |
17 | 69.2 | 2 | 5 | 4.13 | 53 | |
8 | 24.0 | 1 | 1 | 2.62 | 12 | |
Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
Player | G | W | L | SV | ERA | SO | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
62 | 7 | 4 | 17 | 2.94 | 50 | ||
67 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 3.04 | 74 | ||
40 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 5.14 | 34 | ||
38 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 3.44 | 44 | ||
34 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 4.20 | 44 | ||
17 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4.15 | 14 | ||
4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5.06 | 5 | ||
3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.86 | 3 | ||
1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 1 |
See also: Minor League Baseball.
LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Idaho Falls