CLEVELAND 6, MINNESOTA 4 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Friday, June 13.
Batting stars: Tony Oliva was 2-for-4. Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer, his fifteenth.
Pitching star: Jerry Crider pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a walk.
Opposition stars: Ken Suarez was 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs. Sam McDowell pitched a complete game, giving up four runs (all unearned) on seven hits and four walks and striking out seven. He also was 2-for-3 with a double.
The game: Rod Carew got an infield hit in the first and Harmon Killebrew was hit by a pitch, putting men on first and third with none out, but nothing came of it. Bob Allison hit a leadoff double in the fourth, but it was again fruitless.
The Twins finally got on the board in the fifth, but missed a chance for more. Ted Uhlaender and Jim Perry opened the inning with walks. Cesar Tovar hit into a force out but then stole second, putting men on second and third with one down. Carew walked, bringing up Killebrew with the bases full. A passed ball brought home a run, but Killebrew hit a short fly ball that did not produce anything. Allison was intentionally walked and Oliva flied out, so all the Twins got was one run.
It cost them, as the Indians broke through for four runs in the sixth. Suarez led off the inning with a home run to tie the score. With one out, Russ Snyder singled and Larry Brown and Ken Harrelson walked, loading the bases. Tony Horton then delivered a two-run single and Jose Cardenal hit a sacrifice fly, putting Cleveland up 4-1.
The Indians loaded the bases in the seventh, but did not score. They added two in the ninth, however. They opened the inning with singles by ex-Twin Zoilo Versalles, Vern Fuller, and Suarez, plating one run. A bunt and an intentional walk loaded the bases with one down and Brown hit a sacrifice fly to make the score 6-1.
The Twins made the final score look better in the ninth. Rick Renick singled with one out and Carew reached on an error with two out. Killebrew followed with a three-run homer to cut the margin to 6-4. That was as good as it got, though, as Allison struck out to end the game.
WP: McDowell (7-6). LP: Perry (4-3). S: None.
Notes: Tovar played third base in this game and was in the leadoff spot. Allison was in left and batted fourth. George Mitterwald was the catcher in place of Johnny Roseboro.
Carew was 1-for-4 with a walk and was batting .390. Oliva raised his average to .304.
Al Worthington pitched two-thirds of an inning, giving up no runs and one hit. He was unscored upon in 2.2 innings on the season. Bob Miller gave up two runs on five hits and a walk in two innings, raising his ERA to 2.81. Crider stretched the scoreless streak at the beginning of his career to 6.1 innings.
The home run by Suarez was his only homer of the season and one of only five he hit in his career. A career backup catcher, he played in parts of seven seasons. He was with Kansas City for 1966-1967, sticking in the majors for most of both seasons but appearing in a total of just seventy-four games. He was left unprotected and was chosen by Cleveland in the rule 5 draft, where he stayed from 1968-1971. He had started 1969 in the minors, and this was only his second major league game of the season. He batted .294 for the season with an OPS of .788, although it was just 85 at-bats. He spent all of 1970 in AAA, but came back to the majors in 1971. He was then traded to Texas as part of an eight-player swap (sadly, you never see eight-player swaps any more). He was with the Rangers from 1972-1973. He was the semi-regular catcher for Texas in 1973, starting eighty-eight games (the other catchers were Dick Billings and Rick Stelmaszek). He batted .248/.334/.299. He felt he deserved a raise from his $20,000 salary, but the Rangers responded to that request by trading him back to Cleveland for ex-Twin Leo Cardenas. He filed a grievance with the Players Association and refused to play for the Indians. He was still traded to California in September with player to be named later and cash for Frank Robinson. Robinson was at the end of his career and Suarez did not play again, but it would still be pretty cool to be able to say you were traded for Frank Robinson. At last report, Ken Suarez was living in Fort Worth. His career numbers were .227/.330/.297 in 661 at-bats.
Record: The Twins were 30-25, in first place in the American League West, one game ahead of Oakland. They were now 11-17 since May 11.