DETROIT 4, MINNESOTA 3 IN DETROIT (13 INNINGS)

Date:  Tuesday, August 5.

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 3-for-7.  Rich Reese was 2-for-5 with a walk.  Ted Uhlaender was 2-for-6 with a home run (his sixth) and a walk.  Leo Cardenas was 2-for-6.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-3 with three walks.

Pitching stars:  Dean Chance pitched 6.2 innings, giving up three runs (one earned) on seven hits and one walk and striking out three.  Ron Perranoski pitched two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Norm Cash was 3-for-5.  Mickey Stanley was 3-for-6.  Don Wert was 2-for-6.  Denny McLain pitched seven innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on eleven hits and two walks and striking out four.  Pat Dobson pitched three shutout innings, giving up a hit and two walks and striking out one.

The game:  Singles by Rod Carew, Killebrew, and Reese produced a run in the first inning for the Twins.  The Tigers got the run back in the bottom of the first on singles by Stanley, Tom Tresh, and Cash.

The Twins took the lead in the fourth when Cesar Tovar got to second on a single-plus-error and scored on a Cardenas single.  Uhlaender homered leading off the fifth to make it 3-1.  Gates Brown led off the sixth with a home run to cut the lead to 3-2.  Later in the inning Willie Horton walked, went to third on an error, and scored on a wild pitch to tie it 3-3.

There was no more scoring until the thirteenth, but there were threats.  The Twins loaded the bases with two out in the seventh.  The Tigers had men on first and second with one out in the eighth.  The Twins had men on first and second with two out in the ninth and had men on first and third with two out in the eleventh.

Al Kaline waled to start the thirteenth.  Cash singled, putting men on first and third, and Horton was intentionally walked, loading the bases.  Dick Woodson struck out Bill Freehan and Dick Tracewski, giving hope that the Twins might escape.  Then, however, Don Wert hit an infield single to win the game for Detroit.

WP:  John Hiller (3-3).  LP:  Woodson (6-5).  S:  None.

Notes:  Uhlaender was back in left field in this game, Reese was back at first base, and Johnny Roseboro was back behind the plate.

Carew was in the sort of "slump" that only he could be in.  He'd had a hit in six of his last seven games, but only one.  He was 6-for-27, a .222 average.  In this game, he was 1-for-6 with a walk.  He drew five walks in the seven games, making his OBP .344.  His average fell over that span from .374 to .363.

Oliva raised his average to .333.  Reese raised his average to .320.  Chance lowered his ERA to 2.51.  Perranoski lowered his ERA to 1.65.

The run given up by Woodson in the thirteenth came in his fourth inning.  He had not gone more than two innings in a game since July 1.

Gates Brown started in left field.  He played in the field in only fourteen games in 1969, all in left.  He was used as a pinch-hitter forty-four times.

Willie Horton moved from his normal left field position to right, with Al Kaline on the bench.  Kaline pinch-hit for Brown in the eighth inning and then went to right field, with Horton moving back to left.

The Tigers used five pinch-hitters:  Kaline, Jim Price, Jim Northrup, Ike Brown, and Dave Campbell.  Now, of course, no one even has five position players on the bench.

Denny McLain had been a good pitcher from 1965-1967, but he was an awesome one in 1968-1969.  He went 55-15, 2.41, 1.00 WHIP in an incredible 82 starts (651 innings, 51 complete games).  He led the league in wins, starts, innings, and batters faced both years.  He led the league in winning percentage and complete games in 1968 and in shutouts in 1969.  He won the Cy Young award both years and was the league MVP in 1968.

And he never had a good year again.  One assumes the innings took their toll.  He was injured much of 1970, making just fourteen starts and going 3-5, 4.63.  He was traded to Washington for 1971 and stayed in the rotation all year, but went 10-22, 4.28.  He split 1972 between Oakland and Atlanta and went 4-7, 6.37.  It was an amazing rise and an amazing fall.

Record:  The Twins were 67-42, in first place in the American League West, three games ahead of Oakland.