MINNESOTA 5, BALTIMORE 4 IN MINNESOTA (10 INNINGS)
Date: Wednesday, May 13.
Batting stars: Rod Carew was 4-for-5 with two runs. Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer and a walk. Rich Reese was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.
Pitching stars: Bill Zepp pitched three perfect innings. Ron Perranoski pitched three shutout innings, giving up three hits and walking four.
Opposition stars: Dou Buford was 2-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base. Boog Powell was 2-for-4 with a walk. Paul Blair was 2-for-5 with a double and two RBIs. Brooks Robinson was 2-for-5 with two doubles. Frank Robinson was 2-for-5.
The game: Each team scored two in the first. For the Orioles, Mark Belanger walked, Frank Robinson singled, and Paul Blair hit a two-out two-run double. For the Twins, Carew singled and Killebrew hit a two-out two-run homer.
Baltimore had a man on second in the third and again in the fourth but did not score. They broke through in the fifth, though. Buford and Belanger opened the inning with singles. Frank Robinson followed with a single-plus-error, bringing home one run, and Powell had an RBI single to make it 4-2 Orioles. The Twins came back in the sixth. Singles by Carew and Killebrew and a walk to Rich Reese loaded the bases with one out. A force out scored one run and Leo Cardenas had an RBI single to tie it. The Twins missed a chance to take the lead when Jim Holt was thrown out trying to go from first to third on the hit.
Baltimore opened the eighth with two singles, but a line drive double play ended the threat. They had a pair of two-out walks in the ninth and did not score. In the tenth Powell walked, Brooks Robinson hit a one-out double, and Dave Johnson was intentionally walked, loading the bases. Andy Etchebarren hit into a double play to end the inning.
The Twins had not gotten a man past first base since the sixth. In the tenth, however, Cesar Tovar walked, Tony Oliva hit a one-out double, and Killebrew was intentionally walked, loading the bases. Up to then, the Twins' tenth went exactly like the Orioles tenth. The difference was that instead of hitting into a double play, Reese hit a double, bringing in the deciding run.
WP: Perranoski (2-1).
LP: Ed Watt (1-1).
S: None.
Notes: Holt was in left field in place of Brant Alyea. Paul Ratliff caught in place of George Mitterwald.
Charlie Manuel pinch-hit for Zepp in the seventh, with Dave Boswell pinch-running for Manuel.
Carew was batting .368. Killebrew was batting .333. Oliva was batting .331. Zepp had an ERA of 2.08. Perranoski had an ERA of 1.75.
Holt was 0-for-4 and was batting .138.
Jim Kaat started and pitched four innings, giving up four runs on nine hits and a walk and striking out two. Baltimore starter Jim Palmer pitched 5.1 innings, giving up four runs on six hits and two walks and striking out four.
Each team turned three double plays. For each team, one of them was a line drive double play.
Carew was 6-for-10. Spoiler alert: he would go on a tear for the next week or so. We'll keep track of it.
Reese was 7-for-18, raising his average from .182 to .226.
I mentioned this once before, but Zepp was a key pitcher for the 1970 Twins. He's pretty much forgotten now, because the Twins traded him after the season and because this was the only good year he had, but this was one of several games in which he was instrumental in the victory.
This was Perranoski's thirteenth appearance. He pitched more than one inning in ten of them; exactly two innings in six of them; and more than two innings in three of them.
Record: The Twins were 19-10, in second place in the American League West, one game behind California.