BOSTON 6, MINNESOTA 4 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Saturday, June 13.
Batting stars: Cesar Tovar was 2-for-4 with two runs. Rich Reese was 2-for-4 with a double. Rod Carew was 2-for-5 with a triple.
Pitching star: Stan Williams pitched two shutout innings and struck out one.
Opposition stars: George Thomas was 3-for-4 with two doubles, a hit-by-pitch, and three runs. Reggie Smith was 2-for-5 with two doubles. Ray Culp pitched eight innings, giving up four runs (two earned) on nine hits and three walks and striking out three.
The game: Thomas doubled with one out in the first, went to third on a ground out, and scored on a wild pitch to give the Red Sox a 1-0 lead. The Twins tied it in the bottom of the first when Tovar led off with a single-plus-error, went to third on a ground out, and scored on a wild pitch.
The Twins took the lead in the second. Paul Ratliff led off the inning with a walk. With one out Tovar, Carew, and Oliva all singled, scoring two runs and putting them up 3-1.
It stayed 3-1 until the sixth. Thomas led off with a double and scored on a Carl Yastrzemski single to cut the lead to 3-2. Smith then doubled, putting men on second and third with none out. The next two batters were retired, but Billy Conigliaro hit a two-run single to put Boston ahead 4-3. Singles by Jerry Moses and Culp resulted in another run, making it 5-3 Red Sox. In the seventh, George Thomas singled, Carl Yastrzemski walked, and an error scored Thomas to make it 6-3.
The Twins rallied in the ninth. Leo Cardenas reached on an error, Ratliff singled, and Rick Renick walked, loading the bases with none out and bringing up the top of the Twins order. Tovar hit a sacrifice fly to make it 6-4, but Carew struck out and Oliva grounded to second, ending the game.
WP: Culp (5-6).
LP: Jim Kaat (5-4).
S: Sparky Lyle (9).
Notes: We once again had Jim Holt in left and Ratliff behind the plate, replacing Brant Alyea and George Mitterwald, respectively. Charlie Manuel and Renick were used as pinch-hitters for pitchers.
Carew was batting .372. Oliva was 1-for-5 and was batting .330. Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-3 and was batting .315. Williams had an ERA of 2.09.
Kaat had pitched in three of the last five Twins games, starting two of them. He again wasn't awful, but wasn't very good, either: five innings, four runs, seven hits, no walks, no strikeouts. I'm sure Kaat was more than willing to pitch that often, and I'm sure he said he felt fine, but it wasn't really working very well.
We tend to remember Sparky Lyle as a Yankee, but he was a fine reliever in Boston for five years before coming to New York. As a Red Sock, he was 22-17, 2.85, 69 saves, 1.29 WHIP in 331.1 innings (160 games, all in relief).
Record: The Twins were 35-18, in first place in the American League West, 2.5 games ahead of California.