MINNESOTA 4, MILWAUKEE 3 IN MILWAUKEE

Date:  Monday, June 22.

Batting stars:  Cesar Tovar was 2-for-5 with a double.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-3 with a three-run homer (his eighteenth) and a walk.

Pitching stars:  Jim Kaat pitched eight innings, giving up three runs on five hits and one walk and striking out five.  Ron Perranoski pitched a perfect inning and struck out one.

Opposition stars:  Tommy Harper was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer (his twelfth), a double, and two runs.  Ken Sanders retired all five men he faced, striking out one.  John Gelnar pitched three shutout innings, giving up two hits and striking out two.

The game:  The Twins drew a pair of two-out walks in the first but stranded them.  In the bottom of the first Harper led off with a double, took third on a ground out, and scored on a wild pitch to give the Brewers a 1-0 lead.  The Twins put two on with one out in the third, but a double play took them out of the inning.

The Twins tied it in the fourth when Bob Allison walked and scored from first on a Leo Cardenas double.  The Twins took the lead in the fifth when Tovar went to second on a single-plus-error, Frank Quilici walked, and Killebrew hit a three-run homer to make it a 4-1 game.

Milwaukee did not get a man past first in innings two through eight.  In the ninth, Ted Savage singled and Harper hit a two-run homer, cutting the lead to 4-3.  Perranoski then came in and retired the next three men to end the game.

WP:  Kaat (6-5).

LP:  Gene Brabender (3-9).

S:  Perranoski (17).

Notes:  Allison was in left field in place of Brant Alyea.  Jim Holt was in right field in place of Tony Oliva, who apparently was dealing with a minor injury.

The most significant thing that happened, though, was that Rod Carew had his knee torn up while turning a double play in the fourth inning.  He would not return for three months.  He was batting .376 when he was injured.

Killebrew was batting .306.  Perranoski had an ERA of 1.79.

Quilici was 1-for-1 and was batting .182.

This was the last year of Brabender's five-year career.  He had been a good pitcher for Baltimore from 1966-1968.  He pitched 289.2 innings for them in 82 games (30 starts) and went 16-14, 3.39, 1.21 WHIP.  He did not do as well in Seattle in 1969, however, and was awful for Milwaukee in 1970--6-15, 6.02, 1.60 WHIP.  He somehow lost his control when he left Baltimore--he walked 3.1 per nine there, 4.6 per nine in Seattle, and 5.1 per nine in Milwaukee.  He apparently had a sore shoulder, which may have contributed to the problem.  He passed away in 1996 at the young age of fifty-five, due to a brain aneurysm.

Record:  The Twins were 40-21, in first place in the American League West, 4.5 games ahead of California.