MINNESOTA 3, MILWAUKEE 2 IN MILWAUKEE
Date: Wednesday, June 24.
Batting star: Tony Oliva was 2-for-4 with a double.
Pitching stars: Dave Boswell struck out eight in eight innings, giving up two runs on five hits and four walks. Stan Williams pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.
Opposition stars: Bob Burda was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk. Marty Pattin struck out ten in a complete game, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk.
The game: In the first, Russ Snyder drew a one-out walk, Mike Hegan walked with two out, and Dave May singled, loading the bases. Burda singled home a run, but a baserunning blunder ended the inning with the Brewers leading by only 1-0.
Milwaukee had men on first and second with one out in the second but did not score. In the fourth, Cesar Tovar led off the inning by reaching second on a single-plus-error. He was bunted to third and scored on a wild pitch to tie it 1-1. Tony Oliva then doubled and scored on a Harmon Killebrew single to give the Twins a 2-1 lead. It didn't last long, though, as Burda led off the bottom of the fourth with a double, was bunted to third, and scored on a sacrifice fly to tie it 2-2.
Each team had two on with two out in the seventh and did not score. In the eighth Tovar was hit by a pitch, stole second, and scored on an Oliva single to put the Twins ahead 3-2. The Brewers threatened in the ninth. Burda led off with a walk and Phil Roof had a two-out single to put the tying run into scoring position. But Ted Savage struck out to end the game.
WP: Boswell (3-6).
LP: Pattin (4-6).
S: Williams (4).
Notes: Herman Hill made his season debut in center field, with Tovar moving to second base in place of the injured Rod Carew. Jim Holt was in left in place of Brant Alyea.
Oliva was batting .321. Killebrew was 1-for-3 and was batting .302. Williams had an ERA of 1.81.
Hill was 0-for-3 and was batting zero. Boswell easily had his best game of the season to date--his score of 68 was twenty points higher than his second-best game score so far--but still had an ERA of 6.24.
Oddly, Frank Quilici was not used as a defensive replacement for Harmon Killebrew, even though the Twins took the lead in the eighth and Killebrew was unlikely to come to bat again.
Bob Burda had only been a member of the Brewers for a couple of weeks, having been sold by the Giants on June 9. He was a first baseman/corner outfielder, mostly playing right field for Milwaukee. He got the most playing time of his career in 1970--245 at-bats--and did not take advantage of it, batting .249/.315/.335 with just four home runs, not the kind of production you want from someone who plays those positions. He had shown some power in the minors, hitting 27 homers in AAA in 1963 and 18 more in AAA in 1964, but he had only 13 homers in 634 major league at-bats. He played for St. Louis in 1971 and for Boston in 1972 before ending his playing career. He was successful in business after leaving baseball and is currently living in retirement in Mesa, Arizona.
Record: The Twins were 41-22, in first place in the American League West, four games ahead of California.