CHICAGO 5, MINNESOTA 3 IN MINNESOTA (12 INNINGS)
Date: Saturday, July 4.
Batting stars: Leo Cardenas was 3-for-5 with a double. Cesar Tovar was 3-for-6.
Pitching stars: Dave Boswell pitched six innings, giving up two runs on five hits and no walks and striking out one. Bill Zepp pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and striking out one. Stan Williams pitched a perfect inning.
Opposition stars: Bobby Knoop was 2-for-4. Ed Herrmann was 2-for-5 with a home run, his seventh. Walt Williams was 2-for-6. Tommy John pitched 8.1 innings, giving up three runs on nine hits and two walks and striking out seven.
The game: The White Sox had men on first and third with one out in the second, but Gail Hopkins was thrown out trying to score on a grounder to third and a fly out ended the inning. Chicago got on the board in the fourth, though. Carlos May was hit by a pitch and Hopkins reached on a fielder's choice, putting men on first and second with none out. Herrmann singled home a run and another run scored on a double play, making it 2-0 White Sox.
The Twins only once got a man as far as second base for six innings. In the seventh, however, Cardenas hit a two-out double and George Mitterwald followed with an RBI single, cutting the lead to 2-1.
Chicago had men on second and third with none out in the eighth but did not score. Herrmann homered leading off the ninth to make it 3-1. In the bottom of the ninth Tony Oliva led off with a double and stayed on second on Rick Renick's infield single to short. Oliva was then picked off second, a huge mistake in the ninth inning. Bob Allison then walked, putting men on first and second. Cardenas had an RBI single, making it 3-2 and putting men on first and third, and Rich Reese hit a sacrifice fly to send the game to extra innings.
The Twins missed a good chance in the tenth. Tovar led off and got to third on a single-plus-error. Danny Thompson hit a short fly ball for the first out. Harmon Killebrew and Oliva were both intentionally walked, filling the bases, and the strategy worked, as pinch-hitter Tom Tischinski hit into a double play. In the twelfth, Bob Spence led off with a walk. Walt Williams replaced him on first on a fielder's choice. He then scored when Luis Aparicio reached on an error. Aparicio went all the way to third and scored on a sacrifice fly, making it 5-3. The Twins went down in order in the bottom of the twelfth.
WP: Wilbur Wood (4-7).
LP: Dick Woodson (1-2).
S: Jerry Crider (2).
Notes: Thompson was again at second in place of Rod Carew. Renick was at third base, with Killebrew moving to first and Reese to the bench.
There were lots of bench moves. Frank Quilici pinch-hit for Zepp in the seventh. Jim Holt replaced Brant Alyea in left field in the ninth with the Twins trailing and Alyea due to bat in the bottom of the inning. Alyea would make only one brief appearance between this game and July 16, so he presumably was dealing with an injury. Bob Allison pinch-hit for Holt in the ninth and Herman Hill pinch-ran for Allison, with Hill staying in the game in center and Tovar moving to left. Reese pinch-hit for MItterwald in the ninth and Paul Ratliff pinch-hit for Ron Perranoski in the ninth, with Ratliff staying in the game to catch, Reese staying in the game at first base, and Killebrew moving to third. Jim Kaat pinch-hit for Stan Williams in the tenth, but when the White Sox changed pitchers Tischinski pinch-hit for Kaat.
Oliva was 1-for-4 and was batting .324. Tovar was batting .312. Killebrew was 0-for-4 and was batting .308. Zepp had an ERA of 2.68. Perranoski gave up one run in two innings and had an ERA of 1.75. Williams had an ERA of 1.78. Woodson gave up two unearned runs in two innings and had an ERA of 2.70.
Tischinski was batting zero (0-for-2). Hill was 0-for-1 and was batting .118. Quilici was 0-for-1 and was batting .175. Boswell had an ERA of 6.22.
As you can see above, the Twins used seven bench players (not counting Kaat).
Crider, of course, is an ex-Twin, having played for them in 1969.
The loss ended the Twins' five-game winning streak. It was their second extra-inning game in four days.
Despite lasting twelve innings, the game took just 3:31 to play.
RecordL The Twins were 48-26, in first place in the American League West, four games ahead of California.