MINNESOTA 4, DETROIT 3 IN DETROIT
Date: Sunday, August 2.
Batting stars: Tony Oliva was 3-for-5 with a home run (his eighteenth), two runs, and two RBIs. Rich Reese was 2-for-4 with a double. Cesar Tovar was 2-for-5. Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer (his thirty-third) and a walk.
Pitching stars: Bill Zepp pitched 8.1 innings, giving up three runs (one earned) on six hits and four walks and striking out three.
Opposition stars: Bill Freehan was 2-for-4. Daryl Patterson struck out three in three shutout innings, giving up one hit and two walks.
The game: Oliva homered in the first inning to give the Twins a 1-0 lead. The Tigers tied it in the second when Norm Cash walked, went to second on Bill Freehan's single, and scored on a double by Don Wert. The Twins went back in front in the fourth when Oliva singled and Killebrew followed with a two-run homer. They added a run in the fifth on singles by Zepp, Tovar, and Oliva, making the score 4-1.
It stayed 4-1 until the ninth. Cash led off the inning with a single and Wert drew a one-out walk, bringing the tying run to the plate. Ron Perranoski came in and retired Elliot Maddox on a line out, but Ike Brown singled to load the bases and an error brought home two runs. It was 4-3 with men on first and third and two out. Stan Williams then came in to retire Mickey Stanley on a line out to end the game.
WP: Zepp (6-1).
LP: Joe Niekro (10-9).
S: Williams (8).
Notes: Thompson remained at second base in place of Rod Carew. Charlie Manuel was in left field in place of Brant Alyea. Jim Holt pinch-ran for Manuel in the sixth and stayed in the game in left field.
Oliva was batting .327. Killebrew was batting .306. Tovar was batting .304. Zepp had an ERA of 2.96. Perranoski had an ERA of 1.90. Williams had an ERA of 1.56.
Niekro gave up four runs in 4.1 innings, allowing eight hits and no walks and striking out one.
Manuel was with the Twins for all but a month of the 1970 season, but started only six games. This was the second of those six, and as you can see above, he played barely over half the game. In his month in AAA, when he actually got to play, he batted .329 with an OPS of 1.027. I understand that he probably wasn't a very good defender, but this was a team that was playing Brant Alyea, Holt, and Rick Renick in left field. There should've been more than six starts for Manuel.
This was the longest start of Zepp's career to date. He would make only one longer, a shutout of the White Sox on September 11.
The Twins finished their road trip 3-3. They would now come home for ten games against Milwaukee, California, and Oakland.
Record: The Twins were 64-36, in first place in the American League West, 7.5 games ahead of California and Oakland.