WASHINGTON 3, MINNESOTA 2 IN WASHINGTON (11 INNINGS)

Date:  Tuesday, August 11.

Batting stars:  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer (his thirty-sixth) and a walk.  Brant Alyea was 1-for-1.

Pitching stars:  Jim Perry pitched eight innings, giving up two runs on four hits and four walks and striking out seven.  Tom Hall struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up two walks.

Opposition stars:  Aurelio Rodriguez was 2-for-5 with a two-run homer (his sixteenth) and a double.  Casey Cox pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on two hits and one walk and striking out two.  Horacio Pina pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit.  Darold Knowles pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits and a walk.

The game:  Danny Thompson had a one-out bunt single in the first and with two-out, Killebrew hit a two-run homer to make it 2-0 Twins.

For a while, it looked like that would hold up.  The Senators had two on in the first with an error and a walk, had two on in the third with a single and a walk, and had two on in the fourth with a double and an intentional walk.  Still, it was 2-0 through seven.  In the eighth, however, Frank Howard hit a one-out single and Rodriguez hit a two-out two-run homer to tie it 2-2.

It remained 2-2 until the eleventh.  With one out, Ed Brinkman singled and scored from first on a double by Paul Casanova, ending the game.

WP:  Darold Knowles (2-11).

LP:  Bert Blyleven (6-5).

S:  None.

Notes:  Jim Holt was again in center field, with Cesar Tovar in left and Alyea on the bench.  Thompson remained at second in place of Rod Carew.  Tom Tischinski was behind the plate in place of George Mitterwald.

Jim Kaat pinch-ran for Killebrew in the tenth.  Rick Renick pinch-hit for Holt in the tenth.  Frank Quilici went to second base, with Thompson moving to third.  Renick went to left, with Tovar moving to center.

Tony Oliva was 0-for-4 and was batting .318.  Hall had an ERA of 2.44.

Tischinski was 0-for-4 and was batting .194.

Blyleven was used in relief to start the eleventh.  Obviously, it did not go well.  The Twins had used four relievers the previous day, and had used three the day before that, so perhaps the decision was understandable (although Hall had pitched five innings of relief two days earlier and was still used for two innings in this game).  This was one of two times Blyleven was used in relief in 1970 (we'll discuss the other when it comes up).  He would appear in relief seven times in his career.  While it's a small sample size, he did not do well as a reliever.  He pitched 12.1 innings and went 1-2, 4.97, 1.90 WHIP.

Despite his poor won-lost record, Knowles actually had a good year in 1970.  He had an ERA of 2.04 with 27 saves.  He appeared in 71 games and pitched 119.1 innings, both career highs.

The Twins had now dropped four games in a row.  In those four games, the Twins scored eight runs.  In their last seven games, the Twins had scored just fifteen runs.

Record:  The Twins were 69-42, in first place in the American League West, six games ahead of Oakland.