WASHINGTON 5, MINNESOTA 3 IN WASHINGTON
Date: Wednesday, August 12.
Batting stars: Tony Oliva was 1-for-1. Luis Tiant was 1-for-2 with a double.
Pitching stars: Stan Williams pitched a perfect inning. Dick Woodson pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one. Tom Hall pitched a perfect inning and struck out one.
Opposition stars: Frank Howard was 2-for-3 with a home run (his thirty-first), a double, a walk, two runs, and three RBIs. Mike Epstein was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer (his fifteenth). Jim Hannan pitched 7.1 innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on five hits and two walks and striking out five.
The game: Ed Stroud led off with a single and Howard hit a two-run homer to give the Senators a 2-0 lead. The Twins got a run back in the second, but missed a chance for more. Frank Quilici led off with a single and Tiant doubled, putting men on second and third with none out, but all the Twins could manage was an RBI ground out, cutting the lead to 2-1.
The Twins did tie it in the sixth. Leo Cardenas led off with a double. He was still on second with two out, but then an error brought him home, making the score 2-2.
It only stayed tied until the next time Washington batted. Lee Maye reached on an error and scored on Howard's double. Epstein then hit a two-run homer to give the Senators a 5-2 lead. The Twins got one back in the eighth when Cesar Tovar singled, Harmon Killebrew drew a one-out walk, and Oliva followed with a pinch-hit RBI single. The Twins had the tying run on base with one out, but a strikeout and a ground out ended the inning.
Danny Thompson led off the ninth with a single and Bob Allison singled with one out, again putting the tying run on base. But Tovar grounded into a double play and the game was over.
WP: Hannan (8-5).
LP: Tiant (7-2).
S: Joe Grzenda (5).
Notes: Charlie Manuel was given a rare start in right field, with Oliva given a rare day out of the lineup. Rick Renick was at third base, with Killebrew moving to first and Rich Reese on the bench. Paul Ratliff was behind the plate in place of George Mitterwald. Frank Quilici was at second in place of Rod Carew.
Jim Holt pinch-hit for Williams in the seventh. Oliva pinch-hit for Manuel in the eighth and stayed in the game in right field. Thompson pinch-hit for Ratliff in the ninth. Allison pinch-hit for Hall in the ninth.
Tiant was batting .429. Oliva was batting .320. Williams had an ERA of 2.06. Hall had an ERA of 2.41.
Manuel was 0-for-3 and was batting .189. Allison was 1-for-1 and was batting .185.
Tiant pitched five innings, giving up five runs (four earned) on five hits and no walks and striking out three.
The Twins had lost five in a row and had scored eleven runs in those five games, being outscored 24-11. They had scored eighteen runs in their last eight games. Obviously, the losing streak was causing their lead in the AL West to shrink.
Record: The Twins were 69-43, in first place in the American League West, five games ahead of Oakland.