MINNESOTA 9, BOSTON 6 IN BOSTON
Date: Sunday, August 16.
Batting stars: Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-4 with a home run (his thirty-seventh), a walk, and two runs. Tony Oliva was 2-for-5 with a double and two RBIs. Cesar Tovar was 1-for-3 with a three-run homer (his ninth) and a walk. George Mitterwald was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer (his eleventh) and a walk. Brant Alyea was 1-for-4 with a home run, his eleventh.
Pitching stars: None.
Opposition stars: John Kennedy was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs. Tony Conigliaro was 2-for-5 with a home run (his twenty-second), a double, and two runs. Jerry Moses was 1-for-1 with a home run, his sixth. Reggie Smith was 1-for-5 with a home run, his seventeenth. Ed Phillips pitched 2.2 scoreless innings, giving up two hits and two walks and striking out two.
The game: In the first Tovar and Killebrew walked, a wild pitch moved them up, and they scored on a two-run double by Oliva to gie the Twins a 2-0 lead. The Red Sox got one back in the bottom of the first on doubles by Andrews and Carl Yastrzemski and tied it in the second when George Thomas doubled and scored on Kennedy's single.
Boston took the lead in the third on doubles by Conigliaro and Kennedy. The Twins took the lead back in the fourth when Alyea homered, Bob Allison walked, and Mitterwald homered, giving the Twins a 5-3 advantage. Smith homered in the bottom of the fourth to make it 5-4.
Killebrew homered in the top of the seventh and Conigliaro homered in the bottom of the seventh, moving the score to 6-5. Rich Reese led off the eighth with a walk and was bunted to second. With two out, pinch-hitter Charlie Manuel was intentionally walked and Tovar hit a three-run homer, giving the Twins a 9-5 lead. Moses homered in the eighth to make it 9-6, but that's where it stayed.
WP: Bert Blyleven (7-5).
LP: Gary Peters (11-10).
S: Stan Willams (10).
Notes: Danny Thompson remained at second in place of Rod Carew. Allison was at first base in place of Reese. Reese replaced Allison at first base in the sixth inning. Jim Holt replaced Alyea in the seventh and went to center field, with Tovar moving to left. Manuel pinch-hit for Blyleven in the eighth. Frank Quilici replaced Killebrew in the ninth and went to second base, with Thompson moving to third.
Luis Tiant was 0-for-1 and was batting .414. Oliva was batting .321. Williams allowed one run in two innings and had an ERA of 2.17.
Tiant started but pitched just 1.1 innings, giving up two runs on five hits and no walks and striking out one. It appears that was as much due to injury as performance. He would pitch in relief a week later, make two more starts, then miss three weeks before making one final start.
It was two short starts in a row, but Bill Rigney saved the bullpen by using yesterday's starter, Blyleven, for 5.2 innings of relief. I could have included him as a "pitching star" simply for that reason. He gave up three runs on five hits and two walks and struck out four. It was his second and last relief appearance of the season. He would pitch in relief only five more times in his career, and never more than twice in a season.
I assume you know the story of Tony Conigliaro. He actually had an excellent season in 1970, batting .266 with 36 homers and an OPS of .822. It was the last good season he would have, though.
I wish I understood how Rigney decided when to use Tovar in center and Holt in left and when to reverse it. I assume he had reasons, that he wasn't just doing it based on some sort of gut instinct or something, but I have no idea what the reasons may have been.
I don't recall having heard of Ed Phillips. This was his only year in the majors. He appeared in twenty-two games, going 0-2, 5.32, 1.65 WHIP. He started the season well, posting an ERA of 1.50 through his first eight appearances. It appears that he was injured at that point, and when he came back he was not the same pitcher. He never did get it back, and was out of baseball after the 1971 season.
The win snapped the Twins' nine-game losing streak.
Record: The Twins were 70-47, in first place in the American League West, 4.5 games ahead of Oakland.