MINNESOTA 8, MILWAUKEE 3 IN MINNESOTA (GAME 2 OF DOUBLEHEADER)
Date: Monday, September 7.
Batting stars: Hal Haydel was 2-for-3 with a home run, a double, and two runs. Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-3 with a double, a walk, and two runs. Cesar Tovar was 2-for-5.
Pitching stars: Haydel pitched five innings of relief, giving up two runs on four hits and no walks and striking out two. Ron Perranoski pitched three shutout innings, giving up one hit and striking out two.
Opposition stars: Dave May was 3-for-3 with a stolen base, his fourth. Tommy Harper was 2-for-4 with a home run (his twenty-seventh), a triple, and two runs.
The game: Harper led off the game with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly to give the Brewers a quick 1-0 lead. The Twins tied it in the bottom of the first when Killebrew doubled, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a Brant Alyea single. The Twins took the lead 2-1 in the second when Haydel doubled and scored on a Tovar single. Harper homered in the third to tie it 2-2, but in the bottom of the third Alyea walked and scored on a two-out triple by Leo Cardenas to put the Twins up 3-2. Haydel homered in the fourth to make it 4-2.
Milwaukee edged closer in the sixth. Russ Snyder and May led off with singles, a bunt moved them to second and third, and a sacrifice fly made it 4-3. But the Twins put it away in the seventh. Tovar singled, Danny Thompson reached on an error, and Killebrew had an RBI single. A wild pitch put men on second and third and a sacrifice fly scored a second run. Cardenas walked, followed by run-scoring singles by Steve Brye and George Mitterwald brought the score to 8-3. The Brewers got only one hit in the last three innings.
WP: Haydel (1-0).
LP: Al Downing (4-12).
S: Perranoski (29).
Notes: Thompson was once again on second base in place of Rod Carew. Rick Renick was at third, with Killebrew moving to first and Rich Reese on the bench. Brye was in right field in place of Tony Oliva.
The Twins made a number of defensive substitutions in the eighth. Reese came in to play first in place of Killebrew. Quilici came in and went to second, with Thompson moving to third and Renick coming out. Jim Holt came in and went to center, with Tovar moving to left and Alyea coming out. In the ninth, Jim Nettles came in to play right field, with Brye moving to left and Tovar coming out.
Haydel was batting .667. Perranoski had an ERA of 2.05.
Luis Tiant started but could go only one inning, coming out of the game due to injury. He would make only one more appearance in 1970, nearly three weeks later.
Haydel made his major league debut, and it was a really good one. He came in after Tiant was pulled, pitched five innings, got the win, went 2-for-3 at the plate, and also hit a home run. It was the only home run of his major league career, and the double he hit was the only double, but then he only batted six times. His career batting numbers are .500/.500/1.167. His career pitching numbers are 6-2, 4.04, 1.31 WHIP. He had a terrible year in AAA in 1972 and then was out of baseball. One wonders if he might have been injured--he had done decently in the minors, and not badly in the majors, prior to 1972.
I don't think of Tommy Harper as a home run hitter, but he hit thirty-one in 1970. That was easily his best power year--his next highest was eighteen in 1965 with California. He had an OPS of .899 in 1970--his next highest was .774 in 1983. He hit 146 home runs in his career, which isn't too shabby. He also stole 408 bases, which is what I remember him for. He led the league in steals twice--73 in 1969 with Seattle, and 54 in 1973 with Boston.
The Twins had won five consecutive games and would go for the series sweep in the next game.
Record: The Twins were 83-55, in first place in the American League West, six games ahead of Oakland.