DETROIT TIGERS 4, MINNESOTA TWINS 3 IN DETROIT (13 INNINGS)

Date:  Tuesday, August 5, 1969.

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 3-for-7.  Rich Reese was 2-for-5 with a walk.  Ted Uhlaender was 2-for-6 with a home run (his sixth) and a walk.  Leo Cardenas was 2-for-6.

Pitching stars:  Dean Chance pitched 6.2 innings, giving up three runs (one earned) on seven hits and a walk and striking out three.  Ron Perranoski pitched two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one.  Dick Woodson pitched 3.2 innings, giving up one run on four hits and two walks and striking out three.

Opposition stars:  Norm Cash was 3-for-5.  Mickey Stanley was 3-for-6.  Don Wert was 2-for-6.  Gates Brown hit a home run, his first.  Denny McLain pitched seven innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on eleven hits and two walks and striking out four.  Don McMahon struck out four in two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk.  Pat Dobson pitched three shutout innings, giving up two hits and a walk and striking out one.

The game:  Each team scored once in the first inning.  For the Twins, singles by Rod Carew, Harmon Killebrew, and Rich Reese produced a run.  In the bottom of the inning, singles by Mickey Stanley, Tom Tresh, and Norm Cash tied the score.

The Twins took the lead in the fourth.  Cesar Tovar reached second on a single-plus-error and scored on a Leo Cardenas single.  Ted Uhlaender led off the fifth with a home run, giving the Twins a 3-1 lead.

But that was as good as it got.  In the sixth, Gates Brown led off with a home run.  Later in the inning Willie Horton walked, went to third on a throwing error, and scored on a wild pitch to tie it 3-3.

Each team had chances.  In the seventh the Twins loaded the bases on two singles and a walk.  In the eighth a single and a walk put Tigers on first and second with one out.  The Twins got a single and a walk with two out in the ninth and got a man as far as third in the eleventh.  

The Tigers finally pushed the winning run across in the thirteenth.  In his fourth inning of relief, Dick Woodson gave up a leadoff walk to Al Kaline and a single to Norm Cash, putting men on first and third.  Even though first base was occupied, Billy Martin ordered an intentional walk to Willie Horton, loading the bases.  It looked like the strategy might work, as Woodson struck out Bill Freehan and Dick Tracewski.  But Don Wert got an infield single to bring in the deciding run in a very frustrating loss for the Twins.

WP:  John Hiller (3-3).

LP:  Dick Woodson (6-5).

S:  None.

Notes:  Cesar Tovar was in center field, with Ted Uhlaender in left.  Uhlaender was the regular center fielder.  The Twins didn’t really have a regular left fielder.  Bob Allison played the most games there (58), followed by Graig Nettles (54), Uhlaender (44), Charlie Manuel (41), and Tovar (40).  Yes, the Twins took a future Gold Glove third baseman and played him in the outfield.  The Twins, throughout their history, have put third basemen in the outfield.  Trevor Plouffe! and Miguel Sano are two names that come to mind.

Rod Carew was batting .363.  He would finish at a league-leading .332.  Tony Oliva was batting .333.  He would finish at .309.  Rich Reese was batting .320.  He would finish at .322.

Dean Chance had an ERA of 2.51.  He would finish at 2.95.  Ron Perranoski had an ERA of 1.65.  He would finish at 2.11.

There were no players for Detroit who had or would play for the Twins, but Don McMahon was the Twins’ pitching coach from 1976-1978 under Gene Mauch.

In the “Things that would probably never happen today” file, we have a thirteen-inning game (which does still happen, but it’s pretty rare) and each team using a reliever for three or more innings (and not as primary pitcher following an opener).

The Twins ran wild on the bases in 1969, but did not steal any bases in this game.  They did have one caught stealing.

This was one of fourteen games Gates Brown played in the field in 1969, as he played left.  He appeared in sixty games, but generally was used as a pinch-hitter.  For his career, he had 500 plate appearances as a pinch-hitter and batted .251/.356/.421 with sixteen home runs in those plate appearances.  That’s another thing that would never happen today:  a player on the roster who’s chief responsibility was to pinch-hit.

This was Tom Tresh’s last year in the majors.  He had been with the Yankees since 1961, but was traded to Detroit on June 14, 1969.  I don’t remember him as a home run hitter, but he hit over twenty four times and had 153 for his career.

Record:  Detroit was 59-47, in second place in the AL East, fourteen games behind Baltimore.  They would finish 90-72, in second place, nineteen games behind Baltimore.

The Twins were 67-42, in first place in the AL West, three games ahead of Oakland.  They would finish 97-65, in first place, nine games behind Cleveland.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 23-21 (.523).