MINNESOTA TWINS 5, MILWAUKEE BREWERS 4 IN MINNESOTA (15 INNINGS)

Date:  Saturday, May 13, 1972.

Batting stars:  Eric Soderholm was 3-for-6 with a two-run homer (his first), a double, and two runs.  Rod Carew was 3-for-6 with a walk.  Cesar Tovar was 2-for-4 with two walks.

Pitching stars:  Bert Blyleven pitched nine innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and a walk and striking out eight.  Tom Norton pitched three shutout innings, giving up one hit and striking out one.  Dave LaRoche struck out three in three innings, giving up one run on two hits and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Brock Davis was 2-for-3.  George Scott hit a two-run homer, his second.  Mike Ferraro hit a home run, his first.  Earl Stephenson pitched three shutout innings, giving up one hit and striking out one.  Frank Linzy struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit and two walks.  Jim Slaton pitched 5.2 innings of relief, giving up two runs on three hits and two walks and striking out two.

The game:  Brock Davis led off the game with a single and George Scott hit a one-out two-run homer, giving Milwaukee the early 2-0 lead.  It didn’t last long, as the Twins tied it up in the bottom of the first.  Cesar Tovar led off the bottom of the first with a single and Danny Thompson walked.  Rod Carew followed with an RBI single, putting men on first and third.  A double play followed, but the tying run scored and it was 2-2 after one.

Jim Nettles led off the third with a walk and Eric Soderholm singled.  The next two batters went out, but Cesar Tovar delivered an RBI single, putting the Twins up 3-2.  It stayed 3-2 until the eighth.  Dave May led off with a single, was bunted to second, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a ground out to re-tie it 3-3.

The Twins missed a chance to win it in the ninth.  Eric Soderholm led off with a double and was bunted to third.  Steve Braun and Cesar Tovar were intentionally walked, loading the bases.  The strategy worked, as a short fly ball and a ground out followed, and the game went to extra innings.

In 1972 men were men, and the thought of a “ghost runner”, if anyone had been crazy enough to think of it, would have been laughed at.  Each team went down in order in the tenth and eleventh.  In the twelfth Rod Carew singled with two out and Rich Reese walked, but a ground out ended the inning.

Neither team advanced a man past first until the fifteenth, when Mike Ferraro led off with a home run to give the Brewers a 4-3 advantage.  It looked bad for the Twins, as the first two men in the bottom of the fifteenth went out.  But then Jim Nettles drew a walk and Eric Soderholm hit a walk-off two run homer.  The Twins win 5-4!

WP:  Dave LaRoche (1-1).

LP:  Jim Slaton (1-5).

S:  None.

Notes:  Phil Roof was behind the plate.  He and George Mitterwald each caught 61 games, with Glenn Borgmann right behind at 56.  Rich Reese was at first base in place of Harmon Killebrew.  Charlie Manuel was in left.  Steve Brye played 74 games there, with Cesar Tovar behind with 41.  Jim Nettles was in center.  Bobby Darwin played 86 games there, with Nettles second with 58.

Steve Braun was batting .355.  He would finish at .289.  Rod Carew was batting .325.  He would finish at a league-leading .318.

Bert Blyleven had an ERA of 2.75.  He would finish at 2.73.  Tom Norton had an ERA of 1.42.  He would finish at 2.78.  Dave LaRoche had an ERA of 1.14.  He would finish at 2.83.

John Briggs was at first base, going 0-for-3.  He would play for the Twins in 1975.  Paul Ratliff was behind the plate, going 0-for-3.  He had played for the Twins in 1963 and again from 1970-1971.  

This was the second career home run for Eric Soderholm.  He would hit 102 in a nine-year career.

This was the only season Tom Norton played in the major leagues.  He played in 21 games, all in relief, and went 0-1, 2.78, 1.39 WHIP.  He had never pitched above AA before this season, and would never pitch well above AA after it, going 6-6, 5.14, 1.74 WHIP in 105 AAA innings.

Jim Lonborg was the Milwaukee starter.  This would be his only season in Milwaukee.  He had won the Cy Young award in 1967 for Boston, and would go on to have some good years for Philadelphia.

It’s interesting that Milwaukee manager Dave Bristol allowed Jim Slaton to pitch the fifteenth, after having already pitched five relief innings, rather than going to someone else once they had the lead.  Bristol would be fired about a week and a half later, although I don’t know that this decision had anything to do with that.

Even though it went fifteen innings, the game only took three hours and thirty-six minutes.

Record:  Milwaukee was 6-13, in sixth (last) place in the AL East, six games behind Detroit.  They would finish 65-91, in sixth place, twenty-one games behind Detroit.

The Twins were 15-5, in first place in the AL West, 2.5 games ahead of Oakland.  They would finish 77-77, in third place, 15.5 games behind Oakland.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 37-41 (.474).