Tag Archives: Bert Blyleven–reliever

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game One Hundred Seventeen

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.

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game One Hundred Eleven

WASHINGTON 3, MINNESOTA 2 IN WASHINGTON (11 INNINGS)

Date:  Tuesday, August 11.

Batting stars:  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer (his thirty-sixth) and a walk.  Brant Alyea was 1-for-1.

Pitching stars:  Jim Perry pitched eight innings, giving up two runs on four hits and four walks and striking out seven.  Tom Hall struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up two walks.

Opposition stars:  Aurelio Rodriguez was 2-for-5 with a two-run homer (his sixteenth) and a double.  Casey Cox pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on two hits and one walk and striking out two.  Horacio Pina pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit.  Darold Knowles pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits and a walk.

The game:  Danny Thompson had a one-out bunt single in the first and with two-out, Killebrew hit a two-run homer to make it 2-0 Twins.

For a while, it looked like that would hold up.  The Senators had two on in the first with an error and a walk, had two on in the third with a single and a walk, and had two on in the fourth with a double and an intentional walk.  Still, it was 2-0 through seven.  In the eighth, however, Frank Howard hit a one-out single and Rodriguez hit a two-out two-run homer to tie it 2-2.

It remained 2-2 until the eleventh.  With one out, Ed Brinkman singled and scored from first on a double by Paul Casanova, ending the game.

WP:  Darold Knowles (2-11).

LP:  Bert Blyleven (6-5).

S:  None.

Notes:  Jim Holt was again in center field, with Cesar Tovar in left and Alyea on the bench.  Thompson remained at second in place of Rod Carew.  Tom Tischinski was behind the plate in place of George Mitterwald.

Jim Kaat pinch-ran for Killebrew in the tenth.  Rick Renick pinch-hit for Holt in the tenth.  Frank Quilici went to second base, with Thompson moving to third.  Renick went to left, with Tovar moving to center.

Tony Oliva was 0-for-4 and was batting .318.  Hall had an ERA of 2.44.

Tischinski was 0-for-4 and was batting .194.

Blyleven was used in relief to start the eleventh.  Obviously, it did not go well.  The Twins had used four relievers the previous day, and had used three the day before that, so perhaps the decision was understandable (although Hall had pitched five innings of relief two days earlier and was still used for two innings in this game).  This was one of two times Blyleven was used in relief in 1970 (we'll discuss the other when it comes up).  He would appear in relief seven times in his career.  While it's a small sample size, he did not do well as a reliever.  He pitched 12.1 innings and went 1-2, 4.97, 1.90 WHIP.

Despite his poor won-lost record, Knowles actually had a good year in 1970.  He had an ERA of 2.04 with 27 saves.  He appeared in 71 games and pitched 119.1 innings, both career highs.

The Twins had now dropped four games in a row.  In those four games, the Twins scored eight runs.  In their last seven games, the Twins had scored just fifteen runs.

Record:  The Twins were 69-42, in first place in the American League West, six games ahead of Oakland.