MINNESOTA 2, CALIFORNIA 1 IN MINNESOTA (14 INNINGS)
Date: Thursday, August 6.
Batting stars: Danny Thompson was 3-for-5 with a double. Cesar Tovar was 2-for-6. George Mitterwald was 1-for-6 with a home run, his tenth.
Pitching stars: Bill Zepp struck out nine in eight innings, giving up one run on four hits and three walks. Tom Hall struck out four in four shutout innings, giving up two hits and a walk. Stan Williams pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits and striking out one.
Opposition stars: Bill Voss was 2-for-6 with a home run, his second. Andy Messersmith pitched seven shutout innings, giving up five hits and a walk and striking out four. Eddie Fisher struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.
The game: The Twins had two on with one out in the first but did not score. That was the only time a team had two men on base until the seventh, when the Angels loaded the bases with one out. A popup and a strikeout ended the inning.
There was no score until the eighth, when Voss homered to give California a 1-0 lead. The Twins got the run back in the bottom of the eighth but missed a chance for more. Charlie Manuel led off the inning with a pinch-hit walk and Tovar singled. A bunt moved men to second and third and Tony Oliva was intentionally walked to bring up Harmon Killebrew. Killebrew was then hit by a pitch to force home a run. That was it, though, as a pair of strikeouts ended the inning.
The next threat came in the twelfth, when Tommie Reynolds doubled with one out. Joe Azcue was intentionally walked and Chico Ruiz got an infield single, loading the bases. But a pair of forceouts ended the inning with no scoring. Each team missed a chance in the thirteenth. The Angels had two on with two out and a ground out ended the inning. The Twins also had two on with two out and a strikeout ended the inning.
The Twins finally put it away in the fourteenth. Mitterwald led off with a home run and the Twins won 2-1.
WP: Williams (7-0).
LP: Paul Doyle (3-1).
S: None.
Notes: Jim Holt was again in center field, with Tovar in left and Brant Alyea on the bench. Manuel pinch-hit for Zepp and Jim Kaat pinch-ran for Manuel. Rick Renick pinch-hit for Holt and stayed in the game in left field, with Tovar moving to center.
Oliva was 1-for-4 and was batting .328. Killebrew was 0-for-4 and feel below .300 at .297. Zepp had an ERA of 2.80. Hall had an ERA of 2.65. Williams had an ERA of 1.73.
This was the first time all season Killebrew had been below .300. He would not get back above it the rest of the season.
The Twins went through fourteen innings with just three pitchers. The Angels used five.
The fourteen inning game took just three hours, forty-seven minutes.
This was one of three home runs Bill Voss hit in 1970. He hit nineteen for his career. Ten of those home runs came in 1971 with Milwaukee. He had a career high slugging percentage (.375) and OPS (.687) in 1971 and played only one more year after that.
The Twins were 3-2 on their current ten-game homestand. The remaining five would all be with Oakland.
Record: The Twins were 67-38, in first place in the American League West, eight games ahead of California and Oakland.