MILWAUKEE 4, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA (GAME 2 OF DOUBLEHEADER)
Batting stars: Danny Thompson was 2-for-4. Jim Holt was 2-for-4.
Pitching stars: Luis Tiant pitched five innings, giving up one run on four hits and two walks and striking out two. Pete Hamm pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit and striking out one.
Opposition stars: Bob Burda was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer (his third) and a walk. Lew Krausse pitched 8.2 innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and a walk and striking out four.
The game: With two out in the first Mike Hegan and Burda walked and Dave May delivered an RBI single, putting the Brewers up 1-0. The Twins got a pair of one-out singles in the third but did not score. Milwaukee got a pair of leadoff singles in the fifth but did not score. So, it was still 1-0 going to the sixth.
With one out in the sixth Hegan walked and Burda followed with a two-run homer, making it 3-0. Neither team threatened again until the ninth, when Roberto Pena and future Twin Phil Roof hit one-out singles and Krausse delivered a two-out single, increasing the Brewers' lead to 4-0.
The Twins finally got something going in the ninth. Danny Thompson led off with a single and Tony Oliva bunted him to second (presumably bunting for a hit). Harmon Killebrew doubled home the first Twins run. After a ground out, Holt singled home Killebrew (who was not pinch-run for) to make the score 4-2. But that was all there was, as Leo Cardenas grounded out to end the game.
WP: Krausse (11-11).
LP: Tiant (6-1).
S: Ken Sanders (3).
Notes: Thompson remained at second base in place of Rod Carew. Holt was again in left in place of Brant Alyea. Alyea pinch-hit for Stan Williams in the sixth. Rick Renick pinch-hit for George Mitterwald in the eighth, with Paul Ratliff going behind the plate. Charlie Manuel pinch-hit for Hamm in the eighth.
Tiant was 0-for-1 and was batting .417 Oliva was 1-for-3 and was batting .326. Killebrew was 1-for-4 and was batting .304. Cesar Tovar was 0-for-4 and slipped below .300 at .298. Williams allowed two runs in one inning and had an ERA of 1.79.
Hamm lowered his ERA to 6.75.
Thompson now had six multi-hit games in his last seven starts. He was 16-for-32 in those seven starts and raised his average from .200 to ,290,
This was Tiant's first appearance since May 28. He would remain in the Twins' rotation through the month of August.
Bob Burda had thirteen home runs in his career, one of them obviously in this game. A first baseman/right fielder, he was traded to Milwaukee in early June and got the only semi-regular playing time of his career. He wasn't up to it, batting .248/.303/.342 with four home runs in 222 at-bats. He had a very good year as a pinch-hitter for St. Louis in 1971, batting .296 in 71 at-bats. Traded to the Red Sox for 1972, he could not repeat his success and was out of baseball after that year.
Record: The Twins were 65-37, in first place in the American League West, seven games ahead of California.
