MINNESOTA 6, MILWAUKEE 2 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Tuesday, May 26.
Batting stars: Rod Carew was 3-for-3 with a triple and a walk. Jim Holt was 2-for-4 with a double. Paul Ratliff was 2-for-4 with a double. Jim Kaat was 2-for-4 with two runs. Rich Reese was 2-for-4. Cesar Tovar was 1-for-4 with a home run, his fourth.
Pitching stars: Kaat pitched a complete game, giving up two runs on six hits and a walk and striking out six.
Opposition stars: Future Twin Danny Walton was 1-for-4 with a home run, his tenth. Tommy Harper was 1-for-4 with a home run, his sixth.
The game: Tovar homered leading off the bottom of the first to put the Twins ahead 1-0. Walton homered in the second to tie it 1-1. The Twins went into the lead to stay in the bottom of the second. With one out, Ratliff doubled and scored on a Kaat single. With two out, Carew singled and Kaat scored all the way from first base to put the Twins ahead 3-1.
Harper homered in the third to cut the lead to 3-2, but that was as close as the Brewers would come. They threatened in the sixth, putting men on first and third with one out, but Ted Kubiak was thrown out trying to score on a grounder to third.
The Twins got an insurance run in the seventh. Kaat singled, was bunted to second, went to third on a Carew single, and scored on a single by Tony Oliva. They put it out of reach in the eighth. Reese singled and scored from first on a Holt double. Holt was bunted to third and scored on a Ratliff single. Milwaukee got a couple of guys on base in the ninth but did not bring the tying run up to bat.
WP: Kaat (5-1).
LP: Bobby Bolin (1-4).
S: None.
Notes: Holt was again in left field in place of Brant Alyea. Ratliff was behind the plate in place of George Mitterwald.
Carew got back over .400 at .404. It would be the last time he would be above .400 this season. Oliva was 1-for-3 and was batting .329. Harmon Killebrew was 0-for-4 and was batting .319.
I wonder when the last time is a pitcher scored from first base on a single.
This was Bolin's only season with Milwaukee, and it would not be a full season. He had been traded to the Brewers after several solid seasons with San Francisco. He would be traded to Boston in September and would play for the Red Sox through 1973.
Walton hit seventeen home runs in 1970. He would not hit more than four in any other season. He had fifteen in the first half of the season, then hit just two more before being injured and missing the month of September. He was twenty-two in 1970 and Milwaukee probably thought they had a coming superstar, but it was not to be. He had some big home run season in AAA, hitting 184 home runs at that level, but never got as many as 100 at-bats in a major league season after 1970.
Record: The Twins were 28-12, in first place in the American League West, one game ahead of California.
