WASHINGTON 1, MINNESOTA 0 IN WASHINGTON
Date: Thursday, August 13.
Batting stars: None. The Twins had only one hit.
Pitching star: Jim Kaat pitched an eight-inning complete game, giving up an unearned run on five hits and two walks and striking out two.
Opposition stars: Dick Bosman pitched a complete game shutout, giving up one hit and one walk and striking out seven. Wayne Comer was 2-for-4. Frank Howard was 1-for-1 with two walks.
The game: Cesar Tovar led off the game with a bunt single, and that would turn out to be the only Twins hit. With one out in the bottom of the first, Comer laid down a bunt and reached third on a single-plus-error. Howard was intentionally walked and Rick Reichardt hit into a force out, scoring Comer.
That was it for the scoring. The Twins had only one other baserunner. Kaat walked with one out in the sixth and was erased on a double play. The unearned run in the first held up and Washington won 1-0.
WP: Bosman (12-8).
LP: Kaat (10-9).
S: None.
Notes: Jim Holt was again in center, with Tovar in left and Brant Alyea on the bench. Danny Thompson was again at second in place of Rod Carew. Tom Tischinski was behind the plate in place of George Mitterwald.
Rick Renick pinch-hit for Tischinski in the ninth. Charlie Manuel pinch-hit for Kaat in the ninth, but then Alyea pinch-hit for Manuel despite the fact that there was no pitching change. The only explanations I can think of are that Manuel got hurt during the at-bat or that Bill Rigney thought there was a pitching change when there wasn't. We note that Manuel was used as a pinch-hitter again the next day, so if he was injured it wasn't very serious. But those are the only things I can think of for why you would do that.
Tony Oliva was 0-for-3 and was batting .318.
Tischinski was 0-for-2 and was batting .182.
Bosman was a pretty good pitcher from 1968-1972. He spent much of 1968 in the bullpen and went 2-9, but with a 3.69 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP. It was the Year of the Pitcher, so maybe you don't think that's too impressive, but in 1969 he led the league in ERA at 2.19, going 14-5 with a WHIP of 1.01. In this year, 1970, he was 16-12, 3.00 ERA, 1.23 WHIP. He was not quite as good in the next two seasons, but he still was a combined 3.70 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP. He didn't do much the next two years, but bounced back in 1975 to go 11-6, 3.63, 1.17 WHIP. For his career, which went from 1966-1976, he was 85-82, 3.67, 1.26 WHIP. He's certainly not a Hall of Famer, and he never even made an all-star team. But still, a very respectable career.
The Twins were swept by the last-place Senators. It was their sixth consecutive loss. They had scored eleven runs in those six games and been shut out twice. In their last nine games they had scored only eighteen runs. They would now go to fourth-place Boston for a four-game series.
Record: The Twins were 69-44, in first place in the American League West, five games ahead of Oakland.