MILWAUKEE 3, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, September 8.

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 3-for-4 with a home run (his twenty-first) and a double.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-2 with two walks.

Pitching star:  Bert Blyleven pitched 8.1 innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and four walks and striking out eight.

Opposition stars:  Phil Roof was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer, his eleventh.  Bob Burda was 2-for-4.  Marty Pattin pitched a complete game, giving up two runs on six hits and two walks and striking out seven.

The game:  The Brewers had men on first and third with two out, but Dave May was thrown out on the back end of a double steal of second and home to end the inning.  They had men on first and third in the second, but Roberto Pena was picked off third to take them out of the inning.  They had men on first and third with none out in the fourth and did score, but got only one run on a double play.  Milwaukee again had men on first and second with out in the sixth and failed to score.

Meanwhile, the Twins had only one hit through the first five innings.  That changed in the sixth, when Rich Reese singled, went to third on an Oliva double, and scored on a ground out, tying it 1-1.  Oliva homered with two out in the eighth, putting the Twins up 2-1.

The lead didn't last long.  Mike Hegan singled with one out in the ninth, leading Bill Rigney to bring in Ron Perranoski.  A logical move, but it didn't work.  Bernie Smith struck out, but Roof hit a two-run homer to give the Brewers a 3-2 lead.  The Twins got a one-out single by George Mitterwald, but he did not get past first and the game was over.

WP:  Pattin (12-11).

LP:  Perranoski (7-7).

S:  None.

Notes:  Danny Thompson remained at second base in place of Rod Carew.  Jim Holt went to center field in the seventh, with Cesar Tovar moving to left and Brant Alyea coming out of the game.  Jim Nettles pinch-hit for Thompson in the eighth, with Frank Quilici coming in to play second base.  Herman Hill pinch-ran for Mitterwald in the ninth.  Charlie Manuel pinch-hit for Quilici in the ninth.  Rick Renick pinch-hit for Perranoski in the ninth.

Oliva raised his average to .318.  Perranoski gave up one run in two-thirds of an inning and had an ERA of 2.13.

This was the first appearance by Hill since July 12.

Nettles had made his major league debut the day before, but this was where he got his first major league at-bat.  He struck out.

This was the tenth blown save for Perranoski.

Pattin had eleven complete games in 1970.  His career high was thirteen in 1972.  He had sixty-four complete games in his career, fourteen of them shutouts.  This was the first of four consecutive seasons in which he would pitch over two hundred innings.  He pitched 970.1 innings in those four years.

The loss broke the Twins' five-game winning streak.  They would next host second-place Oakland for three games.

Record:  The Twins were 83-56, in first place in the American League West, 5.5 games ahead of Oakland.