MINNESOTA 4, WASHINGTON 3 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Friday, August 21.
Batting stars: Jim Holt was 2-for-2. Cesar Tovar was 2-for-4 with two triples and two runs. Tom Tischinski was 1-for-3 with a home run.
Pitching stars: Bert Blyleven struck out seven in six innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and two walks. Stan Williams pitched three shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out two.
Opposition star: Ed Stroud was 3-for-4 with a walk.
The game: The Senators opened the game with two singles but did not score. In the second, however, Ed Brinkman singled and Paul Casanova tripled to give Washington a 1-0 lead. They had a man on third with none out, but did not score him. They added a run in third, though, when Mike Epstein tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly. The got one more run in the fourth when Tim Cullen doubled and scored on Stroud's single.
The Twins got on the board in the bottom of the fourth when Tovar tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly. They tied it in the sixth when Holt singled, Tovar hit an RBI triple, and Danny Thompson had a run-scoring single. Tischinski homered in the seventh to give the Twins the lead at 4-3.
And that was it. The Senators got only one hit after the fourth inning, a leadoff single by Stroud in the seventh. He was bunted to second, but remained there. Well, he's probably not there any more, but you know what I mean.
WP: Williams (8-0).
LP: Casey Cox (7-9).
S: None.
Notes: Thompson was again at second base in place of Rod Carew. Tischinski was behind the plate in place of George Mitterwald. Holt pinch-hit for Blyleven in the sixth and stayed in the game in center field, with Tovar moving to left and Brant Alyea coming out of the game. Frank Quilici pinch-ran for Harmon Killebrew in the eighth and stayed in the game at second base, with Thompson moving to third.
Tony Oliva was 1-for-4 and was batting .320. Williams had an ERA of 2.06.
Tischinski was batting .182.
There were four triples in the game, which I'm sure is nowhere near the record but still seems noteworthy, given the number of games in which you don't even see one. Tovar led the league in triples in 1970 with 13, nearly twice his next-highest season total (7 in 1967). He also led the league in doubles with 36,
This was Tischinski's only major league home run. At least it was a game-winner. He hit only eleven home runs in the minors, with six of them coming in 1963 with Class A Rocky Mount.
Record: The Twins were 73-48, in first place in the American League West, six games ahead of California.