Tag Archives: Marty Pattin

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game One Hundred Thirty-nine

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.

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game One Hundred Thirty-three

MILWAUKEE 8, MINNESOTA 3 IN MILWAUKEE

Date:  Thursday, September 3.

Batting stars:  Cesar Tovar was 3-for-4 with a triple.  Brant Alyea was 1-for-1 with a two-run homer, his twelfth.

Pitching stars:  None.

Opposition stars:  Roberto Pena was 3-for-4 with a two-run homer (his third), a double, and two runs.  Mike Hegan was 2-for-2 with a double, a stolen base (his eighth), two walks, and three runs.  Dave May was 2-for-4.  Phil Roof was 1-for-3 with a three-run homer (his tenth) and two walks.

The game:  The Brewers started the scoring in the second.  With one out, Hegan singled, Pena doubled, and Roof walked, loading the bases.  All they could get out of it was one run, on a Ted Kubiak single, but it gave Milwaukee a 1-0 lead.

The Brewers took control of the game in the fifth.  Tommy Harper led off with a walk and was bunted to second.  May singled him home and took second on the throw to the plate.  Following a ground out Hegan was intentionally walked, Pena hit an RBI single, and Roof hit a three-run homer, putting Milwaukee up 6-0.

The Twins did try to come back.  In the sixth Tovar tripled and scored on a ground out to get them on the board.  In the seventh, Rich Reese hit a one-out single and, with two out, Alyea hit a pinch-hit two-run homer to cut the lead to 6-3.

But that was as good as it got.  In the bottom of the seventh Hegan hit a two-out double and Pena followed with a two-run homer, making it 8-3.  The Twins got a pair of one-out singles in the eighth, but that was it.

WP:  Marty Pattin (11-11).

LP:  Bill Zepp (7-4).

S:  Ken Sanders (7).

Notes:  Danny Thompson remained at second base in place of Rod Carew.  Steve Brye was in left field in place of Alyea.  Jim Holt went to center in fifth as part of a double switch, with Tovar moving to left and Brye coming out of the game.  Alyea pinch-hit for Stan Williams in the seventh.  Charlie Manuel pinch-hit for Jim Kaat in the ninth.

Tony Oliva was 0-for-4 and was batting .311.  Williams gave up one run in 1.1 innings and had an ERA of 2.16.

It was the major league debut for Brye.  He'd batted .308 with an OPS of .849 in AA Charlotte.  He was, of course, a September call-up.  He was often mixed up with Steve Braun, who was with the Twins for most of the time Brye was.

Oliva was in a 2-for-26 slump over his last seven games.  His average fell from .323 to .311.

Zepp started for the Twins and pitched 4.2 innings, giving up five runs on five hits and five walks and striking out two.

Following three sub-par starts, the last of which was August 28, Kaat was sent to the bullpen.  He would both start and relieve the rest of the season.  Here, he pitched two innings, giving up two runs on three hits and a walk and striking out two.

Marty Pattin was one of the stars of "Ball Four", pitching in the Seattle Pilots rotation for most of the 1969 season.  He wasn't very good then, but he a solid rotation starter from 1970-1973 for Milwaukee and Boston.  He both started and relieved the rest of his career, a career that lasted until 1980.  He was 114-109 for his career, with a 3.62 ERA and a 1.44 WHIP.  He made one all-star team, with the Brewers in 1971.  He appeared in 475 games, starting 224 of them, and pitched 2038.2 innings.  He clearly isn't worth of the Hall of Fame or anything, but for most of his thirteen year career he was a guy you were happy to have on your team.

Record:  The Twins were 78-55, in first place in the American League West, three games ahead of California.

 

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game One Hundred One

MINNESOTA 2, MILWAUKEE 1 IN MINNESOTA (GAME 1 OF DOUBLEHEADER)

Date:  Monday, August 3.

Batting stars:  Danny Thompson was 3-for-4 with a double.  Rich Reese was 2-for-3 with a double, a walk, and two RBIs.

Pitching stars:  Jim Perry pitched eight innings, giving up one run on five hits and no walks and striking out six.  Tom Hall struck out three in a scoreless inning, giving up a walk.

Opposition stars:  Jerry McNertney was 2-for-3.  Marty Pattin pitched an eight inning complete game, giving up two runs on seven hits and four walks and striking out five.

The game:  There was no score until the fifth, when Roberto Pena singled, stole second, and scored on McNertney's single.  The Twins tied it in the sixth when Thompson hit a one-out single, Harmon Killebrew drew a two-out walk, and Reese followed with an RBI double.

The Twins wasted George Mitterwald's leadoff double in the seventh.  In the eighth, however, Thompson led off with a double and scored on a Reese two-out RBI single to give the Twins their first lead of the game.  Hall came in to retire the Brewers in the ninth and preserve the victory.

WP:  Perry (16-9).

LP:  Pattin (7-9).

S:  Hall (3).

Notes:  Thompson remained at second base in place of Rod Carew.  Jim Holt was in left in place of Brant Alyea.  Jim Kaat pinch-ran for Mitterwald in the seventh, with Tom Tischinski going in to catch in the eighth.

Tony Oliva was 1-for-4 and was batting .326.  Perry was 0-for-2 and was batting .306.  Killebrew was 0-for-2 and was batting .304.  Cesar Tovar was 0-for-4 and was batting .301.  Hall had an ERA of 2.71.

Without going back through the box scores, I couldn't find out how many times Kaat was used as a pinch-runner.  It was more than a few times, however.

It's interesting that Bill Rigney went with Hall to close out a 2-1 game.  First, it's surprising to me that Perry didn't finish the game--he had given up just a single in the seventh and had retired the side in order in the eighth.  Having decided to go to the pen, the choice of Hall was probably influenced by the fact that Ron Perranoski and Stan Williams had each pitched in three consecutive games.  It certainly worked out.

Pattin threw eleven complete games in 1970.  That was only good for tenth in the league.  Mike Cuellar led the league with twenty-one.

Thompson had six multi-hit games in his last seven starts.  He went 14-for-27 in those starts and raised his average from .200 to .282.

Record:  The Twins were 65-36, in first place in the American League West, 7.5 games ahead of California, which had regained second place from Oakland.