MILWAUKEE 4, MINNESOTA 3 IN MILWAUKEE
Date: Tuesday, June 23.
Batting star: George Mitterwald was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his fifth.
Pitching stars: Bert Blyleven struck out seven in six innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on eight hits and a walk.
Opposition stars: Phil Roof was 2-for-3 with a home run, his sixth. Roberto Pena was 2-for-4. Bobby Bolin pitched seven innings, giving up three runs on five hits and four walks and striking out three. Dave Baldwin struck out two in two perfect innings.
The game: The Twins loaded the bases in the second inning but did not score. In the bottom of the second, Dave May singled, went to second on a passed ball, and scored on Pena's single to give the Brewers a 1-0 lead.
The Twins put two on with one out in the third but again did not score. They got on the board in the fifth, as Cesar Tovar doubled and scored on a Jim Holt single. The Twins took the lead in the sixth when Bob Allison singled and Mitterwald hit a two-out two-run homer, making it 3-1 MInnesota.
The Brewers had two on in the fifth and again in the sixth but did not score. Roof homered leading off the seventh to cut the lead to 3-2. It was still 3-2 in the ninth. Roof was hit by a pitch with one out and Tommy Harper walked with two out. Ron Perranoski then came in to face pinch-hitter Gus Gil. Gil hit a double to left, scoring both runners, and Milwaukee took the win, 4-3.
WP: Baldwin (2-0).
LP: Tom Hall (2-2).
S: None.
Notes: Holt was again in right in place of Tony Oliva. Allison was again in left in place of Brant Alyea. Frank Quilici was at second base in place of Rod Carew. So as not to spoiler it, I haven't checked if Bill Rigney continued to use the light-hitting Quilici to replace Carew or if he went a different direction. We'll see as the series goes on. With Quilici in the starting lineup, Rigney did not use a defensive replacement for Harmon Killebrew at third base.
Killebrew was 0-for-3 and was batting .301. Hall gave up two runs in 2.2 innings and had an ERA of 2.70.
Quilici was 0-for-3 and was batting .172.
The Brewers used six pinch-hitters in the game: Ted Savage, Gil, Danny Walton, Mike Hershberger, Tito Francona, and Jerry McNertney. They also used a pinch-runner, Max Alvis. I miss the days when teams had enough bench players that they could do stuff like that.
With the recent election, the 1970 Twins had five Hall-of-Famers: Blyleven, Carew, Kaat, Killebrew, and Oliva. I'm sure that's nowhere near the record, but it's still impressive.
The Twins were now 2-3 on their eleven-game road trip.
Record: The Twins were 40-22, in first place in the American League West, 4.5 games ahead of California.