Tag Archives: Sparky Lyle

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game One Hundred Twenty-four

BOSTON 1, MINNESOTA 0 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, August 25.

Batting stars:  Danny Thompson was 2-for-4.  Tony Oliva was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Bill Zepp pitched seven shutout innings, giving up four hits and three walks and striking out three.  Ron Perranoski pitched a scoreless inning, giving up three hits.

Opposition stars:  Rico Petrocelli was 2-for-3 with a triple and a walk.  Billy Conigliaro was 2-for-3.  Tony Conigliaro was 1-for-4 with a home run, his twenty-fifth.  Vicente Romo pitched four shutout innings, giving up three hits and a walk and striking out three.  Ken Brett struck out five in four shutout innings, giving up four hits and no walks.

The game:  There were no threats in the first three innings, then each team threatened in the fourth.  With two out Petrocelli and George Scott singled and Billy Conigliaro walked, loading the bases.  Tom Satriano grounded out to end the inning.  In the bottom of the inning, Thompson led off with a single.  Oliva hit into a force out and was picked off, but reached second on an error.  Rich Reese then drew a two-out walk, but Rick Renick struck out to end the inning.

Each team again threatened in the seventh.  For Boston, Scott walked and Billy Conigliaro singled.  A bunt moved them to second and third with one out, but Scott was out at home on a fielder's choice and a ground out ended the inning.  For the Twins, Reese singled and Renick reached on an error, but a popped up bunt resulted in a double play a strikeout ended the inning.

The game's lone run scored in the eighth when Tony Conigliaro hit a two-out home run.  The Twins threatened in the ninth when Oliva led off with a single and Reese drew a one-out walk, but pinch-hitter Jim Holt hit into a double play to end the game.

WP:  Brett (4-7).

LP:  Tom Hall (6-6).

S:  Gary Wagner (3).

Notes:  Renick was in left field in place of Brant Alyea.  Alyea pinch-hit for Stan Williams in the eighth.  Frank Quilici then pinch-ran for Alyea.  Holt pinch-hit for Renick in the ninth.

Oliva was batting .321.  Zepp had an ERA of 2.94.  Hall gave up a run in two-thirds of an inning and had an ERA of 2.92.  Williams retired the only man he faced and had an ERA of 2.05.  Perranoski had an ERA of 2.39.

Romo was normally a reliever, but he was in the Red Sox rotation for about six weeks from mid-July through the end of August.  This is one of two starts in which he had a game score over fifty, which may be why Boston decided to pull him after four innings.

Brett was a starter most of his career, but he was primarily a reliever in 1970 and 1971.

Sparky Lyle was the Red Sox' closer in 1970, but he was going through a bit of a rough patch.  In his last three appearances, he had faced five batters and four of them had gotten on base (three hits and a walk), resulting in two blown saves and in him briefly being taken out of the closer role.  Wagner took his place and did well, but as soon as Boston thought Lyle was straightened out he went back to being the closer.  Wagner had a solid season in 1970, but it was his last major league season.  He developed some sort of arm problem--I could not quickly find out what--and made only ten minor league appearances in 1971, ending his playing career.

After a brief offensive resurgence, the Twins went back into a slump.  They had scored just fifteen runs in their last six games.

Record:  The Twins were 73-51, in first place in the American League West, 3.5 games ahead of California.

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game Fifty-three

BOSTON 6, MINNESOTA 4 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Saturday, June 13.

Batting stars:  Cesar Tovar was 2-for-4 with two runs.  Rich Reese was 2-for-4 with a double.  Rod Carew was 2-for-5 with a triple.

Pitching star: Stan Williams pitched two shutout innings and struck out one.

Opposition stars:  George Thomas was 3-for-4 with two doubles, a hit-by-pitch, and three runs.  Reggie Smith was 2-for-5 with two doubles.  Ray Culp pitched eight innings, giving up four runs (two earned) on nine hits and three walks and striking out three.

The game:  Thomas doubled with one out in the first, went to third on a ground out, and scored on a wild pitch to give the Red Sox a 1-0 lead.  The Twins tied it in the bottom of the first when Tovar led off with a single-plus-error, went to third on a ground out, and scored on a wild pitch.

The Twins took the lead in the second.  Paul Ratliff led off the inning with a walk.  With one out Tovar, Carew, and Oliva all singled, scoring two runs and putting them up 3-1.

It stayed 3-1 until the sixth.  Thomas led off with a double and scored on a Carl Yastrzemski single to cut the lead to 3-2.  Smith then doubled, putting men on second and third with none out.  The next two batters were retired, but Billy Conigliaro hit a two-run single to put Boston ahead 4-3.  Singles by Jerry Moses and Culp resulted in another run, making it 5-3 Red Sox.  In the seventh, George Thomas singled, Carl Yastrzemski walked, and an error scored Thomas to make it 6-3.

The Twins rallied in the ninth.  Leo Cardenas reached on an error, Ratliff singled, and Rick Renick walked, loading the bases with none out and bringing up the top of the Twins order.  Tovar hit a sacrifice fly to make it 6-4, but Carew struck out and Oliva grounded to second, ending the game.

WP:  Culp (5-6).

LP:  Jim Kaat (5-4).

S:  Sparky Lyle (9).

Notes:  We once again had Jim Holt in left and Ratliff behind the plate, replacing Brant Alyea and George Mitterwald, respectively.  Charlie Manuel and Renick were used as pinch-hitters for pitchers.

Carew was batting .372.  Oliva was 1-for-5 and was batting .330.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-3 and was batting .315.  Williams had an ERA of 2.09.

Kaat had pitched in three of the last five Twins games, starting two of them.  He again wasn't awful, but wasn't very good, either:  five innings, four runs, seven hits, no walks, no strikeouts.  I'm sure Kaat was more than willing to pitch that often, and I'm sure he said he felt fine, but it wasn't really working very well.

We tend to remember Sparky Lyle as a Yankee, but he was a fine reliever in Boston for five years before coming to New York.  As a Red Sock, he was 22-17, 2.85, 69 saves, 1.29 WHIP in 331.1 innings (160 games, all in relief).

Record:  The Twins were 35-18, in first place in the American League West, 2.5 games ahead of California.