Tag Archives: Sudden Sam McDowell

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game Twenty-seven

CLEVELAND 5, MINNESOTA 4 IN CLEVELAND

Date:  Sunday, May 10.

Batting stars:  Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-4 with a double.  Bob Allison was 2-for-4.  Leo Cardenas was 1-for-4 with a home run (his third), a walk, and two runs.

Pitching stars:  Tom Hall struck out two in 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and two walks.

Opposition stars:  Duke Sims was 2-for-4 with two home runs and three RBIs.  Sam McDowell pitched 8.1 innings, giving up four runs on nine hits and two walks and striking out eight.  He also hit a home run.

The game:  In the bottom of the first, Larry Brown reached on an error and scored on a double by Ted Uhlaender, giving the Indians a 1-0 lead.  McDowell homered leading off the third and Sims homered with one out in the fourth to make it 3-0.  Meanwhile, the Twins had only two singles through five innings and only advanced one man as far as second base.

The changed in the sixth when Cardenas got the Twins on the board with a home run.  The Twins' joy was short-lived, however, as with two out in the sixth Vada Pinson walked and Sims followed with a two-run homer, putting Cleveland up 5-1.

The Twins did try to come back.  In the eighth Cardenas walked, Killebrew singled, and Tony Oliva had an RBI single to cut the lead to 5-2.  In the ninth Allison singled, Rick Renick had a pinch-hit double, and Minnie Mendoza hit a two-run single, cutting the lead to 5-4 and putting the tying run on base with one out.  The Twins could do no more, however, and the game ended with a 5-4 score.

WP:  McDowell (4-3).

LP:  Dave Boswell (0-5).

S:  Rich Hand (2).

Notes:  Allison was at first base in place of Rich Reese.  Frank Quilici was at second in place of Rod Carew.  Mendoza went to second base in the seventh inning as part of a double switch.  Renick pinch-hit for Hall in the ninth.  Carew pinch-hit for Cesar Tovar in the ninth.  Jim Holt pinch-ran for Mendoza in the ninth.

Oliva was 1-for-3 and was batting .345.  Killebrew was batting .330.  Carew was 0-for-1 and was batting .328.  Renick was 1-for-1 and was batting .308.  Brant Alyea was 0-for-4 and was batting .308.  Tovar was 0-for-4 and was batting .300.

Mendoza was 1-for-2 and was batting .154.  Quilici was 0-for-3 and was batting .167.  Mitterwald was 0-for-4 and was batting .186.  Boswell allowed five runs (four earned) in 5.2 innings and had an ERA of 6.17.

This was only Hall's seventh game of the season.  Prior to this game, he had pitched just 1.1 innings since April 24.  I don't know if he was battling an injury, but it doesn't appear that way.  He just was not being used for some reason.

This was the second and last home run of Sam McDowell's career.  The other came in 1967.  He also had seven doubles and two triples.  His lifetime batting numbers are .154/.171/.176.

I find it odd that, with Rod Carew on the bench, Bill Rigney chose to use him in place of Tovar, rather than the light-hitting Mendoza.  Mendoza got a two-run single, so either Rigney knew something I don't or he just got lucky.

The Twins went 6-3 on their nine-game East Division road trip, taking two of three in each series.

Record:  The Twins were 18-9, in first place in the American League West, a half-game ahead of California.

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game Fifteen

CLEVELAND 5, MINNESOTA 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Monday, April 27.

Batting star:  Brant Alyea was 1-for-2 with two walks.

Pitching star:  Bill Zepp pitched four innings, giving up one run on three hits and a walk and striking out three.

Opposition stars:  Ex-Twin Ted Uhlaender was 3-for-5 with a triple and two runs.  Vada Pinson was 2-for-3 with three RBIs.  Ray Fosse was 2-for-3 with a walk.  Sam McDowell was 2-for-4 with two runs.  He also pitched a complete game, giving up one run on six hits and five walks and striking out eight.

The game:  The Indians started the scoring in the third.  McDowell and Uhlaender led off the inning with singles, a ground out advanced them, and a sacrifice fly brought home the first run.  Back-to-back RBI doubles by Tony Horton and Roy Foster made it 3-0 Cleveland.

The Twins got on the board in the fourth.  With one out, Tony Oliva tripled and scored on Alyea's single.  Rich Reese followed with another single, but the Twins could do no more and it was 3-1.  The Twins got a pair of two-out walks in the sixth, but could do nothing with those, either.

The Indians added a run in the seventh when Uhlaender tripled and scored on Pinson's two-out single.  The Twins started the eighth with a walk and an error but McDowell struck out the next three batters.  In the ninth, McDowell and Uhlaender hit one-out singles and ex-Twin Graig Nettles walked to load the bases.  A sacrifice fly brought home the game's final run.  The Twins got two on in the ninth, but again did not score.

WP:  McDowell (3-2).

LP:  Dave Boswell (0-2).

S:  None.

Notes:  Frank Quilici was again at second base in the absence of Rod Carew.  Leo Cardenas took Carew's number two spot in the lineup.

Minnie Mendoza pinch-hit for Boswell in the third.  Bob Allison pinch-hit for Zepp in the seventh.  Rick Renick pinch-hit for Tom Hall in the ninth.

Alyea was batting .395.  Oliva was 1-for-4 and was batting .338.  Cesar Tovar was 0-for-5 and was also batting .338.  Harmon Killebrew was 1-for-4 and was batting .333.  Zepp had an ERA of 2.25.  Hall gave up no runs in two-thirds of an inning and had an ERA of 2.57.

George Mitterwald was 0-for-4 and was batting .159.  Cardenas was 1-for-5 and was batting .193.  Boswell pitched three innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk and striking out two.  His ERA was 5.40.

The Twins stranded eleven runners and were 1-for-9 with men in scoring position.

We don't have pitch counts in 1970, but with five walks and eight strikeouts McDowell clearly threw a lot of pitches.  This was his fifth start and his third complete game.  He had pitched 39.1 innings to this point, and had walked 20 and struck out 40.

The Twins did not keep their "win four, lose two" streak going, as their winning streak was snapped at two games.

Record:  The Twins were 10-5, in second place in the American League West, one game behind California.