Darn you, Cesar Tovar; taking 3 of 4 from the Twins
Yes, I’m stealing this story from my book, “Tales from Orioles Nation.” And no shame of taking 3 out of 4 from the Twins. That’s a good thing.
Now on to more one-hitters. And for this story, we need to look at the career of long-time Minnesota Twins infielder Cesar Tovar. He was a lifetime .278 hitter in a 12-year career. I didn’t even know that he passed away back in 1994 at the age of 54.
Now Tovar also plays a small a role in O’s history. He not only broke up one, but two O’s no-hitters in the ninth inning in the same baseball season. The first time came on May 15, 1969 at old Metropolitan Stadium in Minnesota. The game would feature the two teams that would match up in the first ever American League playoffs.
A pair of lefties would pitch this game. It was Jim Katt for the Twins and Dave McNally for the Brids. A two-run triple off the bat of catcher Andy Etchebarren gave Baltimore a quick 2-0 in the second. In the meantime, McNally was breezing. Only two baserunners had reached heading into the ninth inning. And both of those runners reached on a base on balls.
McNally took his no-hitter to the ninth. He struck out pinch-hitter George Mitterwald to open the festivities in the night. And then Tovar singled. McNally went to 6-0 on the season with this one-hit shutout.
It’s three months later and that same Twins team with the likes of Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva is visiting Baltimore. On this Sunday, the Orioles have almost clinched the division leading the AL East by 14.5 games. The Twins are in a tougher fight in the AL West leading Oakland by 1.5 games.
Jim Perry, who would start the first AL playoff game against the O’s was a 13-game winner heading to this Sunday night contest. Mike Cuellar, a 14-game winner, would pitch for the home team. The game was scoreless until the fourth when Boog Powell went deep for the 31st time that season. Recall it was Powell who would hit a game-tying homer off Perry in that first game of the AL playoffs.
In the seventh, Ellie Hendricks played long ball with Perry and it was 2-0. And Cuellar was breezing. He headed to the ninth with his no-hitter alive. And leading off the ninth was that Cesar Tovar. And yes, Tovar broke up the no-no. Cuellar added a one-hitter to his baseball resume.
So we began the series with lowly Twins on Friday night at Camden Yards. And we did nothing offensively until the fourth. Two hit batters and a bases loaded walk to JJ Hardy got us on the board. And don’t hit our batters, you hear me.
Chris Davis’ grand slam homer broke this one open. It was a 9-1 romp. Miguel Gonzalez breezed to his seventh win. Delmon Young added a two-run shot.
Saturday’s game was a little tougher. Again the Birds struck in the fourth. The newest Bird, Johnny Paredes broke a scoreless game with a run-scoring double. The next inning, he cracked a homer. Davis’ drove in the game-winner in the seventh with a sacrifice fly. It was a 3-2 win.
Sunday’s game was kind of fun. I think we fell just short of a cycle of homers. Nelson Cruz had the solo shot. Ryan Flaherty had the 3-run shot. And Hardy added the grand slam. It was a 12-8 win.
Labor Day’s game had its moments as well. Trailing late, we got a three-run homer from Nick Hundley but for once our bullpen didn’t lock it down. So we fell, 6-4.
Oh, yeah and find this book at: http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/bill-pemstein/tales-from-orioles-nation/paperback/product-21757959.html
