RYAN LOSES 20TH
Twins Creep to Within 3 1/2 of AL West Lead
BLOOMINGTON, Minn., Sept. 25 (AP) - Nolan Ryan faces the ignominy of being the
first major league pitcher this season to lose 20 times as the California Angels
fell to the Minnesota Twins by a score of 8-3 at Metropolitan Stadium.
With a week left in the season, the only other American League pitcher with a
realistic shot at 20 losses is Rudy May, who has dropped 19 decisions thus far
this year, split between the Yankees and Orioles. Rick Reuschel (19
losses) of the Chicago Cubs is the only National League hurler with a meaningful
chance to be tagged with 20 losses.
Ryan has suffered some difficult defeats this year. Ryan's teammates have
scored three runs or less in 26 of his 37 starts. In those contests,
Ryan's record is 5-18. Ryan's run support (2.9 R/G) is the lowest in the
AL for pitchers with at least 15 starts. Six times this year the major league
leader in strikeouts has allowed two earned runs or fewer while pitching eight
or more innings and been tagged with a defeat. On two other such occasions
he received a no-decision. It's not difficult to imagine Ryan being a
20-game winner with an average amount of run support.
This game, however, was not one of those tough losses. The Twins battered
Ryan for five runs on nine hits before he was pulled with two outs in the fifth
inning. Minnesota broke on top in the second when Lyman Bostock led off
with an infield hit, stole second base, advanced to third on Larry Hisle's deep
fly to right and trotted home with the game's first run on Butch Wynegar's
single to center.
The Twins then touched Ryan for three more runs in the third. Roy Smalley
singled with one out and moved to second when Rod Carew drew a free pass.
Bostock flied to left, with Smalley advancing to third, and it appeared that
Ryan might avoid any damage. But Hisle rolled a single into center field,
scoring Smalley and advancing Carew to third. Hisle then swiped second and
Wynegar plated both runners by slicing a double into the left field corner,
giving Minnesota a 4-0 lead.
Tony Solaita's lead-off home run in the fifth off Twins starter Dave Goltz put
the Angels on the board but the Twins got the run right back in the bottom half
of the inning, chasing Ryan in the process. With two outs, Hisle singled
to left and then stole his second base of the game. Wynegar came through
again; his RBI single plated Hisle with the fifth Minnesota run of the afternoon
and that was it for Ryan. He was replaced on the mound by Dick Drago who
yielded a base hit to Mike Cubbage before recording the third out with his team
down 5-1.
Jerry Remy's run-scoring single in the sixth cut the California deficit to three
runs and Carlos Lopez's RBI ground out in the seventh made it 5-3, but any hope
of an Angels comeback was snuffed out in the bottom of the seventh.
Bostock lined a lead-off single and stole second. Hisle popped to second
for the first out but Wynegar capped a 4-for-5 day with his fifth run batted in
when his base hit scored Bostock. Cubbage doubled Bostock to third and
Drago was replaced by John Verhoeven, who surrendered Dan Ford's sacrifice fly
and pinch hitter Tony Oliva's RBI single before finally getting out of the
inning trailing 8-3. That was the final.
While all of the attention has been cast on the battle between the first place
Oakland A's and second place Kansas City Royals in the AL West, the Twins have
won four straight games, eight of nine and 19 of their last 25. Minnesota
has quietly crept to within 3 1/2 games of first place with six contests
remaining for all of the contenders.
9/25/1976, Cal76-Min76, Metropolitan Stadium 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 1976 Angels 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 3 4 0 4 1 1976 Twins 0 1 3 0 1 0 3 0 x 8 16 0 10 0 Angels AB R H BI AVG Twins AB R H BI AVG Collins lf 4 0 1 0 .284 Braun dh 5 0 2 0 .281 Torres,R cf 0 0 0 0 .233 Smalley ss 5 1 1 0 .253 Remy 2b 4 0 1 1 .308 Carew 1b 3 1 0 0 .334 Jones,B cf 3 0 0 0 .151 Kusick ph 1 0 0 0 .258 Bochte ph 1 0 0 0 .272 Bostock cf 5 2 2 0 .309 Solaita 1b 4 1 1 1 .245 Hisle lf 5 2 3 1 .255 Guerrero dh 3 1 1 0 .327 Wynegar c 5 1 4 5 .296 Humphrey c 4 0 0 0 .203 Cubbage 3b 3 1 2 0 .264 Jackson,Ro 3b 2 0 0 0 .266 Ford rf 2 0 1 1 .269 Melton pr 1 0 0 0 .179 Randall,B 2b 3 0 0 0 .313 Lopez rf 3 0 0 1 .000 Oliva ph 1 0 1 1 .200 Stanton rf 0 0 0 0 .202 Terrell pr 0 0 0 0 .227 Chalk ss 2 1 0 0 .234 38 8 16 8 31 3 4 3 Angels INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Ryan L 12-20 4.2 9 5 5 2 1 88 49 3.23 Drago 1.2 4 3 3 0 0 41 27 4.09 Verhoeven 1.2 3 0 0 0 1 21 16 3.82 8.0 16 8 8 2 2 150 92 Twins INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Goltz W 16-14 6.2 4 3 3 1 5 88 55 3.36 Johnson,To H 3 0.1 0 0 0 0 1 4 3 1.74 Hughes 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 6 3 4.50 Campbell 1.0 0 0 0 1 0 14 6 2.48 9.0 4 3 3 2 6 112 67 Cal: Melton ran for Jackson,Ro in the 7th Melton moved to 3b in the 7th Bochte batted for Jones,B in the 8th Torres,R inserted at cf in the 8th Bochte moved to lf in the 8th Stanton inserted at rf in the 8th Min: Oliva batted for Randall,B in the 7th Terrell ran for Oliva in the 7th Terrell moved to 2b in the 8th Kusick batted for Carew in the 8th Kusick moved to 1b in the 9th 2B-Wynegar(27), Cubbage(19). HR-Solaita(5). RBI-Remy(46), Solaita(32), Lopez(1), Hisle(70), Wynegar 5(80), Ford(89), Oliva(11). SB-Bostock 2(9), Hisle 2(34). K-Remy, Jones,B 2, Solaita, Lopez, Chalk, Carew, Wynegar. BB-Guerrero, Chalk, Carew, Cubbage. SF-Ford. HBP-Jackson,Ro, Ford. HB-Drago, Goltz. WP-Goltz. GWRBI: Wynegar Ron Jackson was ejected from this game Temperature: 66, Sky: cloudy, Wind: in from left at 13 MPH. Attendance: 12,408 Game Time: 2:52