Don Wilson - April 11, 1971

April 11, 1971 vs Chicago Cubs (Bill Hands)

In this game both pitchers performed well only to see their respective bullpens falter, When it was all over, the Cubs pen sucked a little less than the Astros pen and they win 7-5.


Wilson got off to a rough start allowing the  Cubs to turn three first inning walks into two runs. He righted himself and then retired 20 of 21 during one stretch before the Cubs added a single run in the eighth. Hands was even better and shut out the Astros until allowing single runs in the sixth and seventh,

Then the bullpens came on and mucked it up. First, Bill Bonham and Phil Regan combined to give up three runs to the Astros in the bottom of the eighth. Fred Gladding gave the two run lead right back in the top of the ninth, so we head off to extra innings tied 5-5. 

Apparently not to be out done by Gladding, Jim Ray coughed up to two more runs in top of the tenth. Ray made an error on the lead off hitter Ron Santo before eventually giving up a two run single by Joe Pepitone. The Astros had runners on first and third in the bottom of the tenth, but Rich Thompkins worked out of that jam to get the Save.

Bob Watson had three RBI for the Astros.


                           R  H  E
Cubs     200 000 012 2  -  7  9  0
Astros   000 001 130 0  -  5  11 2

W  - Phil Regan       L - Jim Ray
Sv - Rich Thompkins

Home Run - Bob Watson (Hou)


Wilson's line   IP  H  R  ER SO  BB
                 8  4  3  3   4   4