After an injury-plagued season in , Tiant was traded to the Minnesota Twins in a multi-player deal that brought fellow pitcher Dean Chance and third baseman Graig Nettles to the Indians. With Minnesota, Tiant began with six wins, but then he fractured his right scapula, essentially ending his season and, some felt, his career. He showed some promise in the spring training, but he was released. Boston Red Sox The Braves signed him to a minor league contract to play with their Triple-A Richmond, where he pitched well, and was acquired by the Louisville Colonels, a farm team of the Boston Red Sox. Tiant reinvented himself as a pitcher by altering his delivery so that he turned away from home plate during his motion, in effect creating a hesitation pitch. According to Tiant, the new motion was a response to a drop in his velocity due to a shoulder blade injury. Twisting and turning his body into unthinkable positions, Tiant would spend more time looking at second base than he did the plate as he prepared to throw. He was quickly called back up to the majors, and struggled through 1971 with a 1–7 record and 4.88 ERA. Tiant regained his old form in with a 15–6 record and led the league with a 1.91 ERA. He would win 20 games in and 22 in en route to becoming known as El Tiante at Fenway Park, , he would soon become one of the greatest and most beloved pitchers in Red Sox history and an idol in Boston. Though hampered by back problems in , he won 18 games for the American League Champion Red Sox, then excelled for Boston in the postseason. In the playoffs he bested the three-time defending World Champion Oakland Athletics, allowing only three hits in a 7–1 complete-game victory, then opened the World Series against The Big Red Machine Cincinnati Reds. His father and mother, having been allowed to visit from Cuba under a special visa, were in Fenway Park that game to watch their son defeat the Reds 6–0 in a five-hit shutout. Tiant won Game 4 as well (throwing 173 pitches in his second complete game in the series) and had a no-decision in Game 6, which has been called the greatest game ever played, after Carlton Fisk's dramatic game-winning walk-off home run in the 12th inning. Tiant went 21–12 in , 12–8