MINNESOTA 9, OAKLAND 8 IN OAKLAND
Date: Tuesday, April 14.
Batting stars: Dan Gladden was 3-for-5 with two runs and an RBI. Roy Smalley was 2-for-5 with a double and a stolen base, scoring twice and driving in one. Tom Nieto was 2-for-5 with a double, scoring once and driving in two.
Pitching star: Keith Atherton pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, walking one and striking out one.
Opposition stars: Terry Steinbach was 1-for-2 with a two-run homer and two walks, scoring twice. Jose Canseco was 3-for-5 with a two-run homer and a stolen base. Reggie Jackson was 2-for-5 with two doubles and two runs.
The game: The Twins had three doubles in a five-run fourth that gave them a 7-0 lead. Starter Mark Portugal couldn't make it out of the bottom of the fourth, yielding four runs on four hits, two of them homers. A two-run double by Gary Gaetti made it 9-4 in the top of the sixth, but again the Athletics responded, scoring three in the bottom of the sixth. With the score 9-7, Jeff Reardon came on in the eighth to try for a two-inning save. He retired the side with no problem in the eighth, but Mike Davis homered leading off the bottom of the ninth. Tony Phillips followed with a single, but Reardon retired the next three batters to preserve the victory.
Of note: Gladden was now batting .438. Al Newman, playing second base, went 1-for-3 to raise his average to .313. Kirby Puckett took an 0-for-3 to drop his average to .452. Smalley raised his average to .360. Greg Gagne was 2-for-4 to raise his average to .318. Randy Bush played right field in place of Tom Brunansky and went 1-for-5.
Record: The Twins were 6-2, in first place by a game over California.
Notes: Joe Klink pitched two innings in this game, one of his twelve appearances as a Twin. He pitched in five major league seasons spread over ten years. One of them was actually pretty good: He posted a 2.04 ERA in forty games for Oakland in 1990. His career numbers are better than you might think: 10-6, 3 saves, a 4.26 ERA. He had a stretch of ninety consecutive appearances without giving up a home run, the most by a left-hander since at least 1957.
The mental image I have of Mark Portugal comes from his '87 Topps card, where he sits in the dugout, wearing a jacket and no cap, looking worsted & distant. That seems to match his last two starts.
The next year Topps used a photo of him in the dugout again, this time looking a bit more engaged, perhaps even happy.
I knew he played for the Astros and had a couple decent years in Houston, but I completely forgot he was active as late as 1999. I definitely wouldnt' have guessed his rWAR total.
Ninja edit: Portugal in action!
httpv://youtu.be/S6IWHjRv0l8
Like that?
Exactly that!
My memory was of the Twins at one point trying to convert him to closer. However, the only year he had more than 1 save was in '88 when Reardon was the closer. Portugal did finish 7 games in '86 with 1 save, so maybe that's what I'm remembering. He did finish the game in his final 4 appearances in '86, which was when TK was the interim manager, so that might have been one of the changes he made. He Who Shall Not Be Named was traded in August to the Cubs (for a package that included George Frazier), so there was no true closer on the roster until the Twins traded for Reardon in the offseason.
There was no true closer before that trade as well.