TORONTO 8, MINNESOTA 1 IN TORONTO
Date: Wednesday, April 29.
Batting stars: Tom Brunansky was 1-for-2 with a walk and a run. Greg Gagne was 1-for-3 with a double and an RBI. Kirby Puckett was 2-for-4.
Pitching star: Juan Berenguer pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two hits and striking out one.
Opposition stars: Joe Johnson pitched 7.1 innings, giving up one run on three hits and three walks with no strikeouts. Ernie Whitt was 1-for-2 with a two-run homer and two walks, scoring twice. Lloyd Moseby was 2-for-4 with a home run (his second) and two RBIs.
The game: It was only 2-0 through six, but the Blue Jays started the seventh with an error, an RBI double by Willie Upshaw, and Whitt's two-run homer to go ahead 5-0. The Twins got their lone run in the eighth on a Greg Gagne double, but Toronto scored three more in the eighth to put the game out of reach.
Of note: Puckett raised his average to .354...Mike Smithson started and pitched six innings. As you can see above, he did better than his line would indicate, but the totals are five runs (four earned) on six hits and two walks.
Record: The Twins were 12-9 but remained a half game ahead of California.
Notes: Randy Bush was again in right, with Brunansky in left and Gladden on the bench...Bush batted in the second spot, with Steve Lombardozzi leading off...You can be forgiven in you don't remember Joe Johnson. He was a big leaguer for three seasons, 1985-87. He was drafted by Atlanta in the second round in 1982. He did well in AA, but did not accomplish much in AAA until 1985, when he made nine starts and produced excellent numbers. He was promoted to Atlanta in late July, and while he didn't set the league on fire he did not do badly for a twenty-three-year-old rookie. In 1986 he had two consecutive outings of eight shutout innings in mid-May, but other than that he didn't do much and was traded to Toronto around the fourth of July. He did well in the second half for the Blue Jays and did okay in April but poorly after that. He would have only one more good start after this, against Seattle on the first of June. By the end of June he was in AAA and never made it back to the majors. Wikipedia says it was thought at the time that he would be down for a brief time to work on his mechanics, but that's obviously not how it turned out. He continued pitching in AAA through 1990, then retired.
Berenguer, effectively the #2 man in the 'pen, entered at the top of the seventh with the Twins down 4-1. Tom Henke pitched two-thirds of the ninth with an 8-1 lead. Both strike me as unlikely to happen in an April game today.
Looking at the pitching lines in the box score, Atherton gave up 3 unearned runs in the eighth. Jesse Barfield earned a one-out walk, then attempted a steal of second. The play-by-play lists "Barfield Caught Stealing, Safe on E6, Barfield to 3B." Atherton struck out Willie Upshaw, the issued an intentional walk to Ernie Whitt (roughly a career 97 OPS+ at that point) to set up the double play to face the rookie hitting eighth. That rookie's name was Fred McGriff. McGriff laced a double to left, scoring Barfield. Whitt, the Jays' catcher, motored into third, perhaps an indicator of the placement of the hit, his two-out jump, or disrespect for Bruno's arm. Mike Sharperson, another rookie, smoked his only triple of the year (and one of his five career triples) to right, plating Whitt & McGriff. Somehow, McGriff's run was credited as unearned.
Was this back in the hey-day of Toronto totally dominating the Twins?
I thought we were still in it.
1982: 7-5
1983: 7-5
1984: 11-1
1985: 8-4
1986: 8-4
1987: 9-3
1988: 5-7
1989: 3-9
1990: 9-3
1991: 8-4
1992: 7-5
1993: 10-2
Then again, the Blue Jays dominated a lot of teams from 1983-1993.
Don't forget the Jays' 1-4 record vs. the Twins in the series when it counted most.
As this is the last game in April for the Twins, here are the standings through April 30, courtesy of BR.
AL West Division
Also interesting is the record after this date. The Twins good start helped here.
Notable April 1987 debuts:
Lloyd McClendon (CIN), Joey Cora (SD), B. J. Surhoff (MIL), Matt Williams (SF), Les Straker (MN), Tom Pagnozzi (StL), Luis Pologna (OAK), Joe Magrane (StL), Ellis Burks (BOS)
Notable April 1987 retirements:
Bill Campbell (15 years, 1 ASG, 12.6 rWAR)
I like how in 1987, the the 4th place team in the AL East would have won the West. But in 1991, the West had no losing teams.
MLB Batting Leaders (min. 400 PA for 1987 season & 80 PA in April)
MLB Pitching Leaders (min. 30 G in 1987; plus 20 IP for SP, 10 IP for RP in April)
Señor Smoke was just a tick behind Lee Smith in K/9 at 15.2 through April.
10 tied with two CG end of April; nowadays two would probably be the lead at the AS break.
Twins Batting Leaders (min. 300 PA for 1987 season & 80 PA in April)
Twins Pitching Leaders (min. 30 G in 1987; plus 20 IP for SP, 10 IP for RP in April)