TORONTO 16, MINNESOTA 4 IN TORONTO

Date:  Thursday, May 14.

Batting stars:  Kent Hrbek was 1-for-2 with a home run (his fifth) and a walk.  Roy Smalley was 2-for-4 with a double and a run.

Pitching stars:  None.

Opposition stars:  Lloyd Moseby was 4-for-4 with a home run (his fifth), a double, and a stolen base (his eighth), scoring three times and driving in four.  Tony Fernandez was 3-for-4 with two doubles and a walk, scoring three times and driving in four.  Ernie Whitt was 4-for-6 with two doubles and two runs.

The game:  It was tied 2-2 after three and the Twins only trailed 5-2 after five, but a five-run sixth put the game out of reach.

Of note:  Kirby Puckett was 1-for-4 with an RBI, dropping his average to .319.  Tim Laudner was 0-for-2 and dropped his average to .061.  Les Straker pitched four innings and allowed five runs on seven hits and a walk with two strikeouts.  Dave Steib pitched 5.2 innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on four hits and four walks with one strikeout.

Record:  The Twins were 17-17, in fourth place, two games behind Seattle.  Only 3.5 games separated the top six teams in the division.

Notes:  Al Newman started at shortstop rather than Greg Gagne...Randy Bush started in right field, with Tom Brunansky in left and Dan Gladden on the bench...The Twins used four pitchers, with each giving up at least three runs.  Keith Atherton pitched one inning and gave up four runs, Allan Anderson pitched 1.1 innings and gave up four runs, and George Frazier pitched 2.2 innings and gave up three runs.

Player profile:  Outfielder Lloyd Moseby was taken by Toronto with the second pick of the 1978 draft.  He played in Class A in 1979, played 37 games of AAA in 1980, and then found himself in the majors at age twenty.  In his first three seasons, he batted .233 with an OPS of .651.  In 1983, however, he put it together, batting .315/.376/.499 and winning a silver slugger award.  He also stole 27 bases.  That was his best season, but he continued to play well through 1987, twice getting MVP consideration and making an all-star team.  He fell off after that, having a down season in 1988 and a worse one in 1989.  He became a free agent after that, signed with Detroit, and played for them for two years before going to Japan for two more seasons.  His final numbers were .257/.332/.414 with 169 homers and 280 stolen bases.  He coached for the Blue Jays for a couple of years in the late '90s.  At last report he was doing some public relations work for the team.