MINNESOTA 3, BOSTON 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Friday, May 15.

Batting stars:  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-3 with a two-run homer (his ninth) and a walk.  Steve Lombardozzi was 2-for-4 with a double and a run.  Dan Gladden was 1-for-4 with a run.

Pitching stars:  Juan Berenguer started and pitched eight shutout innings, giving up one run on three hits and a walk with four strikeouts.  George Frazier pitched a perfect inning with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Bruce Hurst pitched a complete game, giving up three runs on seven hits and one walk with five strikeouts.  Wade Boggs was 1-for-4 with a home run, his fifth.

The game:  Boggs homered in the top of the fourth, but two singles and a sacrifice fly tied it in the bottom of the fourth.  Berenguer was brilliant.  Other than the Boggs homer all he gave up was a two-out single in the second, a two-out single in the fourth, and a leadoff walk in the seventh, none of whom got past first base.  In the ninth, Lombardozzi led off with a single and Puckett followed with a walkoff home run.

Of note:  Puckett was now batting .326...Tim Laudner was 0-for-3 and was now batting .056.

Record:  The Twins were 18-17, in fourth place, 1.5 games behind Kansas City.  Only six games separated the first and last place teams in the division.

Notes:  Mark Davidson started in right field, with Tom Brunansky at DH...Laudner started at first base in place of Kent Hrbek.  Hrbek was apparently just given a day off, as he played in the game prior to this one and would play in the next game.  The Twins would soon call up Gene Larkin to be the reserve first baseman.  Tom Nieto was the catcher...Berenguer would make six starts for the Twins in 1987.  In those starts, he went 2-0, 2.92, 1.30 WHIP.  Given how the Twins were looking for fourth and fifth starters all year, it's somewhat surprising Berenguer wasn't given more a look in the rotation.  One can only assume Tom Kelly thought that he was more valuable in the bullpen, and I don't mean to imply that I think he was wrong.

Player profile:  Bruce Hurst was never a big star--he made only one all-star team--but he was a solid rotation starter for ten seasons.  Born and raised in St. George, Utah, he was drafted by Boston with the twenty-second pick in 1976.  He got brief callups in 1980 and 1981, coming to the majors to stay in 1982.  He didn't do a lot that year, but he went into the rotation 1983 and didn't leave it until 1992.  His won-lost records are nothing to shout about, with the exception of 1988, but he consistently had a better-than-average ERA, made over thirty starts, and pitched more than two hundred innings.  He finished fifth in Cy Young voting in 1988, when he went 18-6, 3.66, 1.33 WHIP, and also finished fourteenth in MVP voting that year.  Other than his won-lost record, though, there's nothing in his numbers for that season that's out of line with what he did for most of his career.  He cashed in on that won-lost record, though, becoming a free agent after 1988 and signing with San Diego.  He continued to pitch well through 1992, then had injury problems.  He made only five starts in 1993, two with the Padres and three with Colorado, to whom he was traded in late July.  He was again a free agent after that season and signed with Texas, but made only eight starts for them and then was done.  He has done some coaching in China, coaching their entry in both the Asian Baseball Championship and the World Baseball Classic.  The baseball field at Dixie State University in his hometown of St. George is named after him.  His son Kyle pitched in the Angels organization from 2008-2012 but made only three appearances above Class A.  He'll never make the Hall of Fame, but for ten years he was a valuable guy to have on your team.