CLEVELAND 4, MINNESOTA 3 IN CLEVELAND

Date:  Tuesday, May 19.

Batting stars:  Kent Hrbek was 2-for-3 with a walk.  Tom Brunansky was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI.  Gary Gaetti was 1-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.

Pitching star:  Les Straker pitched 5.1 innings, giving up two runs on four hits and five walks with three strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Ex-Twin Ken Schrom pitched a complete game, giving up three runs on seven hits and two walks with two strikeouts.  Cory Snyder was 1-for-2 with a two-run homer, his sixth.  Joe Carter was 1-for-3 with a home run (his seventh) and a walk.

The game:  Gaetti's two-run double in the first gave the Twins a 2-0 lead.  It was 3-2 Twins going to the bottom of the ninth.  Jeff Reardon was not summoned.  Rather, Mark Portugal, who had entered the game with two out in the sixth, remained to pitch the ninth.  Chris Bando singled, Brett Butler struck out, and Snyder hit a two-run homer to win the game for the Clevelands.

Of note:  Kirby Puckett was 1-for-4 with a run and was batting .322...Tim Laudner was 0-for-3 and was batting .073.

Record:  The Twins were 19-19, tied with Oakland for fourth place, four games behind Kansas City.  No one in the Twins' division would have a winning record from this game forward, with Oakland doing the best at an even .500 (62-62).

Notes:  Al Newman again played shortstop in place of Greg Gagne...Randy Bush was again in right field, with Brunansky in left and Dan Gladden on the bench...This was one of four complete games by Schrom, who was in his last year in the majors.

Player profile:  I remember Cory Snyder as a better player than he apparently was.  That may be because of his fine rookie season, 1986, when he hit .272 with a .500 slugging percentage and 24 home runs.  He only had an OBP of .299, but people didn't worry so much about such things back then.  He would set a career high in home runs in 1987 with 33, but his best year was the one which followed, 1988.  He hit .272/.326/.483 with 26 home runs, topping an .800 OPS for the first time in his career at .810.  It was also the last time he topped .800 in OPS, as his career dropped off sharply after that.  He hit only .215 and .233 in the next two seasons and was traded to the White Sox after the 1990 campaign.  He bounced around after that, playing for Toronto, San Francisco, and the Dodgers, and also playing in the minors with Boston and San Diego, before his career came to an end after the 1995 season.  He did have one more good season, with the Giants in 1992, but it was nothing to get too excited about.  He had hit 83 home runs through age twenty-five, in three seasons, but hit only 66 after that.  His career numbers are .247/.291/.425 with 149 homers.  He has stayed in baseball as a minor league manager and coach and was the manager of Puebla in the Mexican League in 2016, managing them to the Mexican League championship.