MINNESOTA 7, DETROIT 5 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Saturday, May 23.

Batting stars:  Tom Brunansky was 3-for-4 with a walk and three runs.  Kent Hrbek was 2-for-3 with a home run (his seventh) and two walks.  Gary Gaetti was 2-for-5 with a home run, his tenth.

Pitching star:  Jeff Reardon struck out three in 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Lou Whitaker was 3-for-4 with a home run (his seventh) and three runs.  Kirk Gibson was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer (his third) and a walk.  Larry Herndon was 2-for-2 with a walk and two RBIs.

The game:  The Twins scored two in the second and one in each of innings three through five to take a 5-1 lead.  Larry Herndon singled in two in the sixth to cut it to 5-3, but the Twins got the two runs back in the seventh to make it 7-3.  Kirk Gibson hit a two-run homer in the eighth, cutting the lead to 7-5 and bringing Reardon into the game.  He struck out the first two batters he faced and gave up only a two-out single in the ninth to preserve the win.

Of note:  Kirby Puckett was 1-for-5 with an RBI and was batting .329...Allan Anderson pitched 5.2 innings, giving up three runs on six hits and four walks with one strikeout...Walt Terrell started for Detroit and pitched 6.1 innings, allowing seven runs (six earned) on eleven hits and five walks with seven strikeouts.

Record:  The Twins were 21-21, tied for second with California and Seattle, 3.5 games behind Kansas City.

Notes:  Tim Laudner stole second in the fifth inning of this game.  It was his only steal of the season and the second of his career to this point.  He would have just one more, in 1989.  He was 3-for-6 in base stealing for his career.

Player profile:  Some people say Lou Whitaker belongs in the Hall of Fame.  I don't know about that, but he was a very good player for a very long time.  He came up as a September callup in 1977 and stayed for the next eighteen seasons.  He was Rookie of the Year in 1978, batting .285 with an OBP of .361.  He made the all-star team five times (each season from 1983-87), won three Gold Gloves, and won four Silver Slugger awards.  He hit double-digit home runs eleven seasons in a row and thirteen of fourteen.  He never led the league in anything except games played, in 1981, but he was consistently a good performer all his career.  Even in his last two seasons, 1994-95, when he was a part-time player, he batted around .300 with an OPS of well over .850.  Five of his top ten similarity scores at b-r.com are Hall of Famers:  Ryne Sandberg, Roberto Alomar, Joe Morgan, Joe Torre, and Barry Larkin.  A sixth is his long-time teammate Alan Trammell.  It's also worth noting that Whitaker played his entire nineteen-year career with Detroit.  His final career numbers are .276/.363/.426 with 244 homers and 143 stolen bases.  A fine career by anyone's standards.