DETROIT 7, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Sunday, May 24.

Batting stars:  Kent Hrbek was 2-for-3 with a home run (his eighth) and a walk, scoring twice.  Mark Salas was 3-for-4 with two doubles.

Pitching star:  Les Straker pitched 6.1 innings, giving up an unearned run on six hits and two walks with five strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Kirk Gibson was 3-for-5 with two runs and an RBI.  Alan Trammell was 2-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base (his fifth), scoring twice.  Jeff Robinson pitched eight innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on five hits and three walks while striking out nine.

The game:  A walk, an error, and a sacrifice fly put the Twins up 1-0 in the second.  The lead held up through six, but the Tigers scored five in the seventh to take control of the game.  Straker was pitching well, but was removed in the seventh following a one-out error.  Keith Atherton came in and walked both men he faced, loading the bases.  Juan Berenguer came in and gave up a run-scoring single to Gibson, wild pitched home another, a third run scored on a ground out, and two more came in on a single by Johnny Grubb.  The game was gone after that.

Of note:   Kirby Puckett was 1-for-4 and is batting .328...Straker's ERA fell to 2.62...Berenguer's ERA rose to 2.61.

Record:  The Twins were 21-22, tied for third place with California, 4.5 games behind Kansas City.

Notes:  Gene Larkin was the DH rather than Roy Smalley...Salas was the catcher rather than Tim Laudner.

Player profile:  Jeff Robinson basically turned one good year into a six-year career.  He was chosen in the third round in 1983 by the Tigers.  He was not very good at all in the minors, never posting an ERA below four at any level, but still found himself in the Tigers starting rotation at the beginning of the 1987 season.  He had the occasional good game, including a complete game shutout of the Yankees in August, but at season's end he was 9-6, 5.37, 1.46 WHIP, numbers that would have been completely expected given his minor league career.  In 1988, however, he out of nowhere had an excellent season--13-6, 2.98, 1.12 WHIP.  He led the league in fewest hits per nine innings at 6.3.  Unfortunately, it was the only good season he had.  He was injured in August, and when he came back he was back to being the pitcher he had been before.  In 1989 whatever he found was gone, and he went 4-5, 4.73 in sixteen starts, again having the occasional good game to give people hope.  He posted ERAs above five in each of the next three seasons, one with Detroit, one with Baltimore, and one with Texas and Pittsburgh, and then was done.  He worked at a baseball instructional school in Olathe, Kansas after his playing career ended.  Jeff Robinson passed away on October 26, 2014, after "a seven-week battle with undisclosed health issues", according to wikipedia.