MINNESOTA 9, DETROIT 5 IN DETROIT (GAME 1 OF DOUBLEHEADER)
Date: Sunday, May 31.
Batting stars: Kent Hrbek was 2-for-4 with a home run (his tenth), scoring twice and driving in three. Gary Gaetti was 2-for-4 with a home run (his twelfth), a double, and a walk, scoring twice. Randy Bush was 1-for-3 with a double, scoring once and driving in two.
Pitching star: Jeff Reardon struck out four in 2.2 scoreless innings, giving up two hits and a walk.
Opposition stars: Dave Bergman was 2-for-4 with a home run (his fourth), a double, and a walk, scoring twice and driving in two. Darrell Evans was 1-for-3 with two walks and a run. Pat Sheridan was 2-for-5 with a double and a stolen base, his sixth.
The game: Detroit led 2-1 after five and 5-4 after seven. With the bases loaded and one out in the eighth, second baseman Tom Brookens booted a grounder that allowed the tying and winning runs to score. Roy Smalley singled in an insurance run to make it 7-5. Hrbek hit a two-run homer in the ninth to put the game out of reach.
Of note: Kirby Puckett was 2-for-5 with a run, batting .323...Bert Blyleven pitched six innings, giving up four runs on six hits and four walks with five strikeouts. He left a pitch up to Bergman in the fifth inning, and even though it was a solo home run it hurt him, putting the Twins behind 2-1...Mark Salas was 1-for-3 with a walk, scoring once and driving in one, and was batting .364...Gene Larkin was 0-for-5, but was still batting .308...Detroit starter Jeff Robinson pitched 5.1 innings, allowing four runs on four hits and one walk with four strikeouts.
Record: The Twins were 25-24, in third place, three games behind Kansas City.
Notes: It appears that the Saturday game was rained out, resulting in the Sunday doubleheader...Al Newman started at second base in place of Steve Lombardozzi, who was used late in the game...Randy Bush played right field, with Tom Brunansky in left and Dan Gladden on the bench, with Gladden coming in later in the game...Larkin was the DH, with Smalley used as a pinch-hitter in the eighth...Salas was the catcher in place of Tim Laudner...Bergman was the leadoff batter for Detroit, one of two games in 1987 in which he led off. He led off thirty-five games in his career.
Player profile: I'd forgotten what a long career Dave Bergman had, especially considering that he never had a regular job. He was drafted by the Yankees in the second round in 1974 and made his major league debut in late August of 1975. He didn't get back until 1977, when he was a September callup. He was traded to Houston after that season. He was a part-time player for the Astros in 1978, seeing as much time in the outfield as he did at first base. He was back in AAA in 1979, finally getting back to the big leagues in 1980. He was almost exclusively a bench player, though, appearing in 90 games but getting only 70 at-bats. He was traded to the Giants along with Jeffrey Leonard early in 1981 and played a little more, but not much. He remained a reserve throughout his career in San Francisco, playing in 190 games from 1982-83 but getting only 261 at-bats. In spring training of 1984 he was traded to the Phillies, who immediately traded him to Detroit along with Willie Hernandez. He stayed with the Tigers the rest of his career, and while he was never a regular he did get significantly more playing time. He played the most in 1989, when he got over 300 at-bats for the only time in his career. He had a couple of good years, but for the most part was average-to-below average. As a Tiger, he hit .259/.346/.368, numbers which are almost identical to his career numbers: .258/.348/.357. As one might guess, he was frequently used as a pinch-hitter, getting 419 plate appearances in that role. Despite that, he was not all that good at it, batting .213/.335/.311 as a pinch-hitter. He was fairly successful as a DH, batting .300/.385/.386 in 338 plate appearances in that role. But he played for a long time, going through 1992. He played in parts of seventeen seasons, playing through age thirty-nine. He passed away on February 2, 2015, from bile duct cancer at the age of sixty-one.