MINNESOTA 11, DETROIT 3 IN DETROIT (GAME 2 OF DOUBLEHEADER)

Date:  Sunday, May 31.

Batting stars:  Dan Gladden was 4-for-6 with a double and a stolen base (his seventh), scoring three times and driving in one.  Tom Brunansky was 2-for-3 with a home run (his tenth), a double, and two walks, scoring three times.  Tim Laudner was 2-for-5 with two home runs (his third and fourth) and three RBIs.

Pitching stars:  George Frazier pitched 3.1 perfect innings with one strikeout.  Mark Portugal pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up two hits and a walk while striking out one.  Keith Atherton pitched a perfect inning with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Chet Lemon was 1-for-2 with a two-run homer, his fourth.  Kirk Gibson was 2-for-4 with an RBI.  Alan Trammell was 2-for-4.

The game:  The Twins led all the way, but it was only 4-3 after five.  The Twins scored three in the sixth, one in the seventh, and three in the eighth to put the game out of reach.  The story of the game, though, was the Twins' bullpen.  Starter Allan Anderson pitched only three innings, but Portugal, Frazier, and Atherton combined for six shutout innings of relief, giving up just two hits and a walk and not allowing a baserunner after the fifth inning.

Of note:  Kirby Puckett was 4-for-5 with a double and a stolen base (his sixth), scoring once and driving in two...Steve Lombardozzi was 3-for-5 with an RBI...Randy Bush was 2-for-3 with a run...Anderson pitched three innings, giving up three runs on five hits and two walks with no strikeouts...Detroit starter Frank Tanana pitched 2.2 innings, allowing four runs on five hits and two walks with two strikeouts.

Record:  The doubleheader sweep made the Twins 26-23, tied for second with Seattle, 2.5 games behind Kansas City.

Notes:  Al Newman played shortstop in place of Greg Gagne.  Gagne was put in the game in the eighth inning to give Puckett a rest and played center field.  The first two batters hit fly balls to him, which he caught...Mark Davidson started in right field, with Brunansky as DH and Roy Smalley out of the lineup.

Player profile:  I had not remembered that 1987 was George Frazier's last year in the majors.  He was drafted by Milwaukee in the eighth round in 1976, reached the majors in 1978, but did not really hit his stride until 1981, when he had an excellent second half for the Yankees.  He was an important part of the Yankees' bullpen through 1983, after which he was traded to Cleveland along with Otis Nixon for Toby Harrah.  He had a decent enough first half in 1984, but was traded again, this time to the Cubs, in mid-June as part of the Rick Sutcliffe deal.  He didn't do much for the Cubs, but stayed there until August of 1986, when he was traded to the Twins along with Ray Fontenot and Julius McDougal for Ron Davis and Dewayne Coleman.  McDougal did not make the majors and neither Frazier nor Fontenot did much for the Twins, but it is widely acclaimed as an excellent trade for the Twins anyway.  In his two and a half seasons with the Twins, Frazier went 6-6, 4.83, 1.55 WHIP with eight saves.  He was a longtime television broadcaster for the Colorado Rockies, but retired after the 2016 season and it appears he has moved back to his native Oklahoma.