BOSTON 7, MINNESOTA 6 IN BOSTON (10 INNINGS)
Date: Wednesday, June 3.
Batting stars: Roy Smalley was 4-for-5 with a double, scoring twice and driving in one. Mark Salas was 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI. Gene Larkin was 2-for-4 with a walk and a run.
Pitching star: Les Straker pitched 5.2 innings, giving up two runs on five hits and four walks while striking out four.
Opposition stars: Mike Greenwell was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer (his sixth) and a walk, scoring three times. Jim Rice was 1-for-3 with a home run (his fourth) and two walks, scoring once. Calvin Schiraldi pitched two shutout innings, giving up only a walk.
The game: The Twins led 6-2 after seven. In the eighth, however, George Frazier gave up a homer to Rice and walked Greenwell. Keith Atherton came in and retired the first two men he faced, but then walked one, hit one, and walked in a run to make it 6-4 before getting out of the inning. Jeff Reardon came on to pitch the ninth. He struck out Wade Boggs but walked Rice and gave up a two-run homer to Greenwell to tie it 6-6. Joe Klink came on to pitch the tenth. A walk and a single put men on first and second with two out. Boggs then grounded a single between second and first to bring home the winning run.
Of note: Kirby Puckett was 2-for-5, raising his average to .327...Reardon's ERA went up to 7.96 and he had his sixth blown save...Boston starter Bob Stanley pitched six innings, allowing five runs on ten hits and no walks with two strikeouts.
Record: The Twins were 27-25, tied with Seattle for second, 1.5 games behind Kansas City.
Notes: Steve Lombardozzi batted second in this game, with Greg Gagne dropping to ninth...Roy Smalley was the third baseman, with Gary Gaetti getting the day off. Larkin was the DH...This was the last game Salas would start at catcher for the Twins. He made two more appearances in a reserve role before being traded.
Player profile: Calvin Schiraldi did not quite come out of nowhere to be the Red Sox' closer in their pennant-winning year of 1986, but pretty close. He had made fifteen appearances from 1984-1985 for the Mets and had been pretty terrible: 2-3, 7.63, 1.92 WHIP. He was traded to Boston after the 1986 season and started the year at Pawtucket. He did very well there and came up to the Red Sox in late July, becoming their closer after just five appearances as the setup man. He went 9-for-9 in save opportunities. He did not repeat his performance in 1987, and kind of lost the closer role to Wes Gardner, although nobody got many saves for the Red Sox that year--the team only had sixteen saves total, with Gardner getting ten and Schiraldi six. He was never a closer again, getting only six more saves in his career. Traded to the Cubs after the 1987 season, he was put into their starting rotation in 1988 and did okay, though nothing special. He was back in the bullpen in 1989 and did okay there, too, but was traded to San Diego at the August deadline. They put him in the rotation in September and he did very well there, although he obviously did not go very deep into the games. He did not have a good year in 1990, however, and was released after the season. He signed with Houston for 1991, did not do well in AAA, and finished up the season with Texas. Overall his career is not that great, but he had that two-month stretch in 1986 where he was awesome, and older Red Sox fans will always remember him for that. At last report, Calvin Schiraldi was the baseball coach at St. Michael's Catholic Academy in Austin, Texas.