MINNESOTA 3, TEXAS 2 IN MINNESOTA (13 INNINGS)

Date:  Saturday, June 6.

Batting stars:  Mark Salas was 2-for-3 with a home run, his third.  Gene Larkin was 3-for-5 with a walk.  Gary Gaetti was 1-for-4 with two walks and a run.

Pitching stars:  Frank Viola struck out nine in seven innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on ten hits and three walks.  George Frazier struck out five in three shutout innings, giving up one hit and three walks.  Jeff Reardon struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up two hits.

Opposition stars:  Charlie Hough pitched nine innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and five walks with three strikeouts.  Oddibe McDowell was 2-for-3 with a home run (his fifth), three walks, and two stolen bases (his seventh and eighth).   Scott Fletcher was 3-for-5 with two walks.

The game:  Pete Incaviglia singled home a run in the fifth to put Texas ahead 2-1.  It stayed 2-1 until the bottom of the ninth, when Salas led off with a home run to tie it 2-2.  Each team had threats--the Twins even loaded the bases with one out in the twelfth--but there was no more scoring until the thirteenth.  Tom Brunansky walked with one out.  Salas struck out, but Steve Lombardozzi singled to the left-center field gap and Brunansky scored from first to win the game for the Twins.

Record:  The Twins were 28-26, in second place, two games behind Kansas City.

Notes:   Kirby Puckett was 0-for-5, dropping his average to .320...Larkin raised his average to .366...Salas raised his average to .378...Roy Smalley was 0-for-1 as a pinch-hitter, dropping his average to .309...Dan Gladden batted second in this game, with Al Newman taking the leadoff spot.  Newman batted second in place of Lombardozzi, who entered the game in the ninth after Smalley pinch-hit for Tim Laudner...Larkin was the DH...This was the last game Salas would play as a Twin.  He was traded to the Yankees the next day for Joe Niekro.  I guess a game-tying homer isn't a bad way to go out.

Player profile:  Charlie Hough had an incredibly long career. He first came up with the Dodgers at the end of 1970, got cups of coffee in 1971 and 1972, came up to stay in 1973, and didn't leave until 1994. He was with the Dodgers through mid-1980, almost entirely as a reliever, and did a really good job for them for several years. He had a poor year in 1979, however, and when he was no better in 1980 he was sold to Texas. They moved him into the rotation in 1982 and he was a consistently good rotation starter through 1990. He twice led the league in starts and batters faced and once led the league in innings. He pitched over 200 innings each year from 1982-88 and over 250 innings in five of those seasons.  He made one all-star team, in 1986.  He became a free agent after 1990 and signed with the White Sox, pitched fairly well for them for two seasons.  Again a free agent after 1992, he signed with the Florida Marlins and was the starting pitcher in their first game ever.  He was fairly good in 1993 but finally slipped in 1994, at age forty-six, and retired.  He is the only pitcher to make over 400 starts and over 400 relief appearances.  He's also the last pitcher to pitch thirteen innings in a game.  He was a pitching coach in both the majors and the minors for several years before retiring.