MINNESOTA 7, TEXAS 4 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Sunday, June 7.

Batting stars:  Sal Butera was 2-for-3 with a double, scoring once and driving in three.  Randy Bush was 3-for-4 with a double, scoring once and driving in one.  Kirby Puckett was 0-for-2 with two walks, scoring once and driving in one.

Pitching star:  Keith Atherton pitched three shutout innings, giving up two hits and no walks with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Geno Petralli was 3-for-3 with a home run (his second) and a double, driving in two.  Pete O'Brien was 2-for-4 with a double.  Curtis Wilkerson was 2-for-4 with a stolen base (his fourth), a hit-by-pitch, and a run.

The game:  Petralli homered in a two-run third and singled in a run in the fourth to put the Rangers up 3-0.  The Twins came back in the fifth, as Butera hit a three-run double and later scored on a bases-loaded walk to Puckett to give the Twins a 4-3 lead.  A sacrifice fly tied it 4-4 in the top of the seventh, but in the bottom of the frame Bush delivered an RBI single and Roy Smalley brought home two with a double to put the Twins ahead 7-4.  The Rangers did not get a man past first the rest of the game.

Of note:  Juan Bereguer started and struck out ten in six innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on eight hits and two walks...Texas starter Edwin Correa struck out seven in 4.1 innings but allowed four runs on three hits and four walks.

Record:  The Twins were 29-26, in second place, two games behind Kansas City.

Notes:  Al Newman was at shortstop in place of Greg Gagne...Bush was in right, with Tom Brunansky in left and Dan Gladden out of the lineup...Puckett's average was now .317...Butera was making his 1987 Twins debut, a move that resulted from the trade of Mark Salas.  The Twins had traded Butera to Detroit in the spring of 1983.  He had played with Montreal and Cincinnati, being released by the Reds on May 19 of 1987.  The Twins signed him three days later, sent him to AAA Portland, and brought him up for this game.  He would stay the rest of the season.

Player profile:  Geno Petralli is another guy who turned being a reserve catcher into a fairly lengthy career.  Unlike most who do that, though, he was known more for his bat than his glove.  He was drafted by Toronto in the third round of the January draft in 1978.  He made his major league debut as a September call-up in 1982.  He got another September call-up in 1983 and played a few games early in the season in 1984.  The Blue Jays had Ernie Whitt as their catcher back then and were pretty well satisfied with him, so Petralli was sold to Cleveland in May of 1984.  He appears to have been injured a lot of that season, as he played only twenty-three games of AAA, and he was released in April of 1985.  The Rangers signed him a month later and brought him to the majors to stay in July.  He didn't play a lot in 1985 or 1986, but 1987 saw increased playing time for him, as he topped two hundred at-bats for the first time.  He responded by batting .302 with an OPS of .868, his best season in the majors.  In an effort to get his bat into the lineup more, he started six games at third base and one at first.  He also was used at second, right field, and left field.  He was the Rangers' primary catcher in 1988, although he started only seventy-two games there, and batted .282,  He was injured much of 1989 but got the starting job back in 1990 and batted .304 with a .775 OPS.  In 1991, however, Ivan Rodriguez came along, and Petralli was back to a reserve role.  He remained in that role through 1993, then his playing career was over.  His career numbers are .267/.344/.360 in 1874 at-bats spread over twelve seasons.  He does not have a reputation as a good defensive catcher, and allowed a lot of passed balls, but partly that's the result of frequently being asked to catch knuckleballer Charlie Hough.  His father played in the White Sox' organization from 1948-53 and his son Ben played in independent ball in 2010.  Another son, James, is part of a band called White Denim.  Geno Petralli was a coach for the Round Rock Experss in 2016.