MINNESOTA 5, MILWAUKEE 0 IN MILWAUKEE
Date: Monday, June 14.
Batting stars: Randy Bush was 1-for-3 with a three-run homer, his third. Kirby Puckett was 3-for-4 with two runs. Kent Hrbek was 2-for-4 with a double and a run.
Pitching star: Bert Blyleven didn't leave any pitches up in this game throwing a four-hit complete game shutout with two walks and six strikeouts.
Opposition stars: None, really, but we'll note that Bill Wegman also pitched a complete game, giving up five runs on eleven hits and no walks with four strikeouts.
The game: Three of the first four Twins batters in the fourth inning singled, with Roy Smalley driving in a run. Bush then killed the rally with a three-run homer to put the Twins up 4-0. The Twins added a run in the fifth on Al Newman's RBI single. The only Brewers threat came in the third, when they had men on first and third with two out. The threat ended when Milwaukee tried a second-and-home double steal, with Jim Gantner getting thrown out at the plate.
Of note: Puckett raised his average to .325. Smalley was 1-for-4 with a run and an RBI, making his average .313.
Record: The Twins were 36-27, in first place by two games over Oakland.
Notes: Lombardozzi was back in the number two spot for this game...Bush was in right field, with Tom Brunansky out of the lineup...Sal Butera caught, with Tim Laudner out of the lineup.
Player profile: Right-hander Bill Wegman pitched for Milwaukee for ten seasons (eleven if you count three starts in 1985) and was pretty good in two of them. He was drafted in the fifth round in 1981, got a September call-up in 1985. He was a rotation starter from 1986-88, and given his stats one suspects he had a lot of games like this one, where he pitched pretty well except for a big home run or two. He averaged over two hundred innings in those seasons--his ERA was well over four, but his WHIP was under 1.3, but he gave up 87 home runs. He was apparently injured much of 1989 and 1990, pitching only 80.2 innings in those two years combined, but when he came back in 1991 he had the best year of his career, going 15-7, 2.84, 1.12 WHIP. He followed that up in 1992 with a season almost as good: 13-14, 3.20, 1.17 WHIP. He still gave up home runs, his walk rate went down a little, and his hits per nine innings went down some. His FIP went down some in those years, but not nearly as much as his ERA. Unfortunately for him, whatever magic he found in those years was gone in 1993, as he went 4-14, 4.48, 1.40 WHIP. His next two seasons were no better, and his playing career after that. At last report, Bill Wegman had become a pastor and was working at a church in the Cincinnati area.