Keeping Track

1987 Rewind: Game Sixty-eight

MINNESOTA 8, CHICAGO 6 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Sunday, June 21.

Batting stars:  Tom Brunansky was 3-for-4 with a home run (his fifteenth) and a double, scoring twice and driving in three.  Gary Gaetti was 1-for-4 with a home run (his thirteenth) and three runs.  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-4 with a home run, his thirteenth).

Pitching star:  Juan Berenguer retired all five men he faced, striking out two.

Opposition stars:  Ivan Calderon was 3-for-5 with three doubles, scoring once and driving in two.  Gary Redus was 3-for-5 with a home run (his sixth) and a stolen base (his twenty-first), scoring three times.  Tim Hulett was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI.

The game:  The Twins led 3-1, 4-2, and 5-4, but Chicago kept coming back.  It was tied 5-5 after seven, but the Twins finally took the lead to stay in the eighth.  Brunansky had an RBI double, Roy Smalley drove in a run with a single, and Greg Gagne doubled home one more.  Jeff Reardon gave up a two-out pinch-hit homer to Harold Baines in the ninth but otherwise escaped unscathed.

Of note:  Dan Gladden hit a home run, his third.  Puckett raised his average to .335.  Gene Larkin walked in a pinch-hit plate appearance, so he was still batting .324.  Smalley entered the game as a pinch-hitter and was 1-for-2 with an RBI, making his average to .317.  Frank Viola started and pitched six innings, giving up four runs on nine hits and no walks with two strikeouts.  Chicago starter Floyd Bannister pitched 5.1 innings, allowing five runs on six hits and two walks with one strikeout.

Record:  The Twins were 39-29, in first place, three games ahead of Kansas City.

Notes:  Al Newman started at third base, with Gaetti at DH and Smalley out of the lineup to start the game.  Newman batted second...Future Twin Fred Manrique hit a home run for the White Sox, one of four he would hit for the season and one of twenty for his career.  He came to the Twins in 1990 and started sixty games at second base.  The story goes that, while playing for the Twins, he was asked what the team needed.  He responded, "A second baseman."