MINNESOTA 9, CLEVELAND 4 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Tuesday, June 22.
Batting stars: Gary Gaetti was 2-for-4 with a home run (his fifteenth) and a double, driving in four. Tom Brunansky was 2-for-3 with a two-run homer (his sixteenth) and a walk, scoring twice. Kent Hrbek was 2-for-3 with a walk and three runs.
Pitching star: George Frazier pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up no hits and three walks while striking out one.
Opposition stars: Tony Bernazard was 2-for-4 with two home runs (his ninth and tenth) and three runs. Brett Butler was 1-for-3 with two walks. Julio Franco was 1-for-5 with a triple and an RBI.
The game: With a man on first and two out in the third, Al Newman tripled, Kirby Puckett doubled, Hrbek walked, and Gaetti doubled to make the score 4-1 Twins. The Indians cut the lead to 5-3, but Gaetti hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth to put the Twins up 7-3. Bernazard homered in the seventh to make it 7-4, but Brunansky hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh to round out the scoring.
Of note: Puckett was 1-for-4 to make his average .333...Roy Smalley was 1-for-4 and was batting .315...Mike Smithson pitched 6.1 innings, giving up four runs on six hits and two walks with three strikeouts...Cleveland starter Tom Candiotti lasted only 3.1 innings, allowing five runs (one earned) on six hits and two walks while striking out two...Greg Gagne hit a home run, his eleventh.
Record: The Twins were 40-29, in first place, 3.5 games ahead of Kansas City.
Notes: Newman played second base in place of Steve Lombardozzi and batted second...Ex-Twin Rich Yett was the mop-up man for Cleveland in this one, going four innings. Yett, who made his major league debut with the Twins in 1985, spent most of 1986-89 in the big leagues with Cleveland. He came back to the Twins in 1990, appearing in four games in April before finishing the season and his playing career in AAA Portland. He was never all that good, even in AAA, but he kept getting chances. For his career he was 22-24, 4.95, 1.53 WHIP. He appeared in 136 games, starting 49 of them, and pitched 414.1 innings. He was a high school coach in the Phoenix area at last report.