TEXAS 1, MINNESOTA 0 AT TEXAS

Date:  Friday, June 26.

Batting stars:  Tom Brunansky was 0-for-1 with two walks and two stolen bases (his fifth and sixth).  Roy Smalley had the only Twins hit, going 1-for-3.

Pitching star:  Frank Viola took a complete game loss, pitching eight innings and giving up one run on seven hits and a walk with six strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Bobby Witt pitched eight shutout innings, giving up one hit and six walks with seven strikeouts.  Scott Fletcher was 1-for-4 with a double and an RBI.  Jerry Browne was 1-for-4 with a run and a stolen base, his twelfth.

The game:  The game's lone run scored in the first, when Browne led off with a single and scored on Fletcher's double.  Smalley got the only Twins hit, a two-out single in the second.  Brunansky was the only Twin to get past first base, getting as far as third in the eighth when he walked, stole second, and advanced to third on a fly ball to right.  Dan Gladden hit a foul fly to right field to end the inning.

Of note:  Kirby Puckett was 0-for-3 with a walk, making his average .335.

Record:  The Twins were 42-30, in first place, 3.5 games ahead of Oakland.

Notes:  Al Newman was again at shortstop in place of Greg Gagne and again batted second.  He was 0-for-3 with a walk, making his average .201.

Player profile:  Dale Mohorcic pitched the ninth inning of this game, getting his tenth save.  An undrafted free agent signed out of an independent league, Mohorcic spent time in the Toronto and Pittsburgh organizations before coming to the Rangers as a free agent in May of 1985.  He was already twenty-nine by then, but he pitched well in AAA Oklahoma City and did so again in 1986, and at the end of May of 1986 he was in the big leagues.  He pitched quite well, posting a 2.51 ERA and a 1.28 WHIP with seven saves.  In 1987 he was the nearest thing the Rangers had to a closer, posting sixteen of the twenty-seven Texas saves (Mitch Williams (at age twenty-two), 6; Jeff Russell, 3; Mike Loynd, 1; Steve Howe, 1). He had an excellent season, going 7-6, 2.99, 1.08 WHIP.  He had a poor year for the Rangers in 1988, though, and was traded to the Yankees at the August deadline for Cecilio Guante.  He did fairly well the rest of that season for the Yankees, but did not do well in 1989.  He went to Montreal for 1990, had a decent but unspectacular season there, and his career was over.  For an undrafted free agent who didn't get to the majors until age thirty, though, he did pretty well:  16-21, 33 saves, 3.49 ERA, 1.31 WHIP.