KANSAS CITY 4, MINNESOTA 3 IN KANSAS CITY

Date:  Wednesday, July 1.

Batting stars:  Dan Gladden was 3-for-5 with a run.  Kirby Puckett was 1-for-4 with a walk and two RBIs.  Tom Brunansky was 2-for-3 with a walk.

Pitching star:  Frank Viola struck out seven innings, giving up three runs on five hits and two walks.

Opposition stars:  George Brett was 1-for-3 with a three-run homer (his sixth) and a walk.  Kevin Seitzer was 2-for-3 with a walk and a run.  Jim Eisenreich was 1-for-1 with a pinch-hit double and an RBI.

The game:  Brett's homer in the third put the Royals ahead 3-0.  The Twins came back, as Puckett delivered a two-run single in the fifth and Randy Bush singled home the tying run in the eighth.  In the ninth, however, Steve Balboni reached on an error and pinch-runner Buddy Biancalana scored from first on an Eisenreich single to win the game.  The Twins out-hit Kansas City 13-7 but stranded 11.

Of note:  Greg Gagne was 2-for-4 with a walk...Kent Hrbek was 2-for-5 with a double...Puckett was now averaging .350...Roy Smalley was 1-for-2 with two walks and was batting .326...Bob Stoddard was the starting pitcher for Kansas City.  He went 4.1 innings, giving up two runs on ten hits and a walk with one strikeout.

Record:  The Twins were 43-35, in first place, 1.5 games ahead of Kansas City.

Player profile:  This would be the last start of Bob Stoddard's major league career.  He was drafted by Seattle in the tenth round in 1978 and reached the majors in 1981 as a September call-up, pitching well in five starts.  He was in AAA Salt Lake City for most of 1982 but came up in mid-August and again pitched well in nine starts.  At this point in his career, he was twenty-five years old, had made fourteen starts, and had gone 4-3, 2.47, 1.08 WHIP.  Seattle fans probably thought they had a star in the making.  He began 1983 in the starting rotation, but was taken out after three months when he was 4-10, 5.18.  He stayed with the Mariners all season and started 1984 with them as well, pitching out of the bullpen, but went back to AAA half-way through the season.  He started 1985 in AAA, was released, signed with Detroit, and pitched ineffectively out of the bullpen there.  He signed with Oakland for 1986, was released in mid-April, signed with San Diego, and spent six weeks in the big leagues actually pitching well in relief for the Padres.  He signed with Kansas City for 1987 and was called up from AAA about a week and a half before this game.  He stayed with the Royals the rest of the season as a reliever, but didn't do very well and was released after the season.  He was in AAA for Oakland and Milwaukee in 1988 and again for Milwaukee in 1989, but never made it back to the big leagues.  He apparently made a comeback attempt in 1995, pitching in three AAA games for the Mets, but then his playing career was over.  His final career numbers are 18-27, 4.03, 1.38 WHIP in 433.1 innings.  He appeared in 119 games, 45 of them starts.  At last report, Bob Stoddard was the owner of Stods Baseball, a baseball instructional facility in Bellevue, Washington.