MINNESOTA 2, NEW YORK 0 IN NEW YORK

Date:  Monday, July 6.

Batting stars:  Tom Brunansky was 2-for-4 with a home run (his seventeenth) and a stolen base (his eighth).  Kent Hrbek was 1-for-3 with a home run, his twenty-third.

Pitching star:  Frank Viola pitched a complete game shutout, giving up five hits and four walks with seven strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Ron Guidry pitched a complete game, giving up two runs on three hits and three walks with five strikeouts.  Rickey Henderson was 2-for-3 with a walk and was caught stealing.  Claudell Washington was 2-for-4 and was also caught stealing.

The game:  I guess solo home runs can hurt you if your team doesn't score.  Brunansky homered with two out in the first inning to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  In the third the Yankees got a single and two walks, all with two out, to load the bases, but Dave Winfield flied out to end the threat.  Washington hit a one-out double in the fourth but was caught trying to steal third.  Hrbek hit a two-out home run in the sixth to make it 2-0 Twins.  The Yankees did not get man past first base after Washington's fourth-inning double.  Other than the two home runs, the only Twins hit was a single by Brunansky with two out in the ninth.

Of note:  Kirby Puckett again batted second and was 0-for-4, dropping his average to .346.

Record:  The Twins won their fourth in a row to make their record 47-36.  They took a one game lead over Kansas City, which lost to Cleveland 9-7.

Notes:  Ron Guidry was in his next-to-last season, but was still an effective pitcher when healthy.  His record dropped to 1-4, but his ERA was 2.80.  He was injured part of the season and finished 5-8, but with a 2.67 ERA and a 1.27 WHIP.

Player profile:  The Yankees' third baseman in this game was Jeff Moronko.  This was one of only seven games he played this season and one of fourteen for his career.  He was a sixth round draft choice by Cleveland in 1980.  His best minor league season was 1984 in AA, when he hit .314/.395/.479 for Buffalo.  He got a September call-up that year and went 3-for-19 with a double and three walks.  He was twenty-four then, and had repeated AA, but still, a year like that seems like it would give people reason to hope there was something there.  Apparently people didn't, though, because he was traded in late April as the player to be named later in a deal that netted Cleveland Kevin Buckley (five career major league games).  Moronko split the season between AA and AAA, and while he wasn't awful he wasn't particularly good, either.  He had a solid season at AAA Oklahoma City in 1986, though:  .280/.351/.409.  He was twenty-six by now, and not really a hot prospect, but still, reason to think he might be able to do something.  Texas allowed him to become a free agent and he signed with the Yankees.  If he thought this was going to be his big break, though, he was disappointed.  He hit only .201 at Columbus.  He did spend about three weeks in July with New York, going 1-for-11.  For his major league career he was 4-for-30 with a double and three walks.  He scored one run and drove in three.  A native Texan, he appears to be living in Sugar Land, Texas.  I guess it's not much of a career, but he played in fourteen more big league games and got four more big league hits than I ever will,