KANSAS CITY 10, MINNESOTA 3 IN KANSAS CITY

Date:  Thursday, July 2.

Batting stars:  Dan Gladden was 2-for-4 with two doubles and a run.  Tim Laudner was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his ninth.  Roy Smalley was 2-for-4 with a double and a run.

Pitching star:  Dan Schatzeder struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit and no walks.

Opposition stars:  Bret Saberhagen pitched a complete game, giving up three runs on nine hits and no walks with five strikeouts.  Jim Eisenreich was 2-for-4 with a home run and a double, scoring twice and driving in four.  Angel Salazar was 2-for-4 with a stolen base (his third), scoring once and driving in two.

The game:  The Royals got one in the third, four in the fourth, and Eisenreich hit a three-run homer in the fifth to make it 8-0.  The Twins finally got on the board on an RBI double by Randy Bush in the sixth and Laudner hit a two-run homer in the seventh, but the game was gone by then.

Of note:  Puckett raised his average to .352...Smalley raised his average to .330...Joe Niekro started and pitched 3.2 innings, giving up five runs (three earned) on seven hits and no walks with one strikeout.

Record:  The Twins were 43-36, in first place, a half-game ahead of Kansas City.

Notes:  Randy Bush batted second and was the DH.  Smalley played third base with Gary Gaetti out of the lineup.

Player profile:  Some of you may remember that much was made of Saberhagen pitching well in odd numbered years and poorly in even numbered years.  There's truth in it, but not as much as was made of it at the time.  The odd numbered years were better, but the difference was much more profound in his won-lost record than in the other stats.  1985, his second season in the majors, was excellent, and 1986 was not as good (although it looks like he had some bad luck as well), but after that he was a consistently good pitcher through 1995.  In 1989 he was incredible, leading the league in wins, winning percentage, ERA, complete games, innings, ERA+, FIP, WHIP, and K/W ratio.  Unsurprisingly, he won his second Cy Young award that season.  He started having injury problems in 1990, and had only one more season where he made thirty starts (1998).  He missed all of 1996, but came back and was pretty good with Boston in 1998-99, although not the dominant pitcher he had been.  For his career he was 167-117, 3.34, 1.14 WHIP in just over 2500 innings.

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.