TORONTO 8, MINNESOTA 6 IN TORONTO
Date: Friday, July 24.
Batting stars: Greg Gagne was 2-for-3 with a double, scoring once and driving in two. Tom Brunansky was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk, scoring twice. Sal Butera was 1-for-3 with a double and two RBIs.
Pitching stars: Mike Smithson pitched four innings, giving up one run on six hits and a walk with one strikeout. George Frazier pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and two walks with one strikeout.
Opposition stars: Tony Fernandez was 3-for-5 with a double and two runs. Juan Beniquez was 1-for-1 with a pinch-hit three-run homer, his fourth. Rick Leach was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer, his second.
The game: The Twins scored five in the fourth to take a 6-1 lead. Doubles were the key to the inning: Gary Gaetti had an RBI double, Gagne had a two-run double, and Butera had a two-run double. The score stayed 6-1 until the seventh, when the roof fell in. Not literally--Skydome remained intact--but it must have felt like that to Tom Kelly. Keith Atherton was starting his third inning of relief, having blanked the Blue Jays for two. He got the first batter out, but a single, a walk, and a single loaded the bases and a sacrifice fly brought home a run and brought Dan Schatzeder into the game. Still, the Twins led 6-2, the tying run was not yet up to bat, things were still looking okay. Schatzeder immediately gave up a three-run homer to Beniquez to make it 6-5. He then walked Charlie Moore. Jeff Reardon then came in to try for a seven-out save. It didn't happen. Willie Upshaw singled and Leach hit the second three-run homer of the inning to put Toronto ahead 8-6. The Twins did not get a man on base in the last two innings.
Of note: Al Newman replaced Steve Lombardozzi at second base and batted second...Kirby Puckett was 0-for-3 with a walk and was batting .324...Toronto starter Jose Nunez pitched 3.2 innings, allowing six runs on five hits and two walks with three strikeouts...Mark Eichhorn came in to throw 3.1 scoreless innings, giving up three hits and no walks with one strikeout.
Record: The Twins were 53-45, in first place by two games over Oakland.
Player profile: Submarine/sidearmer Mark Eichhorn was kind of up-and-down in his career, but when he was good, he was really, really good. He was drafted by Toronto in the second round of the January draft in 1979. He actually made his major league debut as a starter, getting called up in late August of 1982 despite not having done very well in AAA that season. He didn't do much for the Blue Jays, either, going 0-3, 5.45 in seven starts. He did not come back to the majors until 1986, when he was a relief pitcher. He had an awesome year, going 14-6, 1.72, 0.96 WHIP and finished sixth in Cy Young voting despite the fact that he was pitching as a set-up man (closer Tom Henke did not receive any Cy Young votes). He appeared in 69 games and pitched 157 relief innings. He was not quite as good in 1987 but was still darn good, going 10-6, 3.17, 1.27 WHIP in a league-leading 89 games (127.2 innings). The workload may have taken a toll, because he had a poor year in 1988, was sold to Atlanta and had a poor year there in 1989, signed with California as a free agent. He did better in 1990 and then had another awesome year in 1991, going 3-3, 1.98, 0.93 WHIP in 70 games (81.2 innings). He was pitching well again in 1992 when he was traded back to Toronto for Rob Ducey and Greg Myers. He struggled at the end of that season, but was fairly good in 1993 for them and really good with Baltimore in 1994. He was hurt in early August, though, missed all of 1995, and was not the same pitcher when he came back. He had a poor year with California and that was his last shot in the majors. He tried to come back, pitching in AAA for Tampa Bay in 1998 and for Toronto in 2000, but never got there. Overall, he was 48-43, 3.00, 1.24 WHIP, which are fine numbers. If you just look at his three best years, though, he was 23-14, 2.03, 0.99 WHIP. At last report, Mark Eichhorn was coaching high school baseball in Aptos, California. His son, Kevin, pitched in the Arizona and Detroit organizations, reaching high-A.