MINNESOTA 9, OAKLAND 4 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Thursday, August 6.

Batting stars:  Kent Hrbek was 2-for-4 with a home run (his twenty-fifth), a triple, and a walk, scoring twice.  Gary Gaetti was 2-for-3 with a double, a walk, and a hit-by-pitch, driving in three.  Al Newman was 1-for-3 with a double and two walks, scoring twice.

Pitching star:  Frank Viola pitched seven innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and six walks with four strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Steve Henderson was 2-for-4 with a home run, his second.  Mike Gallego was 1-for-3 with a home run, his second.  Jose Canseco was 1-for-4 with a double and a walk.

The game:  The Twins scored two runs without a hit in the first inning, as three walks filled the bases, a hit batsman brought one home, and a ground out scored the second.  Alfredo Griffin got one back in the second for Oakland with an RBI single, but Hrbek homered leading off the third to make it 3-1 Twins.  The Twins took control of the game in the fourth.  A single, an error, and a walk loaded the bases and Kirby Puckett delivered a three-run double, later scoring on Gaetti's RBI single.  The Athletics got solo homers by Gallego in the sixth and Henderson in the seventh, but as we all know, solo home runs don't hurt you.  Oakland never got closer than four runs the rest of the game.

Of note:  This was a big series, as the two teams were tied for first going into the game...It was also an excellent pitching matchup, with Viola going up against Dave Stewart...Newman batted leadoff and placed second in place of Steve Lombardozzi...Randy Bush batted second and played right field, with Tom Brunansky moving to left and Dan Gladden out of the lineup.  Bush was 0-for-1 with four walks, scoring twice...Gene Larkin was again the DH...Puckett was 1-for-5, dropping his average to .317...Stewart lasted only 3.1 innings, giving up seven runs (five earned) on four hits and five walks with four strikeouts...Viola walked six for only the second time this season.  The other time also came against Oakland, on April 13...Viola had excellent control, walking just 2.4 men per nine innings in 1987 and 2.7 for his career.  Yet, there were nineteen walks in this game, eleven by the two starters.  Rich Garcia was the plate umpire--one wonders if he had a tight strike zone...The triple was Hrbek's only triple of the season.  He had eighteen triples in his career, but twelve of them came in his first three full seasons (1982-84).  He would hit only two more triples in his career after this, one in 1991 and one in 1993.

Record:  The Twins were 58-52, in first place by one game over Oakland.

We hope to resume player profiles next week.