MINNESOTA 14, SEATTLE 4 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Saturday, August 15.
Batting stars: Tom Brunansky was 2-for-3 with a home run (his twenty-fourth), a double, and a walk, scoring twice. Dan Gladden was 2-for-5 with a double and a stolen base (his twentieth), scoring three times and driving in two. Gary Gaetti was 2-for-4 with a home run (his twenty-fifth), scoring twice and driving in two.
Pitching stars: Roy Smith pitched seven innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on eight hits and two walks with two strikeouts. Dan Schatzeder pitched two shutout innings, giving up three hits.
Opposition stars: Alvin Davis was 2-for-3 with a home run (his nineteenth) and a walk, driving in three. Mike Kingery was 2-for-3 with a double. Ken Phelps was 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.
The game: Davis singled in a run in the top of the first, but the Twins responded in the bottom half with an eight-run inning, putting this one to bed early. The Twins had three singles, three doubles, a triple, a walk, and two errors in the inning, with Greg Gagne circling the bases on a three-run triple-plus-error. The Twins added three in the second on a home run by Brunansky and a two-run homer by Kent Hrbek.
Of note: Hrbek's homer was his thirtieth of the season...Steve Lombardozzi batted second in this game...Gene Larkin was the DH...Mark Davidson played center field, with Kirby Puckett out of the lineup...This was Smith's only start of the season, filling in for Joe Niekro...Lee Guetterman started for Seattle but lasted only two-thirds of an inning, allowing six runs (none earned) on four hits and a walk with one strikeout.
Record: The Twins were 64-54, in first place by four games over Oakland.
Player profile: No one would consider Lee Guetterman an all-star, but he actually had a number of seasons in which he was an effective pitcher. He was born in Chattanooga, went to high school in Oceanside, California, attended Liberty University, and was drafted by Seattle in 1981. He made his major league debut as a September call-up in 1984, but spent all of 1985 in AAA before coming back to the Mariners in 1986. He was with Seattle for almost all of the season despite the fact that, frankly, he was pretty awful: 0-4, 7.34, 1.82 WHIP. He started 1987 back in AAA, did very well, and came back to the Mariners in late May. He was primarily a starter, the only year in his career in which that was the case, and did okay: 11-4, 3.81, 1.34 WHIP. He was traded to the Yankees after that season. He didn't do much for them in 1988, but pitched well after that: from 1989-91 he was 19-16, 3.14, 1.22 WHIP in 284 innings (198 games). He also picked up 21 saves on a team that had Dave Righetti as its closer. He got off to a bad start in 1992, was traded to the Mets, and continued to pitch poorly. He signed with the Dodgers for 1993, was released in spring training, signed with St. Louis in early May, and again pitched well, going 3-3, 2.93, 1.24 WHIP. Surprisingly, though, nobody wanted him after that: he signed with California, got released in spring training, signed with San Diego, was sent to AAA and was released again despite the fact that he pitched well, and signed back with Seattle. Maybe people knew something, though, because despite the fact that he made it back to the majors for parts of 1995-96 he was never any good there again. For his career he was 38-36, 4.33, 1.43 WHIP, numbers which wouldn't impress anybody. In his best five seasons, though, he was 33-23, 3.29, 1.22 WHIP, which are good numbers in anybody's book. The point is not to cherry-pick good years out of his career and make him look better than he was. The point is simply that there were five years out of his career in which he was, indeed, a very good major league pitcher.