BOSTON 6, MINNESOTA 4 IN BOSTON
Date: Sunday, August 23.
Batting stars: Roy Smalley was 1-for-3 with a home run (his eighth) and a walk. Kent Hrbek was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his thirty-first. Kirby Puckett was 2-for-4 with two doubles.
Pitching star: Juan Berenguer pitched 3.1 innings, giving up one run on one hit and two walks with two strikeouts.
Opposition stars: Don Baylor was 2-for-3 with a grand slam (his sixteenth homer) and a hit-by-pitch. Dwight Evans was 1-for-4 with a home run, his twenty-ninth. Wade Boggs was 1-for-3 with a walk and two runs.
The game: It looked good early. Gary Gaetti and Roy Smalley led off the second with back-to-back home runs to put the Twins up 2-0. Hrbek hit a two-run homer in the third to make it 4-0. Twins starter Steve Carlton walked in a run in the fourth, but a double play got him out of the inning and the Twins still led 4-1. In the fifth, however, Boston loaded the bases again and this time Baylor unloaded them with a grand slam, putting the Red Sox in front 5-4. Dwight Evans also homered in the inning to make it 6-4. The Twins got only one hit after the fourth inning, a two-out double by Puckett in the eighth.
Of note: Puckett raised his average to .315...Gaetti was 1-for-4 with a home run, his twenty-seventh...Carlton pitched 4.1 innings, allowing five runs on six hits and three walks with two strikeouts...Boston starter Jeff Sellers struck out ten in 7.1 innings, giving up four runs on six hits and a walk.
Record: The Twins were 66-60, in first place by two games over Oakland. This was their sixth consecutive loss.
Player profile: His win in this game was one of thirteen career wins for Jeff Sellers. He was born in Compton, California, went to high school in Paramount, California, and was drafted by Boston in the eighth round in 1982. He had an excellent year in AA in 1985 and got a September call-up that season, going 2-0, 3.63 in four starts. He spent the next three seasons going back and forth between Pawtucket and Boston, sometimes doing well in AAA but never showing much in the big leagues. In 1986 he made 14 appearances (13 starts) for the Red Sox, going 3-7, 4.94. In 1987 he made 25 appearances (22 starts), going 7-8, 5.28. In 1988 he made 18 appearances (12 starts), going 1-7, 4.83. He was still only twenty-four at that point, but the Red Sox gave up on him and traded him to Cincinnati. He pitched in AAA for the Reds, the Yankees, and the Rangers through 1992, but never got back to the big leagues. His strikeout numbers got better as his big-league career went along--in 1988 he struck out 7.4 batters per nine innings. One wonders if he might have done well in the bullpen, but he never really got a chance there. His son, Justin Sellers, was an infielder for the Dodgers and Indians from 2011-14.