MINNESOTA 5, BOSTON 4 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Wednesday, September 2.

Batting stars:  Randy Bush was 2-for-3 with a home run (his eighth) and two RBIs.  Kent Hrbek was 2-for-2 with two walks and a run.  Gary Gaetti was 2-for-4 with a double.

Pitching stars:  Les Straker pitched six innings, giving up two runs on four hits and a walk with one strikeout.  Jeff Reardon retired all five men he faced, striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Steve Crawford pitched 5.1 innings of relief, giving up one run on eight hits and two walks with no strikeouts.  Mike Greenwell was 2-for-4 with a home run (his seventeenth) and a double, driving in three.  Marty Barrett was 2-for-3 with a walk and a run.

The game:  Bush homered in the first inning to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  Three singles and a sacrifice fly-plus-error produced three Twins runs in the second to make it 4-0 and Roy Smalley singled in a run in the fifth to make it 5-0.  Greenwell hit a two-run homer in the sixth and two walks and an RBI double with one out in the eighth made it 5-3 and brought Reardon into the game.  He allowed a sacrifice fly to make it 5-4, but retired all five men he faced to secure the win.

Of note:  Al Newman led off and played shortstop, with Greg Gagne out of the lineup...Dan Gladden was again out of the lineup, with Bush in right field batting second and Tom Brunansky in left...Puckett was 1-for-4 and was batting .329...Don Baylor, who had been acquired for a player to be named later (Enrique Rios) just before the August 31 trade deadline, had still not played in a game for the Twins at this point.

Record:  The Twins were 70-64, in first place.  Oakland lost to the Yankees 5-4 in ten innings, so the Twins lead increased to 1.5 games.

We may or may not get back to player profiles later this week.

BOSTON 9, MINNESOTA 0 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, September 1.

Batting stars:  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-4.  Tom Brunansky was 1-for-3 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  None.

Opposition stars:  Jeff Sellers pitched a complete game shutout, giving up five hits and two walks with seven strikeouts.  Wade Boggs was 3-for-4 with a home run (his twenty-second) a double, and a walk, scoring twice and driving in three.  Mike Greenwell was 3-for-4 with a home run (his sixteenth) and a walk, driving in four.

The game:  It was scoreless until the third, when Boggs hit a two-run homer and Greenwell a solo blast to put Boston up 3-0.  The Red Sox added two in the fifth, two in the seventh, and two in the ninth.  The Twins had only five hits, all singles.  Their biggest threat came in the first inning, when one-out singles by Puckett and Kent Hrbek put men on first and second.  Gary Gaetti hit into a double play to end the inning.

Of note:  Dan Gladden remained out of the lineup, with Brunansky in left and Randy Bush in right...Greg Gagne led off, with Puckett batting second and Hrbek third...Puckett raised his average to .329...Joe Niekro started and pitched four innings, allowing five runs on eight hits and two walks with one strikeout...The Twins got through the game with only three pitchers, as Dan Schatzeder worked three innings and George Frazier two...This was the second and last shutout of Jeff Sellers' career.  The other came against Oakland on July 3 of this season.  He would have another complete game in his next start, but would have only one more in his career.  It should be noted, however, that in his last start of 1987 he pitched eleven innings.

Record:  The Twins were 69-64, in first place by a half-game over Oakland, which defeated the Yankees 8-3.