MINNESOTA 10, MILWAUKEE 6 IN MILWAUKEE

Date:  Sunday, August 30.

Batting stars:  Kirby Puckett was 6-for-6 with two home runs (his twentieth and twenty-first) and two doubles, scoring four times and driving in four.  Gary Gaetti was 2-for-5 with a double, a walk, and a stolen base (his seventh), scoring twice.  Al Newman was 2-for-5 with a walk, scoring once and driving in one.

Pitching stars:  Keith Atherton pitched 1.1 scoreless innings despite giving up a hit and two walks.  Jeff Reardon struck out three in two shutout innings, giving up a walk.

Opposition stars:  Bill Schroeder was 1-for-3 with a three-run homer (his tenth) and a walk.  Glenn Braggs was 3-for-4 with a stolen base (his tenth) and an RBI.  Paul Molitor was 2-for-4 with a walk, a run, and a stolen base (his thirty-first).

The game:  A number of members of the nation indicated they were on vacation in August of 1987.  I was not on vacation, but I was at a week-long meeting in Denver.  I remember hearing about the game Puckett had and being amazed.  Looking at it now, I'm still amazed.  It'd be hard to have a much better day.  6-for-6, two home runs, two doubles, four runs, four RBIs.

Puckett drove in the first run of the game in the first inning with a measly single.  He homered in the third to make it 2-0.  Schroeder hit a three-run homer in the fourth to give the Brewers a 3-2 lead.  The Twins scored three in the fifth, aided by three walks and a hit-by-pitch, to go ahead 5-3.  In the sixth Milwaukee scored three times, two of them scoring on a sacrifice fly-plus-error, to take a 6-5 lead.  Kent Hrbek brought home the tying run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly and Gene Larkin hit a two-run single to give the Twins an 8-6 lead.  Puckett hit a two-run homer in the ninth to put the game out of reach.

Of note:  Al Newman led off and was the designated hitter.  We laugh at that, but he was 2-for-5 with a walk, scoring once and driving in one.  Maybe TK knew something...Greg Gagne was 2-for-6 and scored twice...Puckett raised his average to .328...Dan Gladden was again out of the lineup, with Mark Davidson in right and Tom Brunansky in left...Frank Viola lasted only 3.1 innings, allowing three runs on seven hits and two walks with four strikeouts...Milwaukee starter Juan Nieves lasted 4.2 innings, giving up five runs on ten hits and three walks with five strikeouts.

Record:  The Twins were 69-63.  Oakland lost to Toronto 13-3, so the Twins moved back into first place, a game ahead of the Athletics.

Only twenty-three players have gone 6-for-6 in a nine-inning game since this game.  Oddly, the last two came on consecutive days last season, with C. J. Cron doing it for the Angels on July 2 and Wilmer Flores doing it for the Mets on July 3.  There are two other players who have gone 6-for-7 since this game.

Only one player has ever gone 7-for-7 in a nine-inning game.  Rennie Stennett did it for Pittsburgh on September 16, 1975.

MINNESOTA 12, MILWAUKEE 3 IN MILWAUKEE

Date:  August 29, 1987.

Batting stars:  Kirby Puckett was 4-for-5 with two home runs (his eighteenth and nineteenth), and three runs.  Kent Hrbek was 1-for-3 with a three-run homer (his thirty-second) and three walks, scoring three times.  Gary Gaetti was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer (his twenty-eighth) and two runs.

Pitching star:  Bert Blyleven pitched eight innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on eight hits and three walks with four strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Robin Yount was 1-for-4 with a walk, scoring once and driving in one.  B. J. Surhoff was 3-for-5.  Mike Felder was 1-for-2 with two walks.

The game:  There was no lack of Twins offense in this one.  Gaetti hit a two-run homer in the first and Puckett hit a solo homer in the third to make it 3-0 Twins.  Milwaukee got single runs in the third and fourth to cut it to 3-2.  Puckett hit another homer in the fifth and the Twins got three more runs later in the inning to go up 7-2.  Hrbek hit a three-run homer in the sixth and the Twins added two more in the seventh.

Of note:  Dan Gladden remained out of the lineup, with Randy Bush in right field and Tom Brunansky in left...Bush batted seventh, with Greg Gagne in the leadoff spot...Puckett moved up from his usual number three slot to bat second, with Hrbek third...Puckett raised his average to .320...Brunansky was 2-for-5 with a run and an RBI...Steve Lombardozzi was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk, driving in three...Milwaukee starter Len Barker lasted only 3.1 innings, allowing three runs on six hits and two walks with one strikeout...Milwaukee reliever Jay Aldrich was tagged with six runs in 3.2 innings, allowing eight hits and two walks with two strikeouts.

Record:  The Twins were 68-63, tied for first place with Oakland, who defeated Toronto 6-5 in ten innings.  Oakland, at 67-62, was actually slightly ahead on winning percentage, .5194 to .5191.

Player profile:  I know I said I wouldn't do one until next week, and after this I probably won't, but I had a fondness for guys who had brief careers.  This was the rookie season for Jay Aldrich.  He was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, attended Montclair State University, and was drafted in the tenth round by Milwaukee in 1982.  He did fairly well in AA and AAA, especially considering that he was playing El Paso and Denver, two places where it's hard to get good pitching numbers (one would think it was really hard for the Brewers to evaluate their minor league pitchers at this time).  He came up to Milwaukee in early June of 1987 and was used in long relief.  His ERA of 4.94 is not very good, but he appears to have been allowed to get beaten up a few times just because the Brewers needed someone to fill up the innings.  If you take out the worst three of his 31 appearances, in which he gave up a total of 15 earned runs, his ERA drops to 3.06.  Still, he spent all of 1988 in AAA.  He started 1989 in AAA too, but came up to the Brewers in late May and was traded to Atlanta in September.  1989 was his best major league season, as he went 2-2, 3.29 and got a save.  However, he was released after that season and signed with Baltimore for 1990.  He was with the Orioles at the start of the season, but did not pitch well and was sent down in late April.  He did not pitch well in AAA, either, and was sold to San Francisco in early August.  He became a free agent after the season, did not sign with anyone, and his playing career was over.  He did sign with the Pirates as a replacement player in 1995.  For his career, he was 6-5, 4.72 with two saves and a WHIP of 1.45 in 62 games (108.2 innings).  Not a great career, not even a good career.  But he got to the big leagues, spent about a year and a half there, and got into sixty-two games.  That's better than the vast majority of baseball players do.