MINNESOTA 8, KANSAS CITY 1 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Sunday, September 27.
Batting stars: Al Newman was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk, scoring twice and driving in one. Kirby Puckett was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer, his twenty-eighth. Gary Gaetti was 2-for-4 with a home run (his thirty-first) and two runs.
Pitching star: Bert Blyleven pitched a complete game, giving up one run on five hits and two walks while striking out eight.
Opposition stars: Danny Tartabull was 2-for-4 with a home run, his thirty-second. Steve Farr struck out five in 4.1 innings of relief, giving up one run on three hits and no walks.
The game: This is the one that clinched a tie for the division. My main memory of it is that our local TV station that carried the Twins had technical difficulties for the first half-hour of the game, which means that I basically missed the game being decided, as the Twins ambushed Kansas City starter Charlie Liebrandt in the first inning.
Dan Gladden led off the first with a fly out, but then Newman doubled, Puckett homered, and Gaetti homered to make it 3-0. Tom Brunansky grounded out, but Don Baylor singled and Kent Hrbek hit a two-run homer. It was 5-0 after one inning and the Twins were never threatened the rest of the game. Newman singled home a run in the second to make it 6-0. In the fourth, Blyleven left a pitch up to Tartabull to put the Royals on the board, but it was the only run they would get. In fact, they would not get a man past first base after that. The Twins added two runs in the eighth to put the icing on the cake.
Notes: Newman was at second base in place of Steve Lombardozzi...With the Royals on the brink of elimination, manager John Wathan was apparently not worried about abusing his relief pitchers. Farr, who had pitched 4.1 innings Friday, again pitched 4.1 innings just two days later. John Davis, who had pitched two innings Saturday, pitched 2.1 the next day...Liebrandt lasted only two-thirds of an inning, giving up five runs on five hits with no walks and no strikeouts. As we all know, Liebrandt, who was a fine pitcher, also lost to the Twins in Game Six of the 1991 World Series, meaning that he was a key figure in both of the Twins World Championship years...I could not quickly find if the Twins have ever hit more than three home runs in the first inning of a game. It would be cool if someone had the time to look that up.
Record: The Twins were 84-72, in first place by six games over Kansas City.