1991 Rewind: Game Thirty-two

MINNESOTA 5, MILWAUKEE 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, May 14.

Batting stars:  Kent Hrbek was 3-for-4 with two runs.  Chili Davis was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer (his eighth) and two runs.  Brian Harper was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.  Dan Gladden was 2-for-5 with a double.

Pitching star:  Jack Morris pitched a complete game, giving up one run on two hits and two walks and striking out seven.

Opposition star:  Jim Gantner was 2-for-4 with two doubles.

The game:  The Twins got a couple of two-out singles in the first, but nothing came of them.  Gantner hit a one-out double in the fourth but did not move past second.  Gladden hit a two-out double in the fifth and was stranded.  So we remained scoreless into the sixth.

And then we were not scoreless any more.  Hrbek singled and Davis followed with a two-run homer.  It did not kill the rally, as Pedro Munoz had a two-out single and scored on a double by Mike Pagliarulo.  

The Brewers got on the board in the seventh when Gantner led off with a double and scored on a pair of ground outs.  The Twins got the run back with interest in the bottom of the seventh.  With two out, Hrbek singled, Davis reached on an error, and Harper hit a two-run double to make the scored 5-1.  That's where it stayed, as Milwaukee did not get a hit after Gantner's seventh-inning double.

WP:  Morris (3-4).  LP:  Jaime Navarro (2-2).  S:  None.

Notes:  Munoz was the right fielder.  Other than that, it was the standard Twins lineup.  Randy Bush pinch-hit for Munoz in the seventh, with Shane Mack going to right for defense.  Al Newman went in for defense in the ninth to replace Pagliarulo.

Harper raised his average to .383.  Chuck Knoblauch was 1-for-5 and was batting .331.  Davis raised his average to .324.  Puckett was 1-for-5 and was batting .309.

Bush was 0-for-1 and was batting .195.

Harper was 12-for-20 with three doubles in his last five games.  Davis was 6-for-11 with three home runs in his last three games.

Morris got his ERA down to 5.04.  That was the lowest it had been all season.

The Twins had won four in a row and seven of nine.

Milwaukee starter Navarro pitched 5.2 innings, giving up three runs on nine hits and a walk and striking out three.  1991 was his first full season, although he had been with the Brewers for most of 1990.  He was good in 1991, but his best season was probably 1992, when he went 17-12, 3.33, 1.17 WHIP.  He then struggled for a couple of seasons and became a free agent after 1994, signing with the Cubs.  He had two excellent seasons with the Cubs, going 29-18, 3.62, 1.30 WHIP.  He then signed with the White Sox and had three awful years.  He was 25-43, 6.06, 1.69 WHIP.  Amazingly, he stayed in the rotation all three of those seasons, making 87 starts.  He ended his major league career in 2000, playing for Milwaukee and Cleveland, but continued to play in the minors, in independent ball, in Mexico, and in Italy through 2006.  He has been involved in coaching since then, and is currently the pitching coach of Monclova in the Mexican League.

Record:  The Twins were 17-15, third in the American League West, 1.5 games behind Oakland.  They were one game behind second-place Seattle.

One thought on “1991 Rewind: Game Thirty-two”

  1. Hrbek was back in the lineup after his mild hamstring strain. When asked if Hrbek was playing at one hundred percent, Tom Kelly wondered, "Is he ever 100 percent?"

    Morris was actually given an extra day's rest before this start despite his complaining about such a situation several times. He responded by allowing just one baserunner in the first six innings. Somehow, Kelly warmed up four different relievers during the seventh inning.

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