MINNESOTA 8, TORONTO 6 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Tuesday, June 25.
Batting stars: Gene Larkin was 3-for-3 with a walk. Dan Gladden was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk. Chuck Knoblauch was 2-for-5. Chili Davis was 1-for-2 with a two-run homer (his seventeenth), three walks, and two runs. Mike Pagliarulo was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer, his third.
Pitching star: Rick Aguilera pitched a perfect inning.
Opposition stars: Greg Myers was 4-for-4 with a home run (his third) and two runs. Devon White was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his sixteenth. Kelly Gruber was 1-for-4 with a home run, his fifth. John Olerud was 1-for-4 with a home run, his eighth.
The game: In the first inning, Knoblauch hit a one-out single and Davis hit a two-out two-run homer to put the Twins up 2-0. In the third, Gladden and Knoblauch singled and Kirby Puckett drew a walk to load the bases with one out. Brian Harper hit a sacrifice fly and Larkin singled home a run to make it 4-0.
The Blue Jays came storming back in the fifth. Gruber led off with a home run and Olerud hit a one-out homer to cut the lead to 4-2. Myers singled and Manny Lee hit a single-plus-error, scoring Myers and making it 4-3. Mookie Wilson then hit a sacrifice fly to tie it 4-4. Toronto wasn't done, as White singled and stole second and then scored on a Roberto Alomar single to put the Blue Jays up 5-4.
It stayed 5-4 until the sixth, when Larkin singled and Pagliarulo hit a two-run homer to put the Twins back in front 6-5. They got a couple of insurance runs in the seventh. Puckett was hit by a pitch and Davis walked. A bunt moved the runners up, Mack's sacrifice fly scored one, and an Al Newman single made the score 8-5.
Myers homered in the eighth to make it 8-6, but that was the only hit Toronto had after the sixth inning.
WP: Jack Morris (10-5). LP: Todd Stottlemyre (8-3). S: Aguilera (20).
Notes: Larkin remained at first base, as Kent Hrbek was still out of the lineup. Newman pinch-hit for Pagliarulo in the seventh and stayed in the game at third base.
Harper was 1-for-3 and was batting .340. Puckett was 1-for-4 and was batting .327. Aguilera lowered his ERA to 2.78.
Morris pitched seven innings, allowing five runs on nine hits and two walks and striking out four. He pitched really well other than in the fourth inning. Again, I would suggest that any other pitcher would've come out of the game in that fourth inning--Morris allowed five runs on six hits, including two home runs, in that inning. For whatever reason, Tom Kelly stuck with Morris. I guess you can say it worked, as Morris pitched well after that inning and the Twins came back and won. It could be suggested, however, that it would've been better to not have lost the lead in the first place, and that using a relief pitcher might have accomplished that.
Stottlemyre pitched six innings, allowing six runs on ten hits and three walks and striking out six. Stottlemyre had a really good year in 1991, this game notwithstanding. He went 15-8, 3.78, 1.23 WHIP. That was the highest win total of his career, the second-lowest ERA (3.74 in 1998), and the second-lowest WHIP (1.22 in 1997). He never made an all-star team and never got any Cy Young votes, but he was a solid rotation starter for eleven seasons. For his career, he was 138-121, 4.28, 1.38 WHIP.
Record: The Twins were 44-27, in first place in the American League West, 4.5 games ahead of both California and Oakland.