CHICAGO 4, MINNESOTA 2 IN CHICAGO
Date: Friday, July 5.
Batting star: Mike Pagliarulo was 2-for-4 with two doubles and two runs.
Pitching star: Jack Morris pitched an eight-inning complete game, giving up four runs on seven hits and four walks and striking out four.
Opposition stars: Jack McDowell pitched 7.2 innings, giving up two runs on six hits and two walks and striking out four. Dan Pasqua was 2-for-4 with a double. Lance Johnson was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his thirteenth. Robin Ventura was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer, his fifth.
The game: The Twins opened the second with a single and a walk, but a double play and a fly ball ended the inning. The White Sox got a pair of one-out singles in the bottom of the second, but also did not score. In the third, doubles by Pagliarulo and Chuck Knoblauch put the Twins up 1-0.
It stayed 1-0 until the sixth. Frank Thomas led off with a walk, was bunted to second, and scored on Pasqua's double to tie it 1-1. Chicago took the lead in the seventh. Scott Fletcher singled, Tim Raines drew a one-out walk, and Robin Ventura hit a three-run homer to give the White Sox a 4-1 lead.
The Twins tried to get back into the game in the eighth. Pagliarulo led off with a double and went to third on an Al Newman single. With one out, a passed ball made it 4-2 and Pedro Munoz walked, bringing the lead run up to bat. With Kirby Puckett and Kent Hrbek coming up. the Twins' chances looked good. But Puckett flied to center and Hrbek lined to center, and the inning was over.
The Twins got the tying run to bat twice in the ninth, but Brian Harper hit into a double play and Pagliarulo flied out.
WP: McDowell (10-4). LP: Morris (11-6). S: Bobby Thigpen (17).
Notes: Shane Mack was again in the lineup in left field to replace Dan Gladden. Munoz was in right. Chuck Knoblauch was the leadoff batter, with Munoz second.
Al Newman pinch-hit for Scott Leius in the eighth and singled. He stayed in the game at shortstop. Randy Bush pinch-hit for Mack in the ninth, singled, and was replaced by pinch-runner Jarvis Brown.
Harper was 1-for-4 and was batting .324. Puckett was 0-for-4 and was batting .316.
Morris threw ninety-seven pitches.
Since his four-hit game on July 1, Puckett has gone 0-for-15. His average has fallen from .332.
The Twins had now scored just twenty runs in their last ten games. They were 2-8 in those games. They had given up just thirty-five runs in those ten games.
California lost to Texas 8-0, so the Twins remained in first place. However, the win by the Rangers moved them into second place. Despite their recent poor play, they were in first place at the half-way point of the season, something no one expected when the season began.
Record: The Twins were 46-35, in first place in the American League West, one game ahead of Texas.