CHICAGO 3, MINNESOTA 2 IN CHICAGO (GAME 1--10 INNINGS)
Date: Thursday, October 3.
Batting stars: Chuck Knoblauch was 3-for-4 with a stolen base, his twenty-fourth. Chili Davis was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk. Dan Gladden was 1-for-5 with a home run, his sixth.
Pitching stars: Jack Morris pitched five shutout innings, giving up six hits and a walk and striking out five. He threw 72 pitches. Mark Guthrie pitched two shutout innings, giving up three hits.
Opposition stars: Jack McDowell pitched eight innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and four walks and striking out three. Lance Johnson was 4-for-4 with a triple and a stolen base, his twenty-fifth. Frank Thomas was 2-for-3 with two walks.
The game: The White Sox loaded the bases with one out in the first on two singles and a walk, but Bo Jackson hit into a double play to end the inning. The Twins put men on first and second with two out in the fourth, but Brian Harper flied out to end the inning.
Those were the only threats until the sixth, when Gladden led off the inning with a home run to put the Twins up 1-0. The Twins added a run in the ninth when Kent Hrbek walked and pinch-runner Jarvis Brown scored from first on Davis' double.
It was 2-0 going to the bottom of the ninth, and Rick Aguilera came in to finish it off. But he walked Warren Newson to lead off the inning, and Johnson then circled the bases on a triple-plus-error to tie the score 2-2. The next three batters went out, so we had free baseball.
The Twins went down in order in the top of the tenth. In the bottom of the tenth, Tim Raines reached on a two-base error. A ground out, an intentional walk, and a foul popup gave the Twins hope, but Newson delivered a single to score Raines and give the White Sox the victory.
WP: Scott Radinsky (5-5). LP: Aguilera (4-5). S: None.
Notes: Al Newman was at shortstop in place of Greg Gagne.
Lots of substitutes again. Brown pinch-ran for Hrbek in the ninth and stayed in the game in right field. Gene Larkin pinch-hit for Harper in the ninth and stayed in the game at first base. Gagne pinch-ran for Davis in the ninth. Randy Bush pinch-hit for Shane Mack in the ninth, but after a pitching change Pedro Munoz pinch-hit for Bush. Lenny Webster then replaced Munoz in the bottom of the ninth and went behind the plate. Scott Leius pinch-hit for Mike Pagliarulo in the ninth and stayed in the game at third base.
Kirby Puckett was 0-for-4 and was batting .318. Harper was 0-for-3 and was batting .312. Mack was 0-for-3 and was batting .306. Morris lowered his ERA to 3.43. Terry Leach pitched two-thirds of an inning without giving up a run to make his ERA 3.46. Aguilera allowed three runs (one earned) in 1.2 innings to make his ERA 2.38. It was his ninth blown save of the season.
Newman went 0-for-4 to drop his average to .198. He would not get back over the Mendoza line.
What's more fun than a doubleheader after the pennant race is over? Extra innings in a doubleheader after the pennant race is over!
It's a little surprising to me that Aguilera would stay in the game to pitch the tenth. He ended up throwing thirty-nine pitches, which these days would be considered a lot for a closer. Things were different then, of course. Still, with the expanded rosters and a meaningless game, I'd have expected someone else to come in to pitch the tenth.
Record: The Twins were 94-65, in first place in the American League West, eight games ahead of Chicago.
On October 2, when the Twins didn't play (presumably they were rained out), Toronto won and clinched the East, so the Twins would play the Blue Jays in the ALCS.