TORONTO 3, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA (10 INNINGS)
Date: Sunday, October 6.
Batting star: Mike Pagliarulo was 1-for-3 with a home run (his sixth) and two runs.
Pitching stars: Tom Edens pitched six innings, giving up one run on three hits and no walks and striking out five. David West struck out two in a perfect inning. Steve Bedrosian struck out one in a perfect inning.
Opposition stars: Pat Hentgen pitched five innings, giving up one run on three hits and a walk and striking out two. Kelly Gruber was 2-for-2 with a double. Devon White was 1-for-2 with a home run, his seventeenth. Rob Ducey was 1-for-3 with a home run.
The game: White led off the game with a home run, giving the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead. Pagliarulo homered with one out in the third to tie it 1-1. The Twins put men on first and second in the fourth and again in the sixth, but the score remained 1-1 until the seventh.
In the seventh, Pagliarulo reached on a two-base error and scored on a Paul Sorrento single to put the Twins up 2-1. In the eighth Mookie Wilson singled, stole second, and scored on a Greg Myers single to tie it 2-2.
The Twins put two on in the ninth, but did not score. In the tenth, Ducey led off with a home run to give Toronto a 3-2 lead. The Twins went down in order in the bottom of the tenth.
WP: David Weathers (1-0). LP: Allan Anderson (5-11). S: Duane Ward (23).
Notes: The Twins started their regular lineup, but substituted for everyone but Pagliarulo. In the fifth, Gene Larkin replaced Kent Hrbek at first base, Al Newman replaced Chuck Knoblauch at second base. Jarvis Brown had pinch-run for Kirby Puckett in the fourth and went to center field in the fifth. In the sixth, Randy Bush pinch-hit for Chili Davis and remained at DH. Paul Sorrento replaced Dan Gladden in the lineup and went to first base, with Larkin moving to right field. Pedro Munoz replaced Shane Mack and went to left field. Scott Leius replaced Greg Gagne and went to shortstop. In the seventh, Junior Ortiz replaced Brian Harper and went behind the plate.
Puckett was 1-for-2 and ended the season at .319. Harper was 0-for-3 and ended at .311. Mack was 1-for-2 and ended at .310. Bush was 0-for-3 and ended at .303.
Newman was 0-for-2 and ended at .191.
Both teams treated this as a spring training game. No Blue Jay played the entire game. I'm sure they were thrilled to have to play an extra inning in the last game of the season when it didn't mean anything. I suspect Tom Kelly was not all that disappointed when the Twins lost in the tenth.
This was the only home run Ducey hit this season and only the second of his major league career. He had thirty-one for his career. His career high was eight in 1999.
This was the first win of Weathers' career. He ended up with 73 in his career. His career high was eight in 1994. It may have been a meaningless game, but it was probably not meaningless for him.
Record: The Twins ended the season 95-67, in first place in the American League West, eight games ahead of Chicago.
Toronto ended the season 91-71, in first place in the American League East, seven games ahead of Detroit.