CLEVELAND 15, MINNESOTA 8 IN CLEVELAND

Date:  Wednesday, September 8.

Batting stars:  Shane Mack was 3-for-5.  Pat Meares was 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs.  Dave Winfield was 2-for-4.  David McCarty was 2-for-5.  Pedro Munoz was 1-for-2 with a home run, his tenth.

Pitching stars:  Mike Hartley pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two walks.  Rick Aguilera struck out two in a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Kenny Lofton was 4-for-4 with a walk, two stolen bases (his fifty-ninth and sixtieth), and two runs.  Felix Fermin was 3-for-4 with a triple, a double, and six RBIs.  Wayne Kirby was 3-for-5 with two runs.  Candy Maldonado was 1-for-1 with a three-run homer, his fifth.  Sandy Alomar was 1-for-5 with a home run, his sixth.

The game:  Mack led off with a single, went to third on Chuck Knoblauch's single, and scored on a ground out to put the Twins up 1-0.  The Twins loaded the bases later in the inning, but did not score.

From there, it got ugly in a hurry.  In the bottom of the first, Lofton singled, stole second, and scored on a bunt single-plus-error.  A single and a walk loaded the bases, a sacrifice fly put the Indians ahead, a walk reloaded the bases, and Fermin hit a three-run double to give Cleveland a 5-1 lead after one inning.

The Twins got one back in the second when Pat Meares singled, went to second on a ground out, and scored on a pickoff error-plus-error.  The Indians countered with two in their half of the inning.  Alomar led off with a home run.  Lofton singled, stole second, and scored on a pair of fly balls, making the score 7-2 Cleveland.  In the third a single and a walk put men on first and second with one out.  Fermin, Lofton, and Kirby then hit RBI singles to give the Indians a 10-2 lead.  It went to 12-2 in the fourth on two hit batsmen and Fermin's two-run triple.  In the sixth, a pair of two-out singles were followed by Maldonado's three-run homer to make it 15-2.

The Twins had a big eighth inning to make the final score look better.  Munoz led off with a home run.  Winfield singled and Lenny Webster walked.  McCarty had an RBI single.  Terry Jorgensen walked to load the bases.  Meares had a two-run single, Mack singled to load the bases again, and Chip Hale hit a two-run single to cut the lead to 15-8.  There were still none out in the inning, but Eric Plunk then came in to retire the next three batters.  The Twins went down in order in the ninth.

WP:  Jose Mesa (10-10).  LP:  Greg Brummett (3-4).  S:  None.

Notes:  Jorgensen was at third base.  Mike Pagliarulo was the regular third baseman, but he was traded to Baltimore in mid-August.

Mack was in center, with Kirby Puckett at DH.  Winfield, who was the regular DH, was in right.  McCarty was in left, with Munoz starting the game on the bench.

in a blowout game, the Twins made a number of substitutions.  Hale went to second base in the fifth, replacing Knoblauch.  Munoz came in to play left in the fifth, with McCarty going to first base and Kent Hrbek coming out of the game.  Bernardo Brito pinch-hit for Puckett in the seventh.  Webster came in to catch in the eighth in place of Brian Harper.  Jeff Reboulet pinch-hit for Brito in the eighth.

Harper was batting .311.  He would finish at .304 and was regular the only Twin to bat over .300.  Hale was batting .308 and would finish at .333 in 186 at-bats.  Puckett would finish at .300 and would finish at .296.  The Twins were ninth in batting at .264.  New York led the league at .279.

Hrbek led the team in home runs with 25.  Puckett was not far behind at 22.  Winfield contributed 21.  Others in double digits were Munoz (13), Harper (12), and Mack (10).  The Twins were twelfth in the league in home runs with 121.  Texas led with 181.

This was only the second start Brummett made for the Twins, and was easily the worst.  He lasted just two innings and allowed seven runs on six hits and two walks.  He struck out one.  His record is listed as 3-4 because he had pitched for the Giants earlier in the sesaon.  He was the player to be named later in the trade that sent Jim Deshaies to the Giants.

The Twins rotation was not uniformly awful, but it wasn't very good, either.  Kevin Tapani made the most starts but went 12-15, 4.43.  Scott Erickson was awful, going 8-19, 5.19.  Willie Banks was actually the most effective starter, going 11-12, 4.04.  Deshaies, before being traded, was 11-13, 4.41, Eddie Guardado was 3-8, 6.18 in his rookie season, and Mike Trombley was 6-6, 4.88 (although as a starter he was 3-5, 5.86).  The Twins were next-to-last in ERA at 4.71 and twelfth in WHIP at 1.46.  Chicago led in ERA at 3.70 and Boston led in WHIP at 1.33.

Record:  The Twins were 59-79, in sixth place in the American League West, 19.5 games behind Chicago.  They would finish 71-91, tied for fifth with California, 23 games behind Chicago.

The Indians were 66-73, in sixth place in the American League East, 11.5 games behind Toronto.  They would finish 76-86, in sixth place, 19 games behind Toronto.

Random record:  The Twins are 38-37 in Random Rewind games.