OAKLAND ATHLETICS 5, MINNESOTA TWINS 3 IN OAKLAND

Date:  Monday, September 19, 1988.

Batting star:  Jim Dwyer was 2-for-3.  John Moses was 2-for-5.

Pitching stars:  Roy Smith pitched 3.1 scoreless innings, giving up four hits and a walk.  Juan Berenguer pitched two shutout innings, walking three and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Luis Polonia was 2-for-3 with two walks.  Mike Gallego was 2-for-3 with a walk.  Jose Canseco was 2-for-4 with a walk.  Dave Parker was 2-for-5 with a two-run homer, his eleventh.  Dave Stewart pitched 6.1 innings, giving up three runs on eight hits and two walks and striking out six.  Dennis Eckersley pitched two perfect innings, striking out one.

The game:  Moses led off the game with a single, was balked to second, went to third on a fly out, and scored on a ground out, giving the Twins a 1-0 lead.  In the second, Carney Lansford walked and scored on Terry Steinbach’s single-plus-error to tie it.  Steinbach went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a Stan Javier infield single to give Oakland a 2-1 advantage.

The Twins went back in front in the third.  Singles by Greg Gagne and Tom Herr put men on first and second with one out.  RBI singles by Randy Bush and Kirby Puckett made it 3-2 Twins.  But the lead was short-lived, as Canseco led off the bottom of the third with a single and Parker followed with a two-run homer, putting the Athletics in front 4-3.  Later in the inning, singles by Lansford, Walt Weiss, and Gallego made it 5-3 Oakland.

And that was it for the scoring.  Each team had threat in the sixth.  For the Twins, Dwyer had a one-out single and Gene Larkin walked.  With two-out, Al Newman walked to load the bases, but a foul fly ended the inning.  For the Athletics, Polonia had a bunt single and stole second with two out.  Canseco was intentionally walked, but a ground out put an end to the inning.

Moses led off the seventh with a single, but he never moved past first.  The last nine Twins were retired, and the victory went to Oakland.

WP:  Stewart (19-12).

LP:  Fred Toliver (7-5).

S:  Eckersley (42).

Notes:  Larkin was at first base in place of Kent Hrbek.  Herr was acquired specifically to play second, but Steve Lombardozzi actually made the most appearances there in 1988.  Newman was at third in place of Gary Gaetti.  Moses was in left in place of Dan Gladden, although Gladden would pinch-hit and then go to left, with Moses moving to right.  Dwyer, who had been acquired at the August trade deadline, was the DH, where Larkin had made the most appearances.

Puckett was batting .346.  He would go 24-for-54 over the last twelve games to finish at .356.  Moses was batting .314.  He would finish at .316.  Gaetti was batting .300.  He would finish at .301.

Terry Steinbach would go on to play for the Twins at the end of his career.  He was 1-for-3 with a walk in this game.

This was Fred Toliver’s only year as a rotation starter.  He would make 19 starts and go 7-6, 4.24.  He might have been a good pitcher if he could’ve found the strike zone more often, although there are lots of pitchers of whom that could be said.  He walked 4.1 per nine in 1988 and 4.5 per nine for his career.  He made 37 starts in his career, so just over half of them came in 1988.

This was a September game and the Twins were out of the pennant race, so several substitutes were used.  This includes a couple of guys who had very brief Twins careers, Eric Bullock and Doug Baker.  Bullock appeared in 16 games with the Twins and in 131 games over seven seasons.  Baker appeared in 11 games with the Twins in 1988, 57 games total, and 136 games over seven seasons.

This was Eckersley’s first full season as a closer, and he made the most of it.  He had 45 saves and a WHIP of 0.87.  He would finish second in Cy Young voting to Frank Viola.  

Record:  Oakland was 96-55, in first place in the AL West, 12.5 games ahead of Minnesota.  They would finish 104-58, 13 games ahead of Minnesota.

The Twins were 83-67, in second place in the AL West, 12.5 games behind Oakland.  They would finish 91-71, in second place, 13 games behind Oakland.  The Twins finished six games better than they had in their 1987 championship season, but it wasn’t enough to hold off the Athletics.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 12-9 (.571).