MINNESOTA TWINS 6, MILWAUKEE BREWERS 5 IN MILWAUKEE (13 INNINGS)

Date:  Friday, July 22, 1994.

Batting stars:  Scott Leius was 3-for-5 with a home run (his thirteenth), a double, a walk, three runs and two RBIs.  Chuck Knoblauch was 2-for-5 with a double and a walk.  Kirby Puckett hit a home run, his sixteenth.

Pitching stars:  Kevin Campbell pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits and striking out one.  Erik Schullstrom pitched 2.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and striking out two.  Mark Guthrie pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and striking out one.  Rick Aguilera pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out two.

Opposition stars:  Rick Wrona was 3-for-4 with three doubles and a walk.  Kevin Seitzer was 3-for-6 with a double.  Dave Nilsson was 2-for-5 with a double.  Jose Mercedes pitched 2.2 scoreless innings, giving up a walk.  Jaime Navarro pitched four innings, of relief, giving up one run on three hits and two walks and striking out two.

The game:  Puckett homered in the first inning to put the Twins up 1-0.  Milwaukee came back in the second.  Greg Vaughn led off with a double and scored on Nilsson’s single-plus error.  Matt Mieske then doubled home Nilsson, went to third on a ground out, and scored on a sacrifice fly, making the score 3-1 Brewers.

Milwaukee missed some chances to expand the lead.  Jeff Cirillo led off the third with a double and went to third on a ground out, but was stranded there.  Wrona walked and went to third on Jose Valentin’s single, but Valentin was thrown out trying to go to second.  Jody Reed then walked and stole second, putting men on second and third with two out.  But Cirillo flied out to end the inning.

Leius homered with one out in the fifth to cut the lead to 3-2.  Milwaukee again responded in the bottom of the inning.  Seitzer led off with a double.  He was on third with two out Mieske walked, Wrona delivered an RBI double, and a wild pitch made the score 5-2.

The Twins got one run back in the sixth.  With one out, Kent Hrbek walked, followed by singles by Shane Mack and Pedro Munoz to load the bases.  Leius drove in one with a single, leaving the bases still loaded, but Matt Walbeck hit into a double play.

The Brewers again missed a chance to expand the lead in the seventh.  Seitzer led off with a single but was picked off first.  Nilsson doubled with two out, but was left on second.  It cost them, as the Twins tied it in the ninth.  Leius walked.  With one out, pinch-hitter Chip Hale singled, with Leius going to third.  Pinch-runner Alex Cole stole second, with Leius coming home on an errant throw.  Knoblauch then singled to score Cole and tie it 5-5.

Wrona led off the eleventh with a double but advanced no farther.  Knoblauch led off the twelfth with a walk and was sacrificed to second.  Puckett was intentionally walked and Hrbek got an infield single to load the bases, but Mack hit into a double play.

The Twins took the lead in the thirteenth.  Leius doubled with one out, went to third on a ground out, and scored on a double by Jeff Reboulet.  In the bottom of the inning, Turner Ward walked and was bunted to second, but Alex Diaz flied out and Valentin grounded out to end the game.

WP:  Aguilera (1-3).

LP:  Navarro (3-7).

S:  None.

Notes:  Rich Becker was in center field in place of Cole, who was the regular center fielder.  Munoz was the DH in place of Dave Winfield.

Milwaukee hit eight doubles, but no home runs.

Eddie Guardado started for the Twins, the last of four starts he would make that season.  He lasted just 2.1 innings, giving up three runs on four hits and a walk.  He was twenty-three in 1994, and was obviously a long way from being Everyday Eddie at this point.

Mack was batting .320.  He would finish at .333.  Puckett was batting .319.  He would finish at .317.  Munoz was batting .314.  He would finish at .295.  Knoblauch was batting .313.  He would finish at .312.  Cole was batting .307.  He would finish at .296.

This was the second major league game for Erik Schullstrom.  He had not given up a run in 5.1 innings.  He would stretch that to 7.1 innings.  He did a very good job out of the bullpen for the Twins that year, posting a 2.77 ERA with one save before the season was prematurely ended.

Rick Wrona played in just six games for Milwaukee in 1994.  Three of his five hits and three of his four doubles came in this game.

Record:  Milwaukee was 45-51, in fourth place in the AL Central, 13.5 games behind the White Sox.  They would finish 53-62, in fifth place, fifteen games behind the White Sox.

The Twins were 44-51, in fifth place in the AL Central, fourteen games behind the White Sox.  They would finish 53-60, in fourth place, fourteen games behind the White Sox.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 2-3 (.400).

DETROIT TIGERS 5, MINNESOTA TWINS 2 IN DETROIT

Date:  Sunday, October 2, 2022.

Batting star:  Carlos Correa was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.

Pitching stars:  Griffin Jax pitched a perfect inning, striking out two.  Jorge Lopez pitched a scoreless inning, walking one.

Opposition stars:  Miguel Cabrera was 2-for-4.  Eric Haase hit a home run, his fourteenth.  Victor Reyes hit a home run, his second.  Joey Wentz pitched 4.2 innings, giving up two unearned runs on two hits and four walks and striking out four.  

The game:  Correa hit a one-out double in the first, but nothing came of it.  In the bottom of the first Akil Baddoo led off with a walk, went to third on a stolen base-plus-error, and scored when Haase reached on an error with one out.  Cabrera singled to put men on first and third and a wild pitch made it 2-0 Tigers.  It went to 3-0 in the third when Haase hit a two-out home run.

The Twins got on the board in the fifth.  Ryan Jeffers reached on a two-base error to start the inning.  One-out walks to Gilberto Celestino and Jose Miranda loaded the bases and Correa walked to force in a run.  Nick Gordon then hit a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 3-2.

That was as good as it would get for the Twins.  Neither team threatened until the eighth, when Reyes led off with a home run.  Baddoo singled and Riley Greene walked, putting men on first and second.  With one out, Cabrera hit an RBI single to make it 5-2, and that’s where it ended.

WP:  Alex Lange (7-4).

LP:  Simeon Woods Richardson (0-1).

S:  Gregory Soto (30).

Notes:  Jeffers was behind the plate in place of Gary Sanchez.  Gordon was at second in place of Jorge Polanco.  Gordon’s primary position that year was left field, but Jake Cave manned that position in this game.  Matt Wallner was in right in place of Max Kepler.

This was the major league debut of Simeon Woods Richardson.  He actually did pretty well, pitching five innings and giving up three runs (two earned) on three hits and two walks while striking out three.

The Twins kept talking in 2024 about how many young players they were using, but many of those players were already with the big club at the end of 2022.  Miranda, Jeffers, Wallner, Richardson, and Jax all played in this game.  They may not have been grizzled veterans in 2024, but they weren’t a bunch of kids, either.

A few other random Twins who played in this game were Jermaine Palacios, Mark Contreras, and Caleb Hamilton.

The Twins had been in contention much of the 2022 season, but collapsed down the stretch.  Where have I heard that before?

Record:  Detroit was 65-93, in fourth place in the AL Central, 24.5 games behind Cleveland.  They finished 66-96, in fourth place, twenty-six games behind Cleveland.

Minnesota was 77-82, in third place in the AL Central, thirteen games behind Cleveland.  They finished 78-84, in third place, fourteen games behind Cleveland.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 1-3 (.250).