CHICAGO WHITE SOX 9, MINNESOTA TWINS 7 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Sunday, June 26, 1993.

Batting stars:  John Castino was 3-for-5 with a double and two runs.  Randy Bush was 2-for-4 with a home run (his sixth) and three RBIs.  Gary Ward was 2-for-5.  Tom Brunansky hit a three-run homer, his eleventh.

Pitching star:  Ron Davis struck out the side in a perfect inning..

Opposition stars:  Scott Fletcher was 3-for-4 with a home run (his first), a triple, and three RBIs.  Rudy Law was 3-for-4 with a triple, a double, and three runs.  Greg Walker was 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs.  Tom Paciorek was 2-for-5 with two RBIs.  Greg Luzinski hit a two-run homer, his tenth.

The game:  The Twins jumped out to the early lead.  Rusty Kuntz and John Castino led off with singles, putting men on first and third.  With one out, Kent Hrbek hit a sacrifice fly and Randy Bush followed with a two-run homer, putting the Twins ahead 3-0.  Chicago got one back in the second, when Ron Kittle singled and scored on a Scott Fletcher triple, but the Twins regained a three-run lead in the third on singles by Castino, Gary Ward, and Bush.

The White Sox moved ahead to stay in the third.  Rudy Law led off with a triple and Tom Paciorek singled him home.  With one out Greg Luzinski hit a two-run homer to tie it 4-4.  Chicago wasn’t done, as with two out Vance Law walked and singles by Marc Hill and Scott Fletcher followed, giving the White Sox a 5-4 lead.  It went to 6-4 in the fourth on doubles by Rudy Law and Greg Walker.

The Twins got a one-out double in the fifth by John Castino, but he was stranded at second.  In the bottom of the fifth the first two men went out, but Jerry Dybzinski reached on an error and stole second, leading to an intentional walk to Rudy Law.  RBI singles by Tom Paciorek and Greg Walker followed, making the score 8-4.  Scott Fletcher homered in the seventh to make it 9-4.

The Twins got back into it in the eighth.  Gary Ward led off with a single and Kent Hrbek walked.  With one out, Tom Brunansky hit a three-run homer to cut the lead to 9-7.  The Twins got the tying run to bat with one out in the ninth, but Salmoe Barojas came in to retire the next two batters and secure the win for Chicago.

WP:  Richard Dotson (7-5).

LP:  Bryan Oelkers (0-5).

S:  Salome Barojas (6).

Notes:  Ray Smith was behind the plate.  He made 59 appearances at catcher, behind Dave Engle (72) and just ahead of Tim Laudner (57).  Randy Bush was at first base in place of Kent Hrbek, who was at DH.  Bush was the regular DH–this was one of just three games Bush played at first base in 1983.  The usual replacement first baseman was Scott Ullger.  Rusty Kuntz was in center field.  Darrell Brown saw the most action there (76 games), followed by Bobby Mitchell (44) and Tom Brunansky (38).

Kent Hrbek was batting .313.  He would finish at .297.  Randy Bush was batting .305.  He would finish at .249.

Len Whitehouse, who pitched the seventh, had an ERA of 2.82.  He would finish at 4.15.

I don’t believe any White Sox players in this game had any connection to the Twins

Rusty Kuntz had come to the Twins from the White Sox just five days earlier for Mike Sodders.

The Twins really had no backup plan in centerfield once Jim Eisenreich couldn’t play.  That would be solved when Kirby Puckett came along.

1983 was the only season Ray Smith saw any decent amount of playing time.  He batted .224/.274/.257 in 167 at-bats.  He would, of course, go on to a long career managing the Elizabethton Twins.

This was the last start Bryan Oelkers would make as a Twin.  He lasted just 2.2 innings, allowing five runs on nine hits and a walk.  He would make two relief appearances, then would not show up in the majors again until 1986, when he appeared in 35 games for Cleveland.  That would be his only other major league season.

I don’t know, but I would not be surprised if this was the only time a team had two players on it named “Law”.  In this case, the Twins fought the Laws, and the Laws won.

Record:  Chicago was 36-34, in fourth place in the AL West, three games behind Texas.  They would finish 99-63, in first place, twenty games ahead of Kansas City.  They were an MLB best 63-29 after this game.

The Twins were 30-44, in sixth place in the AL West, eleven games behind Texas.  They would finish 70-92, tied for fourth with California, twenty-nine games behind Chicago.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 25-27 (.481).