CLEVELAND INDIANS 11, MINNESOTA TWINS 3 IN CLEVELAND
Date: Tuesday, April 26, 1994.
Batting stars: Dave Winfield was 2-for-4 with a home run, his second. Chuck Knoblauch was 2-for-5. Scott Leius hit a home run, his third.
Pitching stars: None.
Opposition stars: Albert Belle was 2-for-4 with two doubles. Eddie Murray was 2-for-4 with a double. Paul Sorrento was 2-for-4 with two runs. Kenny Lofton was 2-for-5 with a triple, a double, a walk, two runs, and two RBIs. Manny Ramirez hit a three-run homer, his fourth. Candy Maldonado hit a home run, his second. Mark Clark pitched 6.2 innings, giving up three runs on eight hits and two walks and striking out two. Jose Mesa retired all seven men he faced, striking out one.
The game: In the first, Kenny Lofton walked and Albert Belle delivered a two-out two-run double to give Cleveland a 1-0 lead. The Twins tied it in the third when Scott Leius led off with a home run. With two out in the inning, Alex Cole singled, stole second, and scored on a Chuck Knoblauch single to give the Twins a 2-1 lead.
The Indians got the lead back in the fourth, and this time they kept it. With one out, Albert Belle doubled, went to third on an Eddie Murray single, and scored on a Paul Sorrento single. The next batter went out, but Manny Ramirez hit a three-run homer to give Cleveland a 5-2 lead.
Dave Winfield homered in the sixth to cut the lead to 5-3, but that was as good as it got. Candy Maldonado led off the seventh with a home run. Kenny Lofton then doubled, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a sacrifice fly to make the score 7-3.
Cleveland put it away in the eighth. Paul Sorrento singled with one out, with two down, Manny Ramirez reached on an error, Tony Pena hit an RBI single, Kenny Lofton had a two-run triple, and Mark Lewis hit an RBI single. The score was 11-3, and that’s where it stayed.
WP: Mark Clark (2-0).
LP: Pat Mahomes (1-1).
S: None.
Notes: Alex Cole was in left. Shane Mack played the most games there with 66, followed by Pedro Munoz at 42. Cole played the most games in center, with 84, but Rich Becker was there in this game.
Kirby Puckett was batting .333. He would finish at .317. Rich Becker was batting .305. He would finish at .265. Alex Cole was batting .303. He would finish at .296.
Paul Sorrento had played for the Twins from 1989-1991. Jim Thome was at third base for Cleveland. He would play for the Twins from 2010-2011.
Kenny Lofton was a really good player. He was a six-time all-star, every year from 1994-1999. He led the league in hits once, in triples once, and in stolen bases five times. In those five seasons, 1992-1996, he averaged sixty-five stolen bases. Over seventeen seasons, he batted .299/.372/.423. He also won four gold gloves, so he was considered a fine defender. I don’t think he belongs in the Hall of Fame, but he was an excellent player for many years, and if he was in the Hall of Fame I don’t think he’d be the worst player there.
Pat Mahomes started, and after the game he had an ERA of 8.41. Mark Guthrie was the only reliever used, and after the game he had an ERA of 12.75. It was early in the season, obviously, but while those numbers would come down neither of them had a good season in 1994.
Mark Guthrie has a son, Dalton, who played briefly for Philadelphia from 2022-2023. If I knew that, I’d forgotten it. A utility player, he has batted .244/.393/.333 in forty-five major league at-bats. He played in AAA for Boston in 2024 and is currently a free agent. He’s twenty-nine, so it’s an open question whether he’ll get another chance. He does have a good OBP in AAA, so he might someone might sign him. Or, of course, they might not.
Record: Cleveland was 11-7, in first place in the AL Central, percentage points ahead of Chicago. They would finish 66-47, in second place, one game behind Chicago.
The Twins were 7-14, in fifth (last) place in the AL Central, 5.5 games behind Cleveland. They would finish 53-60, in fourth place, fourteen games behind Chicago.
Random Record: The Random Twins are 48-48 (.500).