SEATTLE 8, MINNESOTA 4 IN SEATTLE
Date: Thursday, April 22.
Batting stars: Gary Ward was 3-for-4 with a double, a walk, and two runs. John Castino was 2-for-4. Jim Eisenreich was 2-for-5 with two doubles. Randy Johnson was 2-for-5 with a double.
Pitching star: Fernando Arroyo pitched four innings of relief, giving up one run on four hits and four walks. Bobby Castillo retired all five men he faced.
Opposition stars: Mike Stanton pitched three shutout innings of relief, giving up one hit and striking out one. Richie Zisk was 2-for-4 with a double, two runs, and two RBIs. Jim Essian was 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Manny Castillo was 2-for-5.
The game: The Twins put two on with two out in the first, but nothing came of it. They again put two on with two out in the third, as Bobby Mitchell doubled and scored on Ward's single. Ward went to second on the throw to the plate and scored on a Kent Hrbek single to put the Twins up 2-0.
The lead lasted all the way to the bottom of the third. Jim Essian led off with a single. Singles by Julio Cruz and Castlllo loaded the bases. Bruce Bochte walked to force home a run and Zisk's two-run double put the Mariners ahead. An intentional walk reloaded the bases. Al Cowens singled home a run and a walk to Joe Simpson brought home another. Twins starter Pete Redfern came out of the game, but Arroyo gave up a two-run single to Essian before finally getting out of the inning. It was 7-2 Seattle, and they would lead the rest of the way.
The Twins managed to not score in the fifth despite getting doubles from Eisenreich and Ward, as Eisenreich was only able to get to third on the Ward double. They got one run in the sixth when Castino singled, went to second on a Lenny Faedo walk, and scored on Eisenreich's single. They got one more in the seventh on walks to Ward and Hrbek and a single by Johnson, cutting the margin to 7-4. The Mariners got one of the runs back in the bottom of the seventh when Zisk singled, Jim Maier walked, and Simpson delivered an RBI single. That made it 8-4, and that's where it stayed.
WP: Mike Moore (1-2). LP: Redfern (1-2). S: Stanton (3).
Notes: Mitchell was in right field, as Tom Brunansky had not been brought to the majors yet. Later in the season Mitchell would take over in center field because of the struggles of Eisenreich.
The Twins didn't really have a full-time DH. Johnson played the most games there with 66. Others to see significant time at DH were Jesus Vega (39), Mickey Hatcher (29), Randy Bush (26), and Dave Engle (20).
Castino was a second baseman at this point, due to back trouble and to the presence of Gary Gaetti.
This was Redfern's last major league season. He had been decent from 1979-1981, but in 1982 he was awful, going 5-11, 6.58, 1.83 WHIP. It says much about the Twins pitching staff that he still made 13 starts and appeared in relief 14 times.
This would be Arroyo's last appearance as a Twin. Despite pitching pretty well in this game, he had an ERA of 5.27 and a WHIP of 1.68 at this point. He was released and claimed by Oakland, for whom he was not a lot better. After this season he would make only one more major league appearance, for the Athletics in 1986. He would walk all three batters he faced and be done in the majors for good.
The Twins went 5-for-14 with men in scoring position, but still stranded eleven men.
Hrbek was leading the team in batting at this stage of the season at .323. Eisenreich was batting .321.
On the other end of the scale, Mitchell was batting .160 and Butch Wynegar was at .167.
Record: The Twins were 6-10, in seventh (last) place in the American League West, five games behind Chicago. They would finish 60-102, in seventh (last) place, thirty-three games behind California.
The Mariners were 7-9, in sixth place in the American League West, four games behind Chicago. They would finish 76-86, in fourth place, seventeen games behind California.