MINNESOTA TWINS 12, TORONTO BLUE JAYS 2 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Monday, May 12, 1997.
Batting stars: Greg Myers was 4-for-5 with two doubles, four runs, and two RBIs. Greg Colbrunn was 4-for-5 with two runs and two RBIs. Roberto Kelly was 3-for-5 with two RBIs. Matt Lawton was 2-for-4 with a walk. Chuck Knoblauch was 2-for-5 with two runs. Denny Hocking was 2-for-5.
Pitching star: Brad Radke struck out seven in seven innings, giving up two runs on nine hits. Todd Ritchie pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk. Rick Aguilera pitched a perfect inning.
Opposition stars: Joe Carter was 3-for-4 with a home run (his third), a double, and two runs. Ed Sprague was 2-for-4 with a double. Otis Nixon was 2-for-5.
The game: The Twins jumped out to a first-inning lead. Knoblauch led off the game with a single and Rich Becker walked. With one out Myers drove in a run with a double and Kelly followed with a two-run single, putting the Twins up 3-0. Toronto got one back in the second when Carter hit a ground-rule double and scored on Sprague’s single, but the Twins countered with three more in the second. Knoblauch again started the rally with a single. With two out Paul Molitor hit an RBI double and scored on a Myers single. Kelly then singled, followed by an RBI single by Lawton, giving the Twins a 6-1 lead.
The Twins added one more in the fourth when Colbrunn singled, went to second on a ground out, and scored on an error. Carter homered in the fifth to cut the lead to 7-2, but that was as close as the Blue Jays would get.
The Twins put it away in the bottom of the fourth. Consecutive singles by Myers, Kelly, Lawton, and Colbrunn opened the inning to score a run. Todd Walker scored one more on a sacrifice fly. Hocking and Becker had RBI singles, making the score 11-2. The Twins added one more in the fifth when Myers doubled and scored on a two-out single by Colbrunn.
WP: Radke (3-2).
LP: Chris Carpenter (0-1).
S: None.
Notes: Myers was behind the plate in place of Terry Steinbach. Colbrunn shared first base with Scott Stahoviak, who actually played more games there that year. Hocking was at short in place of Pat Meares. Walker was at third in place of Ron Coomer. Lawton, who played all around the outfield that year, was in left in place of Marty Cordova. Kelly was in right.
Kelly was batting .309. He would finish at .287. Molitor was batting .268. He would finish at .305.
Otis Nixon, of course, would be the Twins’ regular center fielder the next season. Orlando Merced, who went 0-for-3 in this game, would also be with the Twins in 1998.
Rick Aguilera had an awful April in 1997, posting an ERA of 7.15 with a WHIP of 2.21. He would spend the rest of the season trying to get those numbers down to a respectable level. He finished this game with an ERA of 6.46. At the end of the season his ERA was 3.82 and his WHIP was 1.27.
This was Chris Carpenter’s rookie season and he was, to put it mildly, not very good. He went 3-7, 5.09, 1.78 WHIP. He was only twenty-two, however, and went on to have a fine career. He made three all-star teams, won a Cy Young Award and finished in the top three two other times, and led the league in ERA in 2009.
The last five innings of the game were pitched by Huck Flener. This was his last major league season, and he would appear in only three more major league games. He is one of four major leagues called “Huck” and the only major league with the last name of “Flener”.
Record: Toronto was 19-16, in third place in the AL East, 5 games behind Baltimore. They would finish 76-86, in fifth (last) place, 22 games behind Baltimore.
Minnesota was 15-23, in fifth (last) place in the AL Central, 6.5 games behind Milwaukee. They would finish 68-94, in fourth place, 18.5 games behind Cleveland.
Random Record: The Random Twins have won four in a row and are 18-12 (.600).