MILWAUKEE BREWERS 2, MINNESOTA TWINS 1 IN MILWAUKEE
Date: Saturday, July 5, 1997.
Batting star: Marty Cordova was 2-for-3.
Pitching stars: Rich Robertson pitched 6.2 innings, giving up two runs on five hits and four walks. Frankie Rodriguez pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, walking one and striking out one.
Opposition stars: Jack Voigt hit a home run, his second. Cal Eldred pitched seven innings, giving up one run on three hits and a walk and striking out three.
The game: Milwaukee scored in the first inning. With one out, Jose Valentin doubled, went to third on Jeff Cirillo’s single, and scored on a Marc Newfield sacrifice fly. The Brewers loaded the bases with one out in the second on three walks, but Matt Mieske was thrown out at the plate trying to score on a fly ball to end the inning. Mieske doubled with one out in the fourth but was stranded at second. Voigt homered in the fifth to make the score 2-0 Milwaukee.
The Twins had only two hits through the first six innings. They got on the board in the seventh when Terry Steinbach tripled and scored on a wild pitch. Their only other threat came in the eighth, when Cordova led off with a single and stole second with two out. The last six Twins were retired and the score remained 2-1.
WP: Cal Eldred (8-8).
LP: Rich Robertson (7-6).
S: Doug Jones (20).
Notes: Paul Molitor was batting .319. He would finish at .305. Ron Coomer was batting .306. He would finish at .298.
Jeff Cirillo was 1-for-4. He played for the Twins in 2007.
Rich Robertson made twenty-six starts. This was one of seven that had a game score over fifty.
The Twins essentially had two competent starters: Brad Radke (3.87) and Bob Tewksbury (4.22). The others were Robertson (5.69), LaTroy Hawkins (5.84), Frankie Rodriguez (4.62, but 6.10 as a starter), and Scott Aldred (7.68).
This was one of twenty home runs that Jack Voigt hit in his career. He would set his career high in 1997 with eight.
Doug Jones led the league in games finished in 1997, with 73. He also led in 1992 with 70.
Record: Milwaukee was 38-44, in third place in the AL Central, 6.5 games behind Cleveland. They would finish 78-83, in third place, 8 games behind Cleveland.
The Twins were 37-47, in fifth (last) place, 8.5 games behind Cleveland. They would finish 68-94, in fourth place, 18.5 games behind Cleveland.
Random Record: The Random Twins are 23-19 (.548).