MINNESOTA TWINS 9, OAKLAND ATHLETICS 2 IN OAKLAND

Date:  Saturday, August 9, 1986.

Batting stars: Mickey Hatcher was 4-for-5 with a double, a walk, and three runs.  Gary Gaetti was 2-for-3 with a double, two walks, and three RBIs.  Greg Gagne was 2-for-5 with a triple.  Roy Smalley hit a home run, his eighteenth.

Pitching star:  Frank Viola pitched seven innings, giving up one run on two hits and three walks and striking out six.

Opposition star:  Carney Lansford was 3-for-4.

The game:  Roy Smalley led off the game with a home run.  Mickey Hatcher then singled, Kent Hrbek walked, Tom Brunansky singled, and Gary Gaetti hit a two-run double, giving the Twins a 3-0 lead before a batter was retired by Oakland starter Dave Stewart.  In the second, Hatcher singled with one out, and with two out Brunansky walked and Gaetti singled to make it 4-0.

That’s where it stayed until the seventh, when Oakland got on the board.  Dave Kingman walked, Carney Lansford singled, and a sacrifice fly made the score 4-1.  

The Twins put the game away in the eighth.  Greg Gagne tripled, Roy Smalley walked, and Mickey Hatcher hit an RBI double.  With one out Tom Brunansky was intentionally walked to load the bases.  A wild pitch brought home a run, leading to an intentional walk to Gary Gaetti.  Another wild pitch brought home another run, and with two out, Kirby Puckett delivered a two-run single, making the score 9-1 Twins.

The Athletics got one more run in the ninth.  Jose Canseco was hit by a pitch, Dave Kingman walked, and Carney Lansford singled home a run.  The bases were loaded with one out, giving Oakland fans some slight hope, but a double play ended the game.

WP:  Frank Viola (12-8).

LP:  Dave Stewart (4-1).

S:  None.

Notes:  Jeff Reed was behind the plate.  Mark Salas had the most games there at 69, followed by Tim Laudner with 68 and Reed with 64.  Mickey Hatcher was in left field.  Randy Bush had the most games there with 90, followed by Billy Beane with 64.  Beane was in center, one of just five games he played there, in place of Kirby Puckett.

Kirby Puckett was batting .337.  He would finish at .328.

Frank Viola v. Dave Stewart sounds like an awesome pitching matchup, but Viola was struggling through a down year and Stewart was not yet the Dave Stewart he would become.  After this game, Viola had an ERA of 4.63 and Stewart had an ERA of 4.60.  Viola led the league in starts in 1986, but he never really would get it going.  The next year, of course, his ERA was 2.90 and he would help lead the Twins to the world championship.  Stewart had been released by Philadelphia on May 9 and would not sign with Oakland until two weeks later.  This was only his seventh start with the Athletics.  He would finish with an ERA of 3.74, and the net year would win twenty games.

Dusty Baker was in the last year of his career.  At age thirty-seven, he struggled to a .240/.314/.322 season.  Dave Kingman was also in the last year of his career.  Also age thirty-seven, he struggled to a .210/.255/.431 season.  Somehow, with thirty-five home runs, he managed to have a -1.0 WAR.

Record:  Oakland was 48-64, in sixth place in the AL West, thirteen games behind California.  They would finish 76-86, tied for third place with Kansas City, sixteen games behind California.

The Twins were 48-61, in fourth place in the AL West, 11.5 games behind California.  They would finish 71-91, in sixth place, twenty-one games behind California.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 56-53 (.514).

MINNESOTA TWINS 2, CALIFORNIA ANGELS 1 IN CALIFORNIA

Date:  Sunday, August 8, 1971.

Batting star:  Leo Cardenas was 2-for-4 with a home run (his fourteenth) and two runs.

Pitching star:  Bert Blyleven pitched a complete game, giving up one run on six hits and striking out five.

Opposition star:  Ken McMullen was 2-for-4 with a double.  Tom Murphy pitched a complete game, giving up two runs on six hits and three walks and striking out one.

The game:  The Twins got on the board in the second inning, when Leo Cardenas hit a two-out single, went to second on a wild pitch, and scored on a Jim Holt single.  The Angels tied it in the fourth when Ken McMullen hit a two-out double and scored on a Jim Spencer single.

Steve Braun hit a leadoff double in the seventh but was stranded on second.  Meanwhile, California was not getting anyone past first base.  With two out in the ninth, Leo Cardenas hit a home run to give the Twins a 2-1 lead.  California did not get a man on base after a Mickey Rivers one-out single in the sixth.

WP:  Bert Blyleven (9-13).

LP:  Tom Murphy (6-13).

S:  None.

Notes:  Phil Roof was behind the plate in place of George Mitterwald.

Tony Oliva was batting .370.  He would finish at a league-leading .337.  Cesar Tovar was batting .303.  He would finish at .311.

This was one of seventeen complete games for Bert Blyleven in 1971.  He had 242 in his career.  This was one of seven complete games for Tom Murphy.  He had twenty-two in his career.  I wonder when the last time is that both pitchers pitched a complete game in the same game.

Tony Oliva won the last of his three batting titles in 1971.

I don’t remember Leo Cardenas as a home run hitter, and he wasn’t, really, but he hit eighteen in 1971 and hit twenty in 1969.  He hit 118 home runs in his career.  So while he wasn’t a home run hitter, he could go deep when the situation called for it.

Record:  California was 54-62, in fourth place in the AL West, 18.5 games behind Oakland.  They would finish 76-86, in fourth place, 25.5 games behind Oakland.

The Twins were 51-61, in fifth place in the AL West, 19.5 games behind Oakland.  They would finish 74-86, in fifth place, 26.5 games behind Oakland.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 55-53 (.509).