CALIFORNIA 7, MINNESOTA 3 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Thursday, April 23.

Batting stars:  Gary Gaetti was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his fourth.  Kent Hrbek was 2-for-4.  Steve Lombardozzi was 1-for-3 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  None.

Opposition stars:  Wally Joyner was 2-for-4 with a home run (his third) and a walk, scoring twice.  Devon White was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer, his sixth.  Brian Downing was 1-for-5 with a two-run homer, his seventh.

The game:  Gaetti's two-run homer in the first made it 2-0 and an error in the fifth put the Twins up 3-2, but it was all downhill after that.  In the sixth, Joyner's homer tied it and an RBI single by Darrell Miller made it 4-3 Angels.  A three-run ninth made it 7-3.  The Twins didn't give up, loading the bases with none out in the bottom of the ninth, but Mark Salas popped up, Randy Bush struck out, and Dan Gladden flied out to end the game.

Of note:  Gladden went 0-for-5 to drop his average to .314...Kirby Puckett was 0-for-4 with a run.  It was his fourth consecutive oh-fer and dropped his average to .328...Frank Viola started and pitched 7.1 innings, but allowed four runs on seven hits and a walk with six strikeouts.  John Candelaria was the California started.  He worked seven innings and gave up three runs (one earned) on four hits and a walk with six strikeouts.

Record:  The Twins record was 10-6, dropping them into a first-place tie with the Angels.

Notes:  Newman started at shortstop in this game, with Greg Gagne going to the bench...Tim Laudner was the DH, replacing Roy Smalley...When I saw that the go-ahead run was knocked in by "D. Miller", I wondered who in the world that was.  I kind of remember the name "Darrell Miller', but did not remember a thing about him.  It turns out he's the older brother of Cheryl Miller and Reggie Miller.  He spent his entire major league career with the Angels, getting drafted in the ninth round in 1979.  He started out as a catcher, moving to the outfield in 1981.  He reached the majors in mid-August of 1984 after an excellent season in AAA Edmonton.  He spent almost all of 1985 with the Angels but rarely played, appearing in fifty-one games but making only five starts.  Granted that they had Brian Downing, Gary Pettis, and Reggie Jackson in the outfield, but you can't find more than five starts for a guy who hit .326 with a .937 OPS in AAA?  He did well in his limited playing time, batting .375 in 1985, but it did him no good.  He was with California for half of 1986, starting a grand total of six games.  He continued to hit well in AAA.  1987 was his only full season in the majors, but he got only 108 at-bats and started twelve games.  In 1988 they moved him back to catcher and he played a little more, but not much.  The Angels let him go after that season.  He was in AAA with the Yankees in 1989 and with Baltimore and Seattle in 1990.  There could be reasons the Angels didn't think he would succeed--they may have thought his AAA numbers were inflated by playing in the Pacific Coast League, and he may have been a poor defensive player (although, other than Pettis and Devon White, these Angels teams did not exactly have a gold glove outfield).  Still, it looks like Gene Mauch unfairly buried him on the bench without ever giving him a chance to see if he could play, and that's too bad.  According to wikipedia, he is now major league baseball's vice-president of Youth and Facility Development.