Tag Archives: 1991 rewind

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Eighty

MINNESOTA 1, TORONTO 0 IN TORONTO

Date:  Thursday, July 4.

Batting stars:  Pedro Munoz was 2-for-4 with a double.  Chuck Knoblauch was 2-for-4 with a double.

Pitching stars:  David West pitched seven shutout innings, giving up two hits and a walk and striking out five.  Steve Bedrosian pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and striking out one.  Rick Aguilera pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Jimmy Key pitched 7.1 innings, giving up one run on seven hits and a walk and striking out three.  Derek Bell was 1-for-2 with a walk.

The game:  Knoblauch doubled with one out in the first, but only got to third base.  In the second, Munoz and Shane Mack started the inning with singles, putting men on first and third.  Junior Ortiz then hit into a forceout, bringing in a run and putting the Twins up 1-0.

Munoz got a one-out double in the fourth but stayed at second.  Joe Carter got a one-out double in the fourth but stayed at second.  The Twins got men on first and second in the fifth but did nothing with them.  In the seventh, Bell singled and went to second on a wild pitch with one out, but only got as far as third.  Devon White got a two-out double in the eighth.  But neither team scored, and the Twins took a 1-0 victory.

WP:  West (1-0).  LP:  Key (10-4).  S:  Aguilera (21).

Notes:  Al Newman and his .493 OPS replaced Kent Hrbek at first base.  He batted first.  Hrbek came into the game for defense in the eighth, with Newman moving to third and Scott Leius coming out of the game.  Munoz was in right and Mack was in left, replacing Dan Gladden.  Randy Bush pinch-hit for Mack in the ninth and Jarvis Brown went to left field.  Ortiz was behind the plate in place of Brian Harper.

Puckett was 0-for-4 and was batting .320.  Aguilera lowered his ERA to 2.84.

Bush was 0-for-1 and was batting .197.

This was the only time in his career that Newman would play first base.

This was West's first game for the Twins in 1991 and was the best start he would have all season.  He was supposed to be the key player in the Frank Viola trade.  A can't-miss prospect, he mostly missed, although he had a couple of good seasons with Philadelphia (1993-1994).  1991 was the best season he had as a Twin:  4-4, 4.54, 1.32 WHIP in 71.1 innings (15 games, 12 starts).  He would remain in the Twins' rotation through early September.

The win was the Twins' second in nine games.  The bats remained quiet, however.  The Twins had scored just nineteen runs in their last nine games.  The only two wins they had in that span were shutouts.

The win moved the Twins back into first place.  Could they stay there?

Record:  The Twins were 46-34, in first place in the American League West, one game ahead of California.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Seventy-nine

TORONTO 4, MINNESOTA 0 IN TORONTO

Date:  Wednesday, July 3.

Batting star:  Brian Harper was 3-for-4 with two doubles.

Pitching star:  Mark Guthrie pitched five shutout innings of relief, giving up four hits and no walks and striking out four.

Opposition stars:  Tom Candiotti struck out seven in seven shutout innings, giving up six hits and three walks.  Roberto Alomar was 2-for-3 with a double and a hit-by-pitch.  Joe Carter was 2-for-4 with two home runs (his eighteenth and nineteenth) and three RBIs.  Pat Tabler was 2-for-4.  Ed Sprague was 2-for-4.  Devon White was 1-for-4 with a home run, his fourth.

The game:  The Twins got a single and two walks in the first inning but did not score, thanks in part to a pickoff.  The Blue Jays took the lead in the bottom of the first when Alomar hit a one-out double and Carter followed with a two-run homer.  Toronto loaded the bases with two out in the second and didn't score, but got on the board again in the third on another Carter homer, making it 3-0.  The Blue Jays again loaded the bases after the home run, but again did not score.

Paul Sorrento led off the fourth with a walk and Harper followed with a double, but Sorrento was thrown out trying to score from first (Gardy'd?) and the Twins were kept off the board.  White homered leading off the fourth to increase the lead to 4-0.

And that was it.  The Twins had a few threats--Al Newman singled and stole second in the fifth, Harper had a two-out double in the sixth, Scott Leius reached on a strikeout/passed ball in the seventh and got as far as third on a couple of ground outs--but they could not tally and the game ended with a 4-0 score.

WP:  Candiotti (8-7).  LP:  Allan Anderson (4-7).  S:  None.

Notes:  Jarvis Brown led off and played left field in place of Dan Gladden.  Randy Bush batted second and was in right field.  Paul Sorrento was at first base in place of Kent Hrbek.  Al Newman was at second base in place of Chuck Knoblauch.

Harper raised his average to .326.  Kirby Puckett was 0-for-4 and fell to .325.

Sorrento was 0-for-3 and was batting .143.  Brown was 1-for-4 and was batting .167.

Twins starter Allan Anderson lasted just three innings, allowing four runs on eight hits and two walks and striking out one.  He would make one more start, on July 12, then be removed from the rotation.

This was Guthrie's first appearance since being removed from the rotation.  I may have mentioned this before, but he did much better as a reliever than as a starter.  In 1991 he was 5-4, 5.73, 1.82 WHIP as a starter and 2-1, 2.51, 1.37 WHIP with two saves as a reliever.  For his career he was 13-18, 4.95, 1.52 WHIP as a starter and 38-36, 3.75, 1.36 WHIP with fourteen saves as a reliever.  It could reasonably said that the move to the bullpen saved his career.

This was the Twins' seventh loss in eight games.  Looking at that lineup, one has to say that TK wasn't panicking and going all-out to win every game.  The losing streak was largely a failure of the bats.  In the seven losses, the Twins scored just fifteen runs and were shutout twice.  How low would they go?  We'll see.

Record:  The Twins were 45-34, in second place in the American League West, one percentage point behind California (.571 to .570--the Angels had played two fewer games).  They were two games ahead of third-place Texas.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Seventy-eight

TORONTO 4, MINNESOTA 3 IN TORONTO

Date:  Tuesday, July 2.

Batting star:  Mike Pagliarulo was 2-for-3 with a walk.

Pitching star:  Kevin Tapani pitched 6.1 innings, giving up two runs on eleven hits and one walk and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Mike Timlin pitched five innings of relief, giving up one run on three hits and a walk and striking out two.  Greg Myers was 3-for-4 with a double.  Devon White was 3-for-5 with a stolen base, his nineteenth.  Manny Lee was 2-for-4 with a double.  Roberto Alomar was 2-for-4 with a walk.  John Olerud was 2-for-4.  Rene Gonzales was 1-for-4 with a home run.

The game:  The Twins took a 1-0 lead in the second when Shane Mack scored from first on Pagliarulo's single-plus-error.  It went to 2-0 in the third when Chuck Knoblauch walked, went to second when Pedro Munoz was hit by a pitch, went to third on a fly out, and scored on a Chili Davis sacrifice fly.  The Blue Jays got on the board in the fourth when Gonzales hit a home run, but the Twins got the run back on singles by Mack and Pagliarulo and a run-scoring ground out by Greg Gagne, making the score 3-1.

Each team had threats, but it stayed 3-1 until the seventh.  Singles by Lee, White, and Alomar loaded the bases with one out.  Terry Leach came in and allowed one run to score on a ground out, but no more, so the Twins still led 3-2.  In the eighth, however, Derek Bell singled, stole second, and scored on Lee's double to tie it 3-3.

Leach remained in the game to start the tenth.  He gave up singles to White and Alomar, putting men on first and third.  Joe Carter was intentionally walked, filling the bases.  Leach was finally replaced by Steve Bedrosian, who gave up a single to Rance Mulliniks to end the game.

WP:  Duane Ward (2-3).  LP:  Leach (0-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  Mack was again in left, replacing Dan Gladden.  Munoz was in right.  With Gladden out, Knoblauch batted first, with Munoz second.  Sorrento was at first base, replacing Kent Hrbek.  Hrbek would miss the next game as well and would not start again until July 5.

Jarvis Brown entered the game in right field in the fifth inning, replacing Munoz.  This was Brown's major league debut, and he went 0-for-2.  Munoz would miss the next game, play each game from July 4-7, play again on July 14, and then not come back until September.

Puckett was 0-for-3, making his average .329.  Harper was 0-for-4 to drop to .318.  Tapani's ERA was at 3.04.

Leach was pretty clearly left in the game too long.  He got out of the jam in the seventh, but gave up the tying run in the eighth and was still left in to load the bases in the ninth.  Tom Kelly apparently thought it was worth risking this game in order to preserve his bullpen.  That may sound critical--I don't mean it to be.  My memory isn't good enough, and I don't have time to go back through the games, to know what the state of the bullpen was at this point.  TK may well have made the right decision.  This is simply an observation, not a criticism.  If this was a post-season game, or even a game in a September pennant race, Kelly would almost certainly have gotten Leach out of there sooner.  In a game in early July, it may well have been prudent to leave him in as long as he did.

The Twins had now lost six of seven.  Their division lead was shrinking.  Could they pull out of the tailspin?

Record:  The Twins were 45-33, in first place in the American League West, one game ahead of California.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Seventy-seven

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CHICAGO 5, MINNESOTA 4 IN MINNESOTA (10 INNINGS)

Date:  Monday, July 1.

Batting star:  Kirby Puckett was 4-for-5 with a home run (his eleventh) and two RBIs.

Pitching star:  Paul Abbott pitched six innings, giving up one run on three hits and four walks and striking out seven.

Opposition stars:  Carlton Fisk was 2-for-4 with a home run (his sixth), a double, a walk, two runs, and two RBIs.  Lance Johnson was 2-for-5 with a double and three RBIs.  Bobby Thigpen pitched 2.2 scoreless innings, giving up two hits and a walk and striking out one.

The game:  The White Sox got a man to second in each of the first two innings, but there was no score until the fourth.  Dan Pasqua led off with a double, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on Johnson's single.  The Twins tied it in the bottom of the fourth when Puckett homered to  make it 1-1.

The Twins took the lead in the sixth.  Greg Gagne walked, went to third on Knoblauch's single, and scored on a Pedro Munoz sacrifice fly.  A wild pitch moved Knoblauch to second and he scored on Puckett's single, making the score 3-1 Twins.

Chicago came back in the eighth.  With two out, Frank Thomas and Dan Pasqua walked.  Rick Aguilera came in and gave up back-to-back doubles to Fisk and Johnson, giving the White Sox a 4-3 lead.  The Twins tied it in the bottom of the eighth when Pedro Munoz drew a one-out walk, Puckett had a bunt single, and Kent Hrbek singled.

The Twins came close in the ninth.  Brian Harper reached on an error, was bunted to second, and went to third on a ground out.  Randy Bush was intentionally walked, but Knoblauch grounded out to end the inning.

Fisk hit a two-out homer in the tenth to give Chicago a 5-4 lead.  The Twins threatened in the bottom of the tenth.  Puckett and Paul Sorrento had one-out singles, putting men on first and third.  But Puckett was thrown out trying to score on a grounder to the pitcher (presumably the contact play) and Scott Leius flied out to end the game.

WP:  Bobby Thigpen (5-2).  LP:  Carl Willis (2-2).  S:  None.

Notes:  Shane Mack was again in left field in place of Dan Gladden.  Gene Larkin was in right.

Tom Kelly again made liberal use of his bench.  Munoz replaced Larkin in right field after the first inning, presumably due to injury.  Larkin would not play again until July 18.  Al Newman pinch-hit for Mike Pagliarulo in the seventh and stayed in the game at third base.  Pitcher Mark Guthrie pinch-ran for Kent Hrbek in the eighth, with Sorrento coming into the game to play first.  Leius pinch-ran for Harper in the ninth and stayed in the game at third base, with Newman moving to shortstop and Junior Ortiz going behind the plate.  Bush pinch-hit for Greg Gagne in the ninth.

Puckett raised his average to .332.  Harper was 1-for-4 and was batting .324.  Abbott lowered his ERA to 2.88.  Aguilera gave up a run in 1.1 innings, making his ERA 2.92.  Willis gave up a run in one inning, making his ERA 3.21.

This was Sorrento's first game with the Twins this season.  He would be with the Twins for about two weeks, then come back as a September call-up.  He'd had two really good years in AAA Portland and was clearly ready to play in the majors, but with Hrbek at first and Chili Davis at DH there was just no spot for him.  The Twins would trade him to Cleveland at the end of 1992 spring training for Curtis Leskanic and Oscar Munoz, and Sorrento would go on to have a solid career for the Indians and Seattle.

If I ran a ball club, especially with thirteen-man pitching staffs, I would put a couple of my pitchers through baserunning drills on a regular basis, so I could use them as pinch-runners when needed.

The Twins had now lost five out of six.  Would they be able to hold on to first place?

Record:  The Twins were 45-32, in first place in the American League West, two games ahead of California.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Seventy-six

MINNESOTA 3, CHICAGO 0 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Sunday, June 30.

Batting stars:  Kent Hrbek was 2-for-4 with a double and a stolen base, his fourth.  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-4.

Pitching star:  Jack Morris pitched a complete game shutout, giving up six hits and a walk and striking out three.  He threw 107 pitches.

Opposition stars:  Jack McDowell pitched 7.1 innings, giving up three runs on nine hits and a walk and striking out five.  Robin Ventura was 2-for-4.

The game:  The White Sox got a pair of one-out singles in the second, but nothing came of it.  Meanwhile, the Twins did not get a baserunner until the fourth.  They got two-out singles that inning from  Puckett and Hrbek, followed by a Chili Davis walk to load the bases, but Brian Harper flied out to end the threat.

The Twins broke through in the fifth.  Gene Larkin led off with a single and scored on a Mike Pagliarulo double.  Scott Leius followed with a bunt single and Shane Mack hit a sacrifice fly, giving the Twins a 2-0 lead.  There was no more scoring until the eighth.  Puckett hit a one-out single and scored on Hrbek's double to make the score 3-0.

The second inning was the only time Chicago had more than one baserunner in an inning.

WP:  Morris (11-5).  LP:  McDowell (9-4).  S:  None.

Notes:  Shane Mack continued to replace Dan Gladden in left field, and in this game he batted first.  Al Newman and his .496 OPS played second in place of Chuck Knoblauch and batted second.  Larkin was in right field.  Leius was at shortstop in place of Greg Gagne.

Harper was 0-for-4 and was batting .325.  Puckett raised his average to .324.

Newman was batting .198.

Morris' ERA dropped to 3.60, the lowest it had been all season.  Over his last ten starts he had dropped more than two runs from his ERA, which had been 5.89 on May 8.  This was one of two complete game shutouts he had in the regular season.  The other would come on September 28 in Toronto.  In the month of June, he was 6-0, 2.25, 1.06 ERA.

This was one of only six starts Leius made at shortstop in 1991.

This game was played in just two hours and twelve minutes.  It snapped a four-game losing streak by the Twins.

Record:  The Twins were 45-31, in first place in the American League West, three games ahead of Texas.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Seventy-five

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CHICAGO 8, MINNESOTA 4 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Saturday, June 29.

Batting stars:  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer (his tenth) and a double.  Chili Davis was 2-for-4 with a home run, his nineteenth.  Kent Hrbek was 1-for-4 with a home run, his seventh.

Pitching star:  Terry Leach pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two hits.

Opposition stars:  Dan Pasqua was 4-for-5 with a home run (his seventh), a triple, and three RBIs.  Ozzie Guillen was 3-for-4 with a stolen base (his thirteenth) and two RBIs.  Robin Ventura was 2-for-3 with a double and two walks.  Lance Johnson was 2-for-4 with a double and two runs.  Tim Raines was 2-for-5 with a double, two runs, and two RBIs.  Greg Hibbard pitched a complete game, giving up four runs on seven hits and a walk and striking out one.

The game:  The White Sox opened the game with singles by Raines, Ventura, and Frank Thomas, taking a 1-0 lead.  A strikeout and a double play prevented further damage, and the Twins bounced back in the bottom of the first.  Chuck Knoblauch singled, Puckett hit a two-run homer, and Davis homered, putting the Twins up 3-1.

It stayed 3-1 until the fourth, when Pasqua led off with a homer to make it 3-2.  It stayed 3-2 until the seventh, when Chicago exploded for five runs.  Singles by Matt Merullo and Johnson started the inning.  With one out, Guillen had an RBI single to tie it and Raines' two-run double put the White Sox ahead.  Ventura was intentionally walked, and with two out Pasqua hit a two-run triple, giving Chicago a 7-3 lead.

It was pretty much over at that point.  Hrbek homered in the seventh to cut the lead to 7-4, but the White Sox got the run back in the eighth when Johnson doubled and scored on a Guillen single.  After the Hrbek homer the Twins got only one baserunner, a Davis single in the ninth.

WP:  Hibbard (6-6).  LP:  Scott Erickson (12-3).  S:  None.

Notes:  Shane Mack was in left replacing Dan Gladden.  Pedro Munoz was in right.  With Erickson pitching, Junior Ortiz was behind the plate in place of Brian Harper.

Puckett raised his average to .322.  Erickson pitched 6.1 innings, allowing seven runs on eleven hits and two walks and striking out one.  His ERA went up to 1.83.  Leach lowered his ERA to 3.16.

Erickson pitched well for six innings.  He would not pitch again, however, until July 15 and was not really the same pitcher the rest of the season.  He obviously could not be expected to keep up the pace of a 1.39 ERA, which he had going into this game, but it seems logical to think overuse played a part in his pitching.  He was twenty-three years old in 1991 and this was his sixteenth start.  He pitched 122.2 innings, never pitching fewer than six and only three times pitching fewer than seven.  He threw a hundred pitches or more eleven times, more than 110 seven times, one hundred twenty or more three times, and over 130 once (134).  Erickson would go on to have some good years in his career, but he was never the dominant pitcher he was for the first half of 1991.  Maybe he'd have gotten hurt at some point anyway, or maybe he wouldn't have remained dominant, but one has to wonder what his career might have looked like if the Twins had taken batter care of him.

Greg Hibbard was a solid major league starter for five seasons.  He came up with the White Sox in 1989 at age twenty-four and had his best season in 1990, when he went 14-9, 3.16, 1.22 WHIP.  He was with the White Sox through 1992, but they left him unprotected in the expansion draft and he was chosen by Florida.  They immediately traded him to the Cubs, for whom he pitched in 1993.  He became a free agent after the season and signed with Seattle in 1994.  He immediately began to have shoulder problems, tried to pitch through it with awful results, and was done after the 1994 season.  He has been a minor league pitching coach since 1999, most recently for the Frisco RoughRiders in the Rangers organization.  For his career he was 57-50, 4.05, 1.35 WHIP in 990 innings.  Not a superstar, but in his good years he was someone you'd be happy to have to fill out your rotation.

Their hot streak ended, the Twins had now lost four in a row, all at home, and their best pitcher was now injured.  Was their hot month just an illusion?  We'll see.

Record:  The Twins were 44-31, in first place in the American League West, two games ahead of California.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Seventy-four

CHICAGO 4, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Friday, June 28.

Batting stars:  Pedro Munoz was 2-for-3 with a home run, his third.  Shane Mack was 1-for-4 with a home run, his eighth.

Pitching star:  Allan Anderson pitched a complete game, giving up four runs (three earned) on eight hits and no walks and striking out five.

Opposition stars:  Charlie Hough pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on five hits and three walks and striking out two.  Craig Grebeck was 2-for-4.  Sammy Sosa was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer, his ninth.  Cory Snyder was 1-for-4 with a home run (his third) and two runs.

The game:  The White Sox got all the runs they needed in the second inning when Grebeck singled, Snyder reached on an error, and Sosa hit a three-run homer.  The Twins had only two hits in the first four innings.  They got on the board in the fifth, however, when Mack led off with a home run and Munoz hit a two-out homer, cutting the lead to 3-2.

The Twins threatened in the eighth when Kirby Puckett was hit by a pitch and went to third on a one-out single by Brian Harper, but a popup and a strikeout ended the inning.  Chicago got an insurance run in the ninth when Snyder homered.

The Twins threatened again in the ninth.  Pinch-hitter Scott Leius led off with a walk and was replaced at first base by Randy Bush via a forceout.  Munoz and pinch-hitter Kent Hrbek singled, loading the bases.  It looked promising, with arguably the Twins' two best batters, Puckett and Chili Davis, coming to bat.  But Puckett struck out and Davis hit a long fly to left to end the game.

WP:  Hough (5-3).  LP:  Anderson (4-6).  S:  Bobby Thigpen (15).

Notes:  Gene Larkin was at first base in place of Hrbek.  That was the only change from the regular starting lineup, but Tom Kelly made liberal use of his bench in this game.

At the start of the fourth, Dan Gladden came out of the game and was replaced by Munoz, who went to right with Mack going to left.  Gladden left due to injury, and would not return until July 25.  Al Newman pinch-ran for Harper in the eighth and then came out of the game, with Junior Ortiz coming in to catch.  Leius pinch-hit for Pagliarulo, Bush pinch-hit for Greg Gagne, and Hrbek pinch-hit for Chuck Knoblauch.

Harper was 1-for-4 and was batting .332.  Puckett was 1-for-3 and was batting .319.  Munoz raised his average to .301.

Bush lowered his batting average to .194.

I had completely forgotten that Charlie Hough pitched for the White Sox.  He did so for two seasons, 1991 and 1992.  This was his age forty-three season, but he was still a good pitcher, posting an ERA of 4.02 and a WHIP of 1.31.  He was actually a little better the next year, with an ERA of 3.93 and a WHIP of 1.28.  He would then pitch for Florida for two years before retiring at age forty-six.

I'd also forgotten that Cory Snyder played for the White Sox.  This one is more understandable, as he only played fifty games for them.  He'd been a good player for Cleveland from 1986-1988, but then had two poor years and was traded to the White Sox prior to the 1991 season.  He played poorly, was traded to Toronto in mid-July, and continued to play poorly.  He bounced back with the Giants in 1992 and had a decent season for the Dodgers in 1993.  He slipped back in 1994, however, and was done after that.

This was the Twins' third straight loss.

Record:  The Twins were 44-30, in first place in the American League West, two games ahead of California.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Seventy-three

TORONTO 1, MINNESOTA 0 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Thursday, June 27.

Batting stars:  None.  The Twins had three hits, all singles, and no Twin had more than one.

Pitching star:  Kevin Tapani pitched a complete game, giving up one unearned run on four hits and no walks and striking out seven.

Opposition stars:  Juan Guzman pitched 7.2 scoreless innings, giving up three hits and two walks and striking out six.  Tom Henke struck out two in a perfect inning.

The game:  Neither team got a men past first base until the fourth.  Roberto Alomar led off with a single.  A forceout meant the runner on first was Kelly Gruber with two out.  Rance Mulliniks then hit a line drive to left on which Shane Mack was charged with an error, allowing Gruber to score.

That was the only run of the game.  The only time the Twins got a man past first was in the eighth, when Chuck Knoblauch walked and stole second.  Duane Ward came in and got Mack on a ground out to end the inning.

WP:  Guzman (2-2).  LP:  Tapani (5-7).  S:  Henke (14).

Notes:  In a day game, Mack was in left field, with Dan Gladden on the bench.  Mack batted second, with Knoblauch moving up to the leadoff spot.  Randy Bush was at first base in place of Kent Hrbek.  Pedro Munoz was in right field.  Junior Ortiz was behind the plate in place of Brian Harper.  Al Newman was at shortstop in place of Greg Gagne.

Kirby Puckett was 0-for-4 and dropped to .319.  Tapani's ERA fell to 3.06.

Bush went 0-for-4 and dropped to .197.  Newman was 0-for-3 and fell to .196.

It remains amazing to me how much Newman was playing when he wasn't hitting.  This was the fifty-fifth game he had appeared in.  He had started twenty-five of them.  His OBP at this point was .281 and his slugging average was .215, giving him a robust OPS of .496.  I know he was popular, and I know he could play a lot of positions.  But that's a lot of playing time for a guy who has a sub-.500 OPS.

By game scores, this was the best game Tapani pitched in 1991.  The next best was his first game of the season, a complete game shutout on April 12.  He would not lose another game for over two months, as his next loss would come on September 11.  He really didn't pitch all that much better--his ERA over his winning streak fell only from 3.06 to 2.82.  The Twins just started scoring some runs for him.

This was Juan Guzman's rookie year, and he was very good.  He did not come up until June--this was his fourth start--but he ended up 10-3, 2.99, 1.18 WHIP.  He finished second in Rookie of the Year voting to--spoiler alert--Chuck Knoblauch.  He was even better in 1992, when he made his only all-star team.  His ERA went up by over a run in 1993, to 3.99, but he went 14-3 and so got the only Cy Young support of his career.  He then had two very poor years--I suspect he had injuries, but I don't remember and couldn't quickly find out.  But he came back in 1996 to lead the league in ERA, WHIP, and hits per nine innings.  That was his last really good year.  He continued to pitch in the majors through 2000 and was not terrible, but was pretty average.  He did pitch well for Cincinnati in twelve starts in 1999 after being traded at the July deadline.  For his career, he was 91-79, 4.08, 1.37 WHIP in 240 games, all starts.  For a few years, though, he was one of the top pitchers in the league.

Record:  The Twins were 44-29, in first place in the American League West, three games ahead of California.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Seventy-two

TORONTO 5, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Wednesday, June 26.

Batting stars:  Chili Davis was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer (his eighteenth) and a double.  Chuck Knoblauch was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Carl Willis pitched four innings of relief, giving up one run on four hits and no walks and striking out four.  Terry Leach pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  David Wells pitched eight innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and a walk and striking out two.  Joe Carter was 4-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs.  Glenallen Hill was 3-for-4 with a double.  Devon White was 3-for-5 with a triple, a double, a stolen base (his eighteenth) and two runs.  Roberto Alomar was 2-for-4 with a triple, a walk, and two RBIs.

The game:  This time it was the Blue Jays who jumped out to an early lead.  White started the game with a double and stole third.  Alomar then tripled and Carter doubled, putting Toronto up 2-0 after the first three batters of the game.  Twins starter Mark Guthrie then settled down, and there was no more scoring until the fourth.  With two out Hill singled, White tripled, and Carter singled to make the score 4-0.

The Twins got a man to second base in the first, fourth, and fifth, but could not score.  The Blue Jays added one more run in the sixth.  Manny Lee singled, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on an Alomar single, increasing the lead to 5-0.

The Twins again got a man to second in the seventh and did not score.  They finally got on the board in the eighth when Knoblauch singled and Davis hit a two-out two-run homer.  After that, however, all the Twins could do is a single by Shane Mack in the ninth.  The score remained 5-2.

WP:  Wells (9-4).  LP:  Guthrie (5-4).  S:  Tom Henke (13).

Notes:  Gene Larkin was again at first base in place of Kent Hrbek.  Al Newman pinch-hit for Scott Leius in the ninth.  Randy Bush pinch-hit for Greg Gagne in the ninth.  The pinch-hitters the Twins used had batting averages of .202 and .210, respectively.

Brian Harper was 0-for-4 and was batting .333.  Kirby Puckett was 0-for-3 with a walk and was batting .324.  Willis lowered his ERA to 3.03.  Leach's ERA went down to 3.26.

Guthrie allowed four runs in 3.2 innings on eight hits and two walks, striking out one.  His ERA was 5.66.

This was Guthrie's last start of the season.  He would be replaced in the rotation initially by Paul Abbott.  He would do much better out of the bullpen, going 2-1, 2.51, 1.37 WHIP with two saves in 43 innings (29 games).  He would make only two more starts in his major league career, both in 1994.  In his career as a starter, he was 13-18, 4.95, 1.52 WHIP.  As a reliever, he was 38-36, 3.75, 1.36 WHIP with 14 saves.

This was the second-longest stint of Willis' season to date, topped only by his 4.2 innings on April 23.  In August he would twice pitch five innings.  He would have a very good season, going 8-3, 2.63, 1.07 WHIP.  He would be about as good in 1992, going 7-3, 2.72, 1.06 WHIP.  He started to slip a little in 1993, although he was still pretty good.  After that he didn't get much accomplished, but from 1991-1993, he was a very effective relief pitcher.

This game is as good a place as any to declare the Twins' hot streak over.  It was a pretty good one, though.  From May 28 through June 25, the Twins won twenty-four out of twenty-seven.  They went from sixth place to first place.  They would not do that again, obviously, but they would continue to have winning months the rest of the season.

Record:  The Twins were 44-28, in first place in the American League West, 3.5 games ahead of California.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Seventy-one

MINNESOTA 8, TORONTO 6 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, June 25.

Batting stars:  Gene Larkin was 3-for-3 with a walk.  Dan Gladden was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.  Chuck Knoblauch was 2-for-5.  Chili Davis was 1-for-2 with a two-run homer (his seventeenth), three walks, and two runs.  Mike Pagliarulo was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer, his third.

Pitching star:  Rick Aguilera pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Greg Myers was 4-for-4 with a home run (his third) and two runs.  Devon White was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his sixteenth.  Kelly Gruber was 1-for-4 with a home run, his fifth.  John Olerud was 1-for-4 with a home run, his eighth.

The game:  In the first inning, Knoblauch hit a one-out single and Davis hit a two-out two-run homer to put the Twins up 2-0.  In the third, Gladden and Knoblauch singled and Kirby Puckett drew a walk to load the bases with one out.  Brian Harper hit a sacrifice fly and Larkin singled home a run to make it 4-0.

The Blue Jays came storming back in the fifth.  Gruber led off with a home run and Olerud hit a one-out homer to cut the lead to 4-2.  Myers singled and Manny Lee hit a single-plus-error, scoring Myers and making it 4-3.  Mookie Wilson then hit a sacrifice fly to tie it 4-4.  Toronto wasn't done, as White singled and stole second and then scored on a Roberto Alomar single to put the Blue Jays up 5-4.

It stayed 5-4 until the sixth, when Larkin singled and Pagliarulo hit a two-run homer to put the Twins back in front 6-5.  They got a couple of insurance runs in the seventh.  Puckett was hit by a pitch and Davis walked.  A bunt moved the runners up, Mack's sacrifice fly scored one, and an Al Newman single made the score 8-5.

Myers homered in the eighth to make it 8-6, but that was the only hit Toronto had after the sixth inning.

WP:  Jack Morris (10-5).  LP:  Todd Stottlemyre (8-3).  S:  Aguilera (20).

Notes:  Larkin remained at first base, as Kent Hrbek was still out of the lineup.  Newman pinch-hit for Pagliarulo in the seventh and stayed in the game at third base.

Harper was 1-for-3 and was batting .340.  Puckett was 1-for-4 and was batting .327.  Aguilera lowered his ERA to 2.78.

Morris pitched seven innings, allowing five runs on nine hits and two walks and striking out four.  He pitched really well other than in the fourth inning.  Again, I would suggest that any other pitcher would've come out of the game in that fourth inning--Morris allowed five runs on six hits, including two home runs, in that inning.  For whatever reason, Tom Kelly stuck with Morris.  I guess you can say it worked, as Morris pitched well after that inning and the Twins came back and won.  It could be suggested, however, that it would've been better to not have lost the lead in the first place, and that using a relief pitcher might have accomplished that.

Stottlemyre pitched six innings, allowing six runs on ten hits and three walks and striking out six.  Stottlemyre had a really good year in 1991, this game notwithstanding.  He went 15-8, 3.78, 1.23 WHIP.  That was the highest win total of his career, the second-lowest ERA (3.74 in 1998), and the second-lowest WHIP (1.22 in 1997).  He never made an all-star team and never got any Cy Young votes, but he was a solid rotation starter for eleven seasons.  For his career, he was 138-121, 4.28, 1.38 WHIP.

Record:  The Twins were 44-27, in first place in the American League West, 4.5 games ahead of both California and Oakland.