NEW YORK 8, MINNESOTA 3 IN NEW YORK
Date: Thursday, August 1.
Batting stars: Shane Mack was 2-for-3 with a home run (his twelfth) and a walk. Chuck Knoblauch was 2-for-4. Chili Davis was 1-for-3 with a home run (his twenty-fourth) and a walk.
Pitching star: Terry Leach pitched three shutout innings of relief, giving up three hits and striking out two.
Opposition stars: Greg Cadaret pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on six hits and three walks and striking out six. Bernie Williams was 2-for-3 with two walks and two runs. Matt Nokes was 2-for-4 with two home runs (his nineteenth and twentieth) and three RBIs.
The game: Williams led off the bottom of the first with a walk and Don Mattingly got a one-out single, putting men on first and third. Mel Hall hit a sacrifice fly to score one run and Nokes hit a two-run homer to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead. It went to 6-0 in the second. An error, a bunt, and a walk put men on first and third with one out. Williams had an RBI single, and error scored another run, and a sacrifice fly brought home a third.
The Twins got on the board in the third as Greg Gagne led off with a double and Dan Gladden singled. Gladden was caught stealing for the second time in the game, however, so the two singles that followed did not produce another run. In the fourth Alvaro Espinoza singled, Williams walked, and Steve Sax singled to make it 7-1. Nokes homered again in the fifth to make it 8-1.
The Twins got a couple more runs on solo homers to make the final score look a little better. Davis homered leading off the sixth and Mack homered leading off the ninth. At no point did it look like the Twins might get back into the game.
WP: Cadaret (4-4). LP: Paul Abbott (3-1). S: None.
Notes: It was a standard lineup. Al Newman went into the game at shortstop in the seventh inning, replacing Gagne.
Kirby Puckett was 1-for-4 and was batting .331. Brian Harper was 0-for-4 and fell to .311. Leach lowered his ERA to 2.86.
Gladden stole fifteen bases in 1991, but was caught nine times.
Abbott lasted just 1.1 innings, giving up five runs (three earned) on two hits and two walks and struck out one. Tom Kelly gave him a really quick hook. Yes, he gave up three runs in the first, but it's not like they were smacking him all over the yard--the homer by Nokes is the thing that hurt him. Then in the second, an error, a sac bunt, a walk, and he's gone. It was the last start of the season for him.
Mack had an eight-game hitting streak. He was 16-for-32 with three doubles, two triples, and three home runs. He raised his average from .264 to .294 and his slugging average from .455 to .528.
Gladden also had an eight-game hitting streak. He was 14-for-36 with three doubles and a home run. He raised his average from .259 to .276.
This was Bernie Williams' rookie season. I'd forgotten that he often batted leadoff when he first came up. He wasn't all that good at it, batting just .219. He did, however, draw a lot of walks, giving him an OBP of .328. He would, of course, go on to have an excellent career.
Chris Berman's time has come and gone, but I did always like Greg "life is a" Cadaret.
The White Sox defeated Texas 13-2 to move closer to the Twins.
Record: The Twins were 61-42, in first place in the American League West, two games ahead of Chicago.