MINNESOTA 4, CALIFORNIA 3 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Monday, August 12.
Batting stars: Scott Leius was 3-for-3 with a double. Greg Gagne was 2-for-2 with a two-run homer (his seventh), a hit-by-pitch, and two runs. Kent Hrbek was 1-for-4 with a home run, his thirteenth.
Pitching star: Jack Morris pitched 8.2 innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and two walks and striking out seven. He threw 121 pitches.
Opposition stars: Luis Polonia was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his twenty-second. Shawn Abner was 2-for-3 with a triple.
The game: Polonia led off the game with a single and stole second. With one out, Wally Joyner walked. A wild pitch with two out moved the runners to second and third. Dave Parker then delivered a two-run single to give the Angels a 2-0 lead.
The Twins got back-to-back one-out singles in the third, but a double play ended the inning. The Twins also put men on first and second with one out in the fourth and did not score. In the fifth, however, Leius doubled and Gagne followed with a two-run homer, tying it at 2-2.
California got the lead back in the seventh when Abner hit a two-out triple and scored on a Luis Sojo single. Leius led off the bottom of the seventh with a single and Gagne was hit by a pitch. Dan Gladden bunted, but the result was a force out at third base. Chuck Knoblauch walked to load the bases. Kirby Puckett then hit into a force out to tie the score 3-3, but that was all the Twins would get.
No matter. With two out in the eighth, Hrbek hit a solo home run. It hurt the Angels, because it was the deciding run of the game. With two out in the ninth Abner singled, but Rick Aguilera came in to retire Max Venable on a pop up to end the game.
WP: Morris (14-9). LP: Chris Beasley (0-1). S: Aguilera (31).
Notes: Al Newman pinch-ran for Leius in the seventh and remained in the game at third base.
Puckett was 1-for-4 to make his average .328. Brian Harper was 1-for-4 and was batting .311. Aguilera's ERA went to 2.57.
California starter Chuck Finley pitched six innings, giving up three runs on eight hits and two walks and striking out two.
The eighth and ninth spots in the Twins lineup went 5-for-6 with a home run. The only out was made by Newman, who didn't start the game.
1991 was the only major league season for Chris Beasley. He was a twenty-nine-year-old rookie in his seventh major league game. He had gone 3-5, 5.26 at AAA Edmonton before being called up. He seems an odd choice to be brought into a the ninth inning of a tie game, but I don't have time to go back and check out what options the Angels may have had. He had done well in his first six games, posting an ERA of 1.04 through 8.2 innings. He obviously was never going to keep that up, but his season-ending numbers are 0-1, 3.38, 1.35 WHIP in 26.2 innings. He was back in Edmonton in 1992 and then was done as a player.
The White Sox lost to Baltimore 5-4 in eleven innings, snapping a seven-game winning streak and losing a game to the Twins in the standings.
Record: The Twins were 68-45, in first place in the American League West, two games ahead of Chicago.