MILWAUKEE 11, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Sunday, July 28.
Batting stars: Dan Gladden was 3-for-5 with a double. Shane Mack was 2-for-4.
Pitching stars: Terry Leach pitched 4.1 scoreless innings, giving up eight hits but no walks and striking out three. Rick Aguilera struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.
Opposition stars: Jaime Navarro pitched a complete game, giving up two runs on ten hits and two walks and striking out five. Darryl Hamilton was 5-for-6 with a double, a stolen base (his seventh), and three runs. Paul Molitor was 5-for-6 with a stolen base (his tenth) and two runs. Candy Maldonado was 3-for-6 with a home run (his fourth) and three RBIs. Dante Bichette was 3-for-6 with a double. Jim Gantner was 2-for-4 with two doubles and two runs. Franklin Stubbs was 2-for-5 with a home run (his seventh), a stolen base (his eighth) and two RBIs.
The game: This one was over early. Singles by Molitor, Hamilton, Stubbs, and Bichette put the Brewers up 2-0 in the first. In the second Molitor and Hamilton again singled, a ground out produced one run, and Maldonado hit a two-run homer to make it 5-0. In the third, Jim Gantner doubled and Dale Sveum was hit by a pitch. The next two batters went out, but Hamilton hit a ground-rule double to make the score 6-0 and finally get Twins starter Jack Morris out of the game. Singles by B. J. Surhoff and Maldonado made the score 8-0 after three.
The Twins never got back into the game. They loaded the bases with one out in the fourth, but nothing came of it. They finally got on the board in the seventh on Gladden's RBI double, but Milwaukee got three in the eighth. An RBI ground out in the ninth got the Twins one more run.
WP: Navarro (8-8). LP: Morris (13-7). S: None.
Notes: Gene Larkin was the DH in place of Chili Davis. Al Newman was at shortstop in place of Greg Gagne.
Junior Ortiz came in to catch in the seventh inning, replacing Brian Harper. Randy Bush came in to play right field in the seventh inning, with Shane Mack moving to center and Kirby Puckett coming out of the game. Scott Leius pinch-ran for Kent Hrbek in the eighth and stayed in the game in center field, with Mack moving back to right and Bush going to first base.
Puckett was 0-for-3, dropping his average to .331. Harper was 1-for-3 and was batting .319. Leach lowered his ERA to 3.07. Aguilera's ERA was 2.80.
Morris pitched 2.2 innings and allowed eight runs on nine hits and two walks and struck out two. This was his worst game of the season according to game scores, which gave him an eight. His second-worst was his second start of the season, when he gave up eight runs in 5.2 innings and had a game score of fifteen.
This was one of two games in his career in which Leius played the outfield. Both times he played center and both were in 1991. This was the first one. The second would come August 10, when he would again play a couple of innings there at the end of a blowout loss.
I always thought "Candy Maldonado" was a cool name.
Gladden was now 8-for-20 with three doubles and a home run since coming back from the disabled list.
Molitor hit the stuffing out of the Twins in 1991. In 56 plate appearances, he batted .463/.482/.635. He also was 3-for-3 in stolen bases. In terms of OPS, the Twins were only his second-best team to bat against--the best was California, against whom he batted .395/.509/.791 with 4 home runs in 53 plate appearances. For the season he batted .325/.399/.489. His career numbers against the Twins were .303/.362/.464 in 797 plate appearances.
The White Sox defeated Boston 5-2, so they gained a game on the Twins.
Record: The Twins were 58-41, in first place in the American League West, three games ahead of Chicago.