Tag Archives: incredible game

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: World Series Game Seven

19 Comments

MINNESOTA 1, ATLANTA 0 IN MINNESOTA (10 INNINGS)

Date:  Sunday, October 27.

Batting stars:  Dan Gladden was 3-for-5 with two doubles.  Brian Harper was 2-for-4.

Pitching star:  Jack Morris pitched ten shutout innings, giving up seven hits and two walks and striking out eight.  He threw 126 pitches.

Opposition stars:  John Smoltz pitched 7.1 scoreless innings, giving up six hits and a walk and struck out four.  Lonnie Smith was 2-for-4 with a walk.

The game:  Obviously there was no score through nine innings, so we'll detail the threats.  In the second, the Twins got a pair of two-out singles.  With one out in the third, Rafael Belliard singled and Smith walked.  Gladden hit a one-out double in the bottom of the third but did not advance.

The Braves had a significant threat in the fifth.  Mark Lemke led off with a single, was bunted to second, and went to third on Smith's infield single.  But Terry Pendelton popped up and Ron Gant struck out to end the inning.

The big threat came in the eighth.  Smith singled and Pendleton doubled, putting men on second and third with none out.  This was the famous Chuck Knoblauch deke play, where he fooled Smith by pretending to field a ground ball and throw to second.  Still, Atlanta had the middle of their order coming to bat.  But Gant grounded out, David Justice was intentionally walked, and Sid Bream hit into a 3-2-3 double play to keep the game scoreless.

The Twins had a threat of their own in the ninth.  Chili Davis and Brian Harper led off with singles.  Shane Mack hit into a double play, but pinch-runner Jarvis Brown was still on third with two out.  But pinch-hitter Paul Sorrento struck out and the game continued.

The Braves went down in order in the top of the tenth.  Gladden led off with a bloop double in the bottom of the tenth.  Knoblauch bunted him to third.  Kirby Puckett and Kent Hrbek were both intentionally walked, loading the bases.  With the outfield drawn in, pinch-hitter Gene Larkin then hit a fly ball to left-center, which fell for a hit and won the game and the series for the Twins.

WP:  Morris (4-0).  LP:  Alejandro Pena (0-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  Randy Bush pinch-hit for Greg Gagne in the eighth.  Al Newman then pinch-ran for Bush and stayed in the game at shortstop.  In the ninth, Brown pinch-ran for Davis and Sorrento pinch-hit for Newman.  Scott Leius came into the game in the tenth at shorstop.  Larkin pinch-hit for Brown in the tenth.

What a game.  If you've watched it, there's probably not much I can tell you about it that you don't know.  If you haven't, I probably can't do it justice.

Morris pitched about as good a game as you will ever see anyone pitch in that situation.

Gladden gets a lot of credit for aggressive baserunning in the tenth, and I guess he deserves it, but I remember thinking as I saw the ball dropping in that it should be a double.

I always think about how close Jarvis Brown came to being a World Series hero.  When he pinch-ran in the ninth, he came that close to scoring the deciding run.  But, of course, it didn't happen.

The Braves eighth was amazing.  Even with Smith's baserunning blunder, I still thought they would score at least once and probably win.  I can still remember how awesome that 3-2-3 double play was.

The only bench player the Twins had left was Junior Ortiz.  Had the game continued, there would've have been almost no moves for Tom Kelly to make beyond pitching changes.

I don't remember if the Twins had anyone warming up to come in to pitch the eleventh or if Morris would've gone back out there.

So, the Twins were World Series champions.  We'll do a couple of statistical wrap-up posts before we let go of 1991 Rewind.  Thanks for reading!

Record:  The Twins won the best-of-seven series four games to three.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: World Series Game Six

9 Comments

MINNESOTA 4, ATLANTA 3 IN MINNESOTA (11 INNINGS)

Date:  Saturday, October 26.

Batting stars:  Kirby Puckett was 3-for-4 with a home run (his fourth), a triple, a stolen base, two runs, and three RBIs.  Scott Leius was 2-for-3.  Shane Mack was 2-for-4 with a double.

Pitching stars:  Scott Erickson pitched six innings, giving up three runs on five hits and two walks and striking out two.  Carl Willis pitched 2.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and striking out one.  Rick Aguilera pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits.

Opposition stars:  Steve Avery pitched six innings, giving up three runs on six hits and one walk and striking out three.  Terry Pendleton was 4-for-5 with a two-run homer, his second.  Mark Lemke was 2-for-4.  Mike Stanton pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits and striking out one.  Alejandro Pena struck out two in two perfect innings.

The game:  The Braves put men on first and second in the first inning but did not score.  In the bottom of the first, Chuck Knoblauch singled, Puckett had an RBI triple, and Mack hit a run-scoring single to give the Twins a 2-0 lead.

In the fourth, Mack led off with a double.  A one-out error put men on second and third, but Junior Ortiz struck out and Greg Gagne grounded to second.  It cost the Twins, as in the fifth Rafael Belliard singled and Pendleton hit a two-run homer, tying the score 2-2.  The Twins did go back into the lead in the bottom of the fifth.  Dan Gladden singled, stole second, went to third on a fly ball, and scored on Puckett's sacrifice fly, putting Minnesota up 3-2.

The lead lasted until the seventh.  Lemke singled and went to second on a wild pitch.  Lonnie Smith walked and Pendleton got an infield single, loading the bases.  A forceout brought home a run, tying the score, but David Justice struck out to end the inning with the score tied at three.  In the eighth Puckett singled and stole second, but he was the only man to get past first in regulation, so the game went to extra innings.

Pendleton led off the tenth with a single but was erased on a line drive double play.  Sid Bream led off the eleventh with a single but pinch-runner Keith Mitchell was thrown out trying to steal second.

The Twins, meanwhile, had not had a baserunner since Puckett's single in the eighth.  Now, in the eleventh, Puckett came up again.  On a 2-1 count, he hit a pitch into the left-center field seats.  The game belonged to the Twins, and the series would go to game seven.

WP:  Aguilera (1-1).  LP:  Charlie Liebrandt (0-2).  S:  None.

Notes:  With Erickson pitching, Ortiz was once again behind the plate.  Despite the fact that it was an eleven-inning game, the Twins did not use much of their bench.  Brian Harper pinch-hit for Ortiz in the seventh and stayed in the game at catcher.  Mike Pagliarulo pinch-hit for Leius in the ninth and stayed in the game at third base.

I will always think of this as The Kirby Puckett Game.  He was involved in every run the Twins scored.  He drove in the first one with a triple, scored the second one, drove in the third one with a sacrifice fly, and of course provided the fourth one with a home run.  In addition, he made the tremendous catch of Ron Gant's fly ball in the third inning, going half-way up the plexiglass to come down with it.  We later found out that he had made the famous "jump on my back" statement, and then went out and actually made it happen.  He pretty much dominated the game as much as it's possible for a non-pitcher to dominate a game.  Just incredible.

Memory is a funny thing.  I remember a really good leaping catch of a line drive made by the Twins' third baseman.  Memory had said that it was made by Pagliarulo, and that it had come with men on base, saving at least one run.  As I look at the play-by-play, though, I only see one lineout to third base.  It came in the second inning, so the catch had to be made by Leius.  And it came off the bat of Brian Hunter leading off the inning, so it did not actually save a run in the traditional sense, although obviously we'll never know what would've happened had it been a double down the line.  I'm still pretty sure it was a good catch, though.

I have to feel a little sorry for Charlie Liebrandt.  He had a solid career--fourteen seasons, 140-119, 3.71, 1.32 WHIP--and yet the main thing he's remembered for is giving up Puckett's home run.  Such is baseball, and such is life, I guess.

Lemke was now 9-for-19 with a double and three triples.

It was an incredible game, and I really don't feel that I did it justice here.  But at any rate, the Twins had tied the series 3-3.  The next game would decide it.  The Twins would have Jack Morris on the mound, going against John Smoltz.

Record:  The Twins were tied 3-3 in the best-of-seven series.