MINNESOTA 4, MILWAUKEE 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, May 26.

Batting stars:  Tom Brunansky was 2-for-4 with a home run (his eighth) and a triple, scoring twice and driving in two.  Steve Lombardozzi was 2-for-4 with a run.  Tim Laudner was 1-for-2 with a double and a walk.

Pitching stars:  Bert Blyleven struck out eight in seven innings, giving up two runs on four hits and two walks.  Jeff Reardon struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up only a walk.

Opposition stars:  Chuck Crim struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up two hits.  Jim Gantner was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his third.  Rob Deer was 1-for-2 with two walks.

The game:  Al Newman doubled home a run in the third to put the Twins up 1-0.  In the fourth, Brunansky delivered an RBI triple and scored on a passed ball to make it 3-0.  Blyleven left a pitch up to Gantner in the fifth, making the scored 3-2.  He came back to retire the last seven batters he faced, and Brunansky homered for an insurance run in the seventh.  Deer walked in the ninth and stole second with two out, but that was as much as the Brewers could do off Reardon, who had come in to start the eighth.

Of note:  Kirby Puckett was 0-for-4, dropping his average to .320...This was Reardon's third consecutive appearance (4.2 innings) without giving up a run.  He allowed two walks and two hits and struck out eight.  His ERA has now come down from a high of 10.80 to 8.27...Juan Nieves started for Milwaukee, going six innings and allowing four runs (three earned) on seven hits and two walks while striking out four.

Record:  The Twins are 22-22, tied for second with Seattle, five games behind Kansas City.

Notes:  Newman was at shortstop, replacing Greg Gagne...Gene Larkin was the DH rather than Roy Smalley.

Player profile:  Chuck Crim was a pretty fair relief pitcher for the Brewers for about four years.  He was a seventeenth round draft choice for them in 1982.  He pitched quite well in A and AA, but did very little in AAA.  One assumes he must have had a really good spring training in 1987, because he started the season in the majors and stayed there through 1993.  He was never the closer, but he twice led the league in appearances and from 1987-1990 he went 25-26, 39 saves, 3.22, 1.27 WHIP.  He never struck out a lot of guys, but he didn't walk very many, either.  Making between 67-76 appearances a year for three years may have taken a toll, though, because he never had a good year after 1990.  He stayed with the Brewers through 1991, spent two years in California, and pitched for the Cubs in 1994 before ending his playing career.  He has been a minor league pitching coach and a major league bullpen coach since then, and is currently the bullpen coach for the Dodgers.

DETROIT 7, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Sunday, May 24.

Batting stars:  Kent Hrbek was 2-for-3 with a home run (his eighth) and a walk, scoring twice.  Mark Salas was 3-for-4 with two doubles.

Pitching star:  Les Straker pitched 6.1 innings, giving up an unearned run on six hits and two walks with five strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Kirk Gibson was 3-for-5 with two runs and an RBI.  Alan Trammell was 2-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base (his fifth), scoring twice.  Jeff Robinson pitched eight innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on five hits and three walks while striking out nine.

The game:  A walk, an error, and a sacrifice fly put the Twins up 1-0 in the second.  The lead held up through six, but the Tigers scored five in the seventh to take control of the game.  Straker was pitching well, but was removed in the seventh following a one-out error.  Keith Atherton came in and walked both men he faced, loading the bases.  Juan Berenguer came in and gave up a run-scoring single to Gibson, wild pitched home another, a third run scored on a ground out, and two more came in on a single by Johnny Grubb.  The game was gone after that.

Of note:   Kirby Puckett was 1-for-4 and is batting .328...Straker's ERA fell to 2.62...Berenguer's ERA rose to 2.61.

Record:  The Twins were 21-22, tied for third place with California, 4.5 games behind Kansas City.

Notes:  Gene Larkin was the DH rather than Roy Smalley...Salas was the catcher rather than Tim Laudner.

Player profile:  Jeff Robinson basically turned one good year into a six-year career.  He was chosen in the third round in 1983 by the Tigers.  He was not very good at all in the minors, never posting an ERA below four at any level, but still found himself in the Tigers starting rotation at the beginning of the 1987 season.  He had the occasional good game, including a complete game shutout of the Yankees in August, but at season's end he was 9-6, 5.37, 1.46 WHIP, numbers that would have been completely expected given his minor league career.  In 1988, however, he out of nowhere had an excellent season--13-6, 2.98, 1.12 WHIP.  He led the league in fewest hits per nine innings at 6.3.  Unfortunately, it was the only good season he had.  He was injured in August, and when he came back he was back to being the pitcher he had been before.  In 1989 whatever he found was gone, and he went 4-5, 4.73 in sixteen starts, again having the occasional good game to give people hope.  He posted ERAs above five in each of the next three seasons, one with Detroit, one with Baltimore, and one with Texas and Pittsburgh, and then was done.  He worked at a baseball instructional school in Olathe, Kansas after his playing career ended.  Jeff Robinson passed away on October 26, 2014, after "a seven-week battle with undisclosed health issues", according to wikipedia.

DETROIT 3, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Friday, May 22.

Batting stars:  Greg Gagne was 1-for-3 with a triple, scoring once and driving in one.  Dan Gladden was 2-for-5 with a run.  Steve Lombardozzi was 2-for-3 with a stolen base, his second.

Pitching stars:  Frank Viola took a complete game loss, giving up three runs on four hits and two walks with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Jack Morris pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on ten hits and no walks with four strikeouts.  Alan Trammell was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer, his third.  Eric King pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits with two strikeouts.

The game:  Trammell hit his two-run homer in the first inning, putting the Tigers up 2-0.  In the third, Gagne had an RBI triple and scored on a ground out to tie it 2-2.  It remained tied until the seventh, when doubles by Larry Herndon and Chet Lemon brought home the go-ahead run for Detroit.  The Twins had men on first and second with one out in the seventh and again in the ninth but could not tie the score.

Of note:  Kirby Puckett was 1-for-4 with an RBI, making his average .333...Gene Larkin was 1-for-4, making him 3-for-8 since his callup.

Record:  The Twins were 20-21, in fifth place, 4.5 games behind Kansas City.

Notes:  Larkin was the DH, with Roy Smalley out of the lineup...The Twins had three runners caught stealing:  Gary Gaetti twice and Gladden once.  In his first few years, Gaetti was not a bad percentage base stealer, going 31-for-42 (74%).  In 1987, however, he was 14-for-29 (48%) and for his career he was 96-for-161 (60%).  Gladden had his best base stealing numbers when he was with the Twins, going 116-for-158 (74%).  For the rest of his career, he was 104-for-165 (67%).

Player profile:  Who was Eric King?  Well, he was a starter most of his career, and actually had a couple of pretty fair seasons.  He came up to the Tigers in 1986 and went 11-4, 3.51, 1.24 WHIP as a rookie.  He split his time between a starter and reliever that season, then went to the bullpen the next two years, struggling in 1987 but doing better in 1988.  He was traded to the White Sox after that season and put in a couple of good years for them as a starter, going 21-14, 3.34, 1.23 WHIP in 50 starts.  The White Sox traded him to Cleveland following the 1990 season and his career went downhill after that.  He spent one year with Cleveland, came back to Detroit for 1992, but pitched poorly and his big league career came to an end.  Six years later he pitched for Pacific in the Western League, but that was it for his playing career.  Wikipedia notes that he is best known for giving up Ken Griffey, Jr's first career home run, which I guess it's better than not being known at all.

CLEVELAND 6, MINNESOTA 3 IN CLEVELAND

Date:  Thursday, May 21.

Batting stars:  Tim Laudner was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer, his second.  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-4 with a double.  Gene Larkin, in his first major league game, was 2-for-4 with an RBI.

Pitching star:  Mark Portugal, who had pitched 2.2 innings two days earlier, pitched three innings, giving up one run on two hits and a walk with two strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Greg Swindell pitched a complete game, giving up three runs on nine hits and no walks with seven strikeouts.  Cory Snyder was 3-for-4 with three solo homers, his seventh, eighth, and ninth.  Mel Hall was 2-for-4 with a home run, his sixth.  Tony Bernazard was 2-for-4 with a home run, his fifth.

The game:  Bert Blyleven left a pitch up to Sndyer in the second, Joe Carter singled in a run in the third, and Blyleven left pitches up to Snyder and Bernazard in the fifth and Hall in the sixth.  All the home runs were solo shots, but I guess solo home runs can hurt if you give up enough of them.  Trailing 5-0, the Twins got on the board when Laudner hit a two-run homer in the seventh, but never got closer than three runs.

Of note:  Puckett raised his average to .335...Laudner got his average into triple digits for the first time in nearly a month and was batting .122...Blyleven pitched five innings, giving up five runs on eleven hits and one walk with four strikeouts.

Record:  The Twins were 20-20, in fifth place, 3.5 games behind Kansas City.

Notes:  Mark Davidson played right field, with Tom Brunansky at DH and Roy Smalley out of the lineup.

Player profile:  1987 was easily the best year of Brook Jacoby's career.  He had an OPS of .928 that year--he never topped .800 in any other.  He hit 32 homers that year--his next highest was 20.  He came up with Atlanta, but the Braves had Bob Horner to play third and did not have room for him, so he was traded to Cleveland after the 1993 season as a player to be named later (along with Brett Butler) for Len Barker.  The Indians made him their starting third sacker in 1984 and he stayed in the lineup into 1991, although he started playing quite a bit of first base in 1990.  He was twice an all-star, in 1986 and in 1990.  Oddly, he did not make the team in 1987, losing out to Wade Boggs and Kevin Seitzer.  That last one seems strange, but Seitzer batted .323 that year, so one can understand it.  In 1988 he had a pretty substantial regression to the mean, hitting only nine homers and batting .241.  He bounced back, though, and remained a productive player through 1990.  He havd a poor year in 1991 and was traded to Oakland at the July deadline, but came back to the Indians as a free agent in 1992.  He went to Japan for 1993, then his playing career was over.  He has remained in baseball and is the batting coach for the Toronto Blue Jays.

MINNESOTA 8, CLEVELAND 2 IN CLEVELAND

Date:  Wednesday, May 20.

Batting stars:  Tom Brunansky was 1-for-3 with a grand slam (his seventh homer) and a walk.  Kirby Puckett was 3-for-5 with a double, scoring twice and driving in one.  Randy Bush was 1-for-4 with a stolen base (his third) and a run.

Pitching stars:  Juan Berenguer struck out eight in 6.1 innings, giving up two runs on eight hits and two walks.  Keith Atherton struck out two in 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up a walk.  Jeff Reardon struck out three in a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Brett Butler was 1-for-2 with a home run and three walks, scoring twice.  Joe Carter was 2-for-3 with a stolen base (his ninth) and an RBI.  Carmelo Castillo was 2-for-2 with a double.

The game:  It was 2-2 through five.  In the sixth, a single and two walks loaded the bases and Brunansky hit a two-out grand slam to put the Twins up 6-2.  They added two more in the ninth.

Of note:  Puckett raised his average to .331...Tim Laudner was 1-for-4 with an RBI to raise his average to .089...Berenguer's ERA went up to 2.17...Cleveland starter Tom Candiotti pitched seven innings, allowing six runs on five hits and three walks with five strikeouts.

Record:  The Twins were 20-19, tied with Oakland for fourth place, three games behind Kansas City.

Notes:  Al Newman was again at shortstop in place of Greg Gagne...Randy Bush was again in right field, with Brunansky in left and Dan Gladden on the bench...Berenguer made his second consecutive strong start.

CLEVELAND 4, MINNESOTA 3 IN CLEVELAND

Date:  Tuesday, May 19.

Batting stars:  Kent Hrbek was 2-for-3 with a walk.  Tom Brunansky was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI.  Gary Gaetti was 1-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.

Pitching star:  Les Straker pitched 5.1 innings, giving up two runs on four hits and five walks with three strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Ex-Twin Ken Schrom pitched a complete game, giving up three runs on seven hits and two walks with two strikeouts.  Cory Snyder was 1-for-2 with a two-run homer, his sixth.  Joe Carter was 1-for-3 with a home run (his seventh) and a walk.

The game:  Gaetti's two-run double in the first gave the Twins a 2-0 lead.  It was 3-2 Twins going to the bottom of the ninth.  Jeff Reardon was not summoned.  Rather, Mark Portugal, who had entered the game with two out in the sixth, remained to pitch the ninth.  Chris Bando singled, Brett Butler struck out, and Snyder hit a two-run homer to win the game for the Clevelands.

Of note:  Kirby Puckett was 1-for-4 with a run and was batting .322...Tim Laudner was 0-for-3 and was batting .073.

Record:  The Twins were 19-19, tied with Oakland for fourth place, four games behind Kansas City.  No one in the Twins' division would have a winning record from this game forward, with Oakland doing the best at an even .500 (62-62).

Notes:  Al Newman again played shortstop in place of Greg Gagne...Randy Bush was again in right field, with Brunansky in left and Dan Gladden on the bench...This was one of four complete games by Schrom, who was in his last year in the majors.

Player profile:  I remember Cory Snyder as a better player than he apparently was.  That may be because of his fine rookie season, 1986, when he hit .272 with a .500 slugging percentage and 24 home runs.  He only had an OBP of .299, but people didn't worry so much about such things back then.  He would set a career high in home runs in 1987 with 33, but his best year was the one which followed, 1988.  He hit .272/.326/.483 with 26 home runs, topping an .800 OPS for the first time in his career at .810.  It was also the last time he topped .800 in OPS, as his career dropped off sharply after that.  He hit only .215 and .233 in the next two seasons and was traded to the White Sox after the 1990 campaign.  He bounced around after that, playing for Toronto, San Francisco, and the Dodgers, and also playing in the minors with Boston and San Diego, before his career came to an end after the 1995 season.  He did have one more good season, with the Giants in 1992, but it was nothing to get too excited about.  He had hit 83 home runs through age twenty-five, in three seasons, but hit only 66 after that.  His career numbers are .247/.291/.425 with 149 homers.  He has stayed in baseball as a minor league manager and coach and was the manager of Puebla in the Mexican League in 2016, managing them to the Mexican League championship.

MINNESOTA 10, BOSTON 8 IN MINNESOTA (10 INNINGS)

Date:  Sunday, May 17.

Batting stars:  Gary Gaetti was 4-for-4 with a home run (his ninth), a walk, and two stolen bases (his third and fourth), scoring three times.  Kent Hrbek was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer (his sixth) and two walks.  Kirby Puckett was 1-for-6 with a two-run homer, his tenth.

Pitching star:  Keith Atherton pitched two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Dwight Evans was 2-for-4 with a home run (his seventh) and a walk, scoring twice.  Dave Henderson was 2-for-2 with a home run (his fifth) and two RBIs.  Ellis Burks was 2-for-6 with a double and a run.

The game:  It was 1-1 half-way through.  Puckett hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth to make it 3-1.  Later in the inning, the Twins loaded the bases.  A fielder's choice brought home one run and Greg Gagne and Gaetti pulled off a double steal of second and home, respectively, to make the score 5-1.  It was 6-1 after seven and things seemed under control.  In the eighth, however, the first four Red Sox batters went homer, single, double, single, making the score 6-4 and chasing starter Frank Viola from the game.  George Frazier came in and allowed a single and a walk to load the bases.  Jeff Reardon came in and another walk to make it 6-5.  Bill Buckner fouled out, finally the first out of the inning, but consecutive singles made it 8-6 Boston.  Not to worry.  Gaetti led off the ninth with a home run and with one out Tom Brunansky homered to tie the score.  Keith Atherton, who had retired the Red Sox in order in the ninth, gave up only a two-out single in the tenth.  In the bottom of the tenth, Dan Gladden singled and Hrbek hit a two-run homer to win the game for the Twins.

Of note:  Puckett was now batting .324...Tim Laudner was 1-for-2 with a walk and a run and raised his average to .079...Brunansky was 1-for-3 with a home run (his sixth), a walk, and a hit-by-pitch...Frank Viola pitched very well for seven innings, but his line read seven innings, five runs, eight hits, and a walk, with six strikeouts...Boston starter Jeff Sellers pitched four innings, allowing three runs on four hits and five walks with two strikeouts.

Record:  The Twins were 19-18, tied for third place with California, 2.5 games behind Kansas City.

Notes:  Al Newman started at second base in place of Steve Lombardozzi...Randy Bush started in right, with Brunansky in left.  Gladden entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the sixth...Boston's first seven batters and nine of their first ten reached base in the eighth inning.

Player profile:  The name "Jeff Sellers" meant nothing to me, but he actually made fifty-one starts for the Red Sox from 1985-88.  He was drafted by Boston in the eighth round in 1982.  He got a September callup by the Red Sox after a fine 1985 season in AA.  He split 1986 between AAA and the majors but did not do very well in thirteen big league starts.  He was in the majors for most of 1987 but again did not get much accomplished, going 7-8, 5.28, 1.59 WHIP in 25 games (22 starts).  It should be noted that he did have two shutouts.  He struggled again in 1988 and Boston finally gave up on him, trading him to Cincinnati in a multi-player deal that involved such names as Todd Benzinger and Nick Esasky.  He did not make the majors again, but pitched in the minors for the Yankees, Texas, and Colorado, not ending his playing career until 1994.  His major league numbers are 13-22, 4.97, 1.60 WHIP in 329.2 innings (51 starts, 10 relief appearances).  The Red Sox obviously saw something in him to give him that many chances, but whatever it was, it did not translate into major league success.  His son, Justin Sellers, was an infielder with the Dodgers from 2011-2013 and with Cleveland in 2014.

BOSTON 6, MINNESOTA 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Saturday, May 16.

Batting stars:  Gary Gaetti was 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-4 with a run.

Pitching stars:  None.

Opposition stars:  Roger Clemens pitched a complete game, giving up one run on eight hits and three walks with seven strikeouts.  Wade Boggs was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer (his sixth) and a walk, scoring twice.  Bill Buckner was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer.

The game:  Twins starter Bert Blyleven left a pitch up to Wade Boggs, who hit over the fence for a two-run homer in the first inning.  The score stayed 2-0 until the ninth, when a double, a walk, and a Don Baylor double made it 3-0 with one out.  Jeff Reardon then replaced Blyleven and struck out the first batter he faced but gave up a three-run homer to Bill Buckner to make it 6-0.  The Twins put together three singles in the ninth to avoid the shutout.  A walk loaded the bases with one out, but Steve Lombardozzi grounded into a double play to end the game.

Of note:  Puckett raised his average to .331...Blyleven deserved better, but his line reads 8.1 innings, five runs, five hits, two walks, and six strikeouts.  After the Boggs homer he gave up only one more hit, a single, until the ninth.

Record:  The Twins were 18-18, in fourth place, 2.5 games behind Kansas City.

Notes:  Al Newman started at shortstop in place of Greg Gagne...Randy Bush started in right field, with Tom Brunansky moving to left and Dan Gladden to the bench...From this point of the season, the only division rivals to have winning records would be Oakland and the White Sox, and in each case it was only one game over .500.

Player profile:  It's not really a profile, because I doubt I can tell you much about Wade Boggs that you don't know, but I did want to point this out.  Boggs hit twenty-four home runs in 1987.  He had hit only thirty-two in his major league career from 1982-1986.  He would hit twenty-two from 1988-1991.  His next highest season total came in 1994, when he hit eleven.  He would hit 118 in an eighteen year career, meaning that his average was six and a half and he hit more than twenty percent of his career home runs in 1987.

MINNESOTA 3, BOSTON 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Friday, May 15.

Batting stars:  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-3 with a two-run homer (his ninth) and a walk.  Steve Lombardozzi was 2-for-4 with a double and a run.  Dan Gladden was 1-for-4 with a run.

Pitching stars:  Juan Berenguer started and pitched eight shutout innings, giving up one run on three hits and a walk with four strikeouts.  George Frazier pitched a perfect inning with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Bruce Hurst pitched a complete game, giving up three runs on seven hits and one walk with five strikeouts.  Wade Boggs was 1-for-4 with a home run, his fifth.

The game:  Boggs homered in the top of the fourth, but two singles and a sacrifice fly tied it in the bottom of the fourth.  Berenguer was brilliant.  Other than the Boggs homer all he gave up was a two-out single in the second, a two-out single in the fourth, and a leadoff walk in the seventh, none of whom got past first base.  In the ninth, Lombardozzi led off with a single and Puckett followed with a walkoff home run.

Of note:  Puckett was now batting .326...Tim Laudner was 0-for-3 and was now batting .056.

Record:  The Twins were 18-17, in fourth place, 1.5 games behind Kansas City.  Only six games separated the first and last place teams in the division.

Notes:  Mark Davidson started in right field, with Tom Brunansky at DH...Laudner started at first base in place of Kent Hrbek.  Hrbek was apparently just given a day off, as he played in the game prior to this one and would play in the next game.  The Twins would soon call up Gene Larkin to be the reserve first baseman.  Tom Nieto was the catcher...Berenguer would make six starts for the Twins in 1987.  In those starts, he went 2-0, 2.92, 1.30 WHIP.  Given how the Twins were looking for fourth and fifth starters all year, it's somewhat surprising Berenguer wasn't given more a look in the rotation.  One can only assume Tom Kelly thought that he was more valuable in the bullpen, and I don't mean to imply that I think he was wrong.

Player profile:  Bruce Hurst was never a big star--he made only one all-star team--but he was a solid rotation starter for ten seasons.  Born and raised in St. George, Utah, he was drafted by Boston with the twenty-second pick in 1976.  He got brief callups in 1980 and 1981, coming to the majors to stay in 1982.  He didn't do a lot that year, but he went into the rotation 1983 and didn't leave it until 1992.  His won-lost records are nothing to shout about, with the exception of 1988, but he consistently had a better-than-average ERA, made over thirty starts, and pitched more than two hundred innings.  He finished fifth in Cy Young voting in 1988, when he went 18-6, 3.66, 1.33 WHIP, and also finished fourteenth in MVP voting that year.  Other than his won-lost record, though, there's nothing in his numbers for that season that's out of line with what he did for most of his career.  He cashed in on that won-lost record, though, becoming a free agent after 1988 and signing with San Diego.  He continued to pitch well through 1992, then had injury problems.  He made only five starts in 1993, two with the Padres and three with Colorado, to whom he was traded in late July.  He was again a free agent after that season and signed with Texas, but made only eight starts for them and then was done.  He has done some coaching in China, coaching their entry in both the Asian Baseball Championship and the World Baseball Classic.  The baseball field at Dixie State University in his hometown of St. George is named after him.  His son Kyle pitched in the Angels organization from 2008-2012 but made only three appearances above Class A.  He'll never make the Hall of Fame, but for ten years he was a valuable guy to have on your team.