Tag Archives: run support

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game One Hundred Twelve

MINNESOTA 5, SEATTLE 2 IN SEATTLE

Date:  Sunday, August 11.

Batting stars:  Kent Hrbek was 3-for-4 with a home run (his twelfth), two runs, and three RBIs.  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-4.  Shane Mack was 1-for-3 with a home run (his fourteenth) and a walk.

Pitching star:  Kevin Tapani pitched a complete game, giving up two runs on four hits and a walk and striking out three.  He threw just 91 pitches.

Opposition stars:  Jay Buhner was 1-for-3 with a home run, his twenty-first.

The game:  Mack homered with two out in the first inning to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  In the second Hrbek led off with a single, went to second on a wild pitch, was bunted to third, and scored on a ground out to make it 2-0.  In the fourth, Gene Larkin doubled and scored on Hrbek's single to make it 3-0.

The Mariners got on the board in the bottom of the fourth.  Edgar Martinez led off with a single and went to second when Harold Reynolds walked.  A ground out moved the runners up and a sacrifice fly cut the Twins' lead to 3-1.  It went to 3-2 when Buhner homered leading off the fifth, but the Twins got the run back with interest in the sixth when a walk to Larkin was followed by Hrbek's two-run homer.

The score was 5-2, and there it stayed.  Seattle got just one baserunner after that, a two-out single by Omar Vizquel in the eighth.

WP:  Tapani (10-7).  LP:  Bill Krueger (9-5).  S:  None.

Notes:  Larkin was the designated hitter, replacing Chili Davis.  That caused Mack to go into the third spot in the batting order, with Puckett moving down to fourth.  Greg Gagne returned to the lineup at shortstop.

Puckett was batting .329.  Brian Harper was 1-for-4 and was batting .311.  Tapani lowered his ERA to 2.98.

With Hrbek on second and none out in the second inning, Scott Leius bunted, moving Hrbek to third.  He scored on a ground out, making the score 2-0.  I wonder if Leius bunted on his own, trying to get a hit.  It seems strange to just want to move Hrbek to third with one out, especially with Gagne as the next batter.

I doubt that, at the start of the season, very many people would've expected Mack to have more home runs than Hrbek.  It's remarkable, as I go through these games, how few times Hrbek has been one of the offensive stars.  He was still a solid player, and a steady contributor.  He batted .284/.373/.461 with 20 homers, and you'll certainly take that.  I'm surprised that he didn't have much of a platoon split.  Memory had told me that he really struggled with lefties, but he didn't in 1991--he batted .281/.352/.445 against them.  He was even better against righties, of course--.284/.380/.467.  Tom Kelly often dropped Hrbek to seventh in the lineup against left-handers, which is probably why I assumed there was a big platoon split.  But there really wasn't.

Tapani had now won five straight games.  He wasn't pitching all that much better than he had earlier--his ERA only fell from 3.16 to 2.98.  The Twins just started scoring some runs for him.

The White Sox kept pace with the Twins, defeating Baltimore 7-0.

Record:  The Twins were 67-45, in first place in the American League West, one game ahead of Chicago.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Ninety-three

MINNESOTA 14, BOSTON 1 IN BOSTON

Date:  Sunday, July 21.

Batting stars:  Shane Mack was 3-for-4 with two doubles, a walk, and two runs.  Chili Davis was 3-for-5 with a double and a stolen base, his third.  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-4 with three RBIs.  Scott Leius was 2-for-5 with a double, a walk, and three runs.  Brian Harper was 2-for-6 with two runs.  Chuck Knoblauch was 1-for-3 with three walks and three runs.

Pitching stars:  Kevin Tapani pitched six innings, giving up an unearned run on three hits and no walks and striking out none.  Paul Abbott struck out three in two shutout innings, giving up two hits.  Allan Anderson pitched a perfect inning and struck out one.

Opposition star:  Steve Lyons was 2-for-3 with a double.

The game:  Leius led off the game with a single, followed by singles by Knoblauch and Puckett to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  An RBI ground out made it 2-0.  In the third Knoblauch walked and went to third on Davis' two-out single.  Davis then stole second.  A passed ball scored one run, a Harper single scored another, and a Mack double made it 5-0.  in the fourth, Greg Gagne hit a one-out double, walks to Leius and Knoblauch filled the bases, and Puckett's two-run single made it 7-0.

The Red Sox got on the board in the bottom of the seventh.  Jody Reed reached on an error and scored on a Jack Clark double.  That was the end of their good news, though.  The Twins scored five in the sixth and two more in the seventh to get the 14-1 victory.

WP:  Tapani (6-7).  LP:  Tom Bolton (7-7).  S:  None.

Notes:  Mack was again in left field in the absence of Dan Gladden.  Gene Larkin was in right.  Leius was the leadoff batter.

Jarvis Brown pinch-ran for Puckett in the fifth and stayed in the game in center field.  Al Newman went into the game at shortstop in the fifth, replacing Gagne.  Randy Bush went into the game in the sixth inning at first base, replacing Kent Hrbek.  Davis went to left field in the eighth inning, with Abbott entering the lineup in Mack's spot.

Puckett raised his average to .328.  Harper went up to .325.  Tapani lowered his ERA to 3.03.  Abbott went down to 3.31.

Tapani hadn't gotten much run support up to this point in the season, but that turned around in this game.  Including this game, he won five starts in a row and went 9-0 over ten starts.  In those games, the Twins scored 71 runs.  Tapani was still pitching well--he did not give up more than four runs in any of those starts, and six times gave up fewer than three.

This was Davis' first appearance in the field all season.  He would make just one more, about a month later.  He would, of course, play one game in the field in the World Series.  He had been a regular outfielder from 1982-1989 and had played a substantial number of games in the outfield in 1990, but would make only token appearances there after that and none from 1995-1999, when his career ended.

Boston starter Bolton pitched just 2.2 innings, allowing five runs (four earned) on five hits and three walks and striking out one.  He had pitched five innings of relief just three days earlier.  He really couldn't be expected to pitch well after that, and he didn't.

Tapani pitched six innings and neither struck out nor walked anyone.  I don't know how rare that is, but it is at least unusual.  I suspect it might have been more common years ago than it is now, but I don't think it was all that common in the old days, either.

The White Sox lost and Texas won, so the Twins gained a game in the standings while the Rangers tied Chicago for second place.  The Twins had won four in a row, five of six, and eight of ten.

Record:  The Twins were 55-38, in first place in the American League West, 5.5 games ahead of Texas and Chicago.