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Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game One Hundred Thirty

NEW YORK 5, MINNESOTA 2 IN NEW YORK

Date:  Sunday, August 30.

Batting stars:  Paul Ratliff was 2-for-3 with a double, a walk, and two RBIs.  Jim Holt was 2-for-4.

Pitching star:  Ron Perranoski struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up three hits and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Jake Gibbs was 3-for-4 with a home run, his seventh.  Roy White was 1-for-4 with a grand slam, his nineteenth homer.  Steve Kline pitched 8.1 innings, giving up two runs on eight hits and two walks and striking out five.

The game:  In the second Harmon Killebrew and Holt singled and Ratliff followed with a two-run double.  Ratliff was on second with none out, but the Twins could do no more damage.  Still, the Twins had a 2-0 lead.  Rich Reese doubled with one out in the third, but he was also stranded at second.

Gibbs led off the third with a home run to cut the lead to 2-1.  The Twins had men on first and second with none out in the fourth but again did not score.  They had men on first and second with one out in the fifth and did not score.

And in the bottom of the fifth they paid the price.  Gibbs led off with a single and Jerry Kinney walked.  A bunt moved the runners to second and third, Frank Baker walked with two out to load the bases, and White hit a grand slam to put New York ahead 5-2.

The Twins got one-out singles from Ratliff and Leo Cardenas to bring the tying run to the plate.  Danny Thompson fouled out, but Rick Renick got a pinch-hit single.  Unfortunately, Ratliff was thrown out at the plate, trying to score from second on the hit, and the game was over.

WP:  Kline (3-3).

LP:  Bert Blyleven (8-6).

S:  Lindy McDaniel (21).

Notes:  Cesar Tovar was again in left, with Holt in center and Brant Alyea on the bench.  Ratliff was again behind the plate in place of George Mitterwald.  Frank Quilici was again at second in place of Rod Carew.

Alyea pinch-hit for Quilici in the seventh.  Charlie Manuel pinch-hit for Blyleven in the seventh.  Thompson went to second in place of Quilici.  Renick pinch-hit for Perranoski in the ninth.

Tony Oliva was 0-for-3 and was batting .315.  Perranoski had an ERA of 2.28.

Blyleven pitched six innings, allowing five runs on five hits and three walks and striking out four.  The solo homer didn't hurt him, but the grand slam sure did.

This was Steve Kline's rookie year, and he'd been in the majors about a month and a half at this point.  He was very good in his first three seasons, especially in 1971 and 1972, when he posted ERAs under three and WHIPs under 1.1 in both years.  He then developed arm problems, was traded to Cleveland early in 1974, missed all of 1975, tried to come back, but was done after 1977.  From 1970-1972, though, he was 34-28 with an ERA of 2.80, 1.11 WHIP.  He was only twenty-four after the 1972 season, but had pitched 458.2 innings in the past two seasons, which may have contributed to his arm problems.  If not for injury, he might have had a fine major league career.

Record:  The Twins were 76-54, in first place in the American League West, three games ahead of California.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game One Hundred Thirteen

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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.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game One Hundred Five

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MINNESOTA 8, OAKLAND 6 IN OAKLAND

Date:  Saturday, August 3.

Batting stars:  Shane Mack was 3-for-5 with a home run (his thirteenth) and two runs.  Kirby Puckett was 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs.  Brian Harper was 2-for-4 with a three-run homer, his sixth.  Chili Davis was 2-for-5.

Pitching star:  Rick Aguilera pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Dave Henderson was 3-for-5 with three home runs, his twentieth, twenty-first, and twenty-second.  Mark McGwire was 2-for-3 with a home run (his sixteenth), a double, and a walk.  Harold Baines was 1-for-1 with a home run, his fourteenth.  Jose Canseco was 1-for-5 with a home run, his twenty-ninth.

The game:  Henderson hit a home run in the first inning to give the Athletics a 1-0 lead.  They loaded the bases with two out in the inning but could do no further damage.  In the third Henderson struck again, making it 2-0.  Again Oakland threatened later in the inning, putting men on second and third with two out, but they again could not score.  Henderson hit yet another home run in the fifth, making the score 3-0.  In the sixth, McGwire hit a home run to increase the lead to 4-0.  In the seventh Canseco hit a home run to boost the lead to 5-0.

It looked bad, but the Twins came back in a big way in the eighth.  With one out Greg Gagne walked and Mack singled.  Chuck Knoblauch had an RBI double and Puckett delivered a two-run single, cutting the margin to 5-3.  Kent Hrbek walked and Davis had an RBI single to make it 5-4.  Harper then stepped up and hit a three-run homer.  It killed the rally, but it gave the Twins the lead at 7-5.

Baines hit a pinch-hit home run in the bottom of the eighth to cut the lead to 7-6.  The Twins got the run back in the ninth on Mack's home run.  The Athletics got a two-out single in the bottom of the ninth to bring the tying run to the plate, but Brook Jacoby flied out to end the game.

WP:  Steve Bedrosian (4-2).  LP:  Joe Klink (8-3).  S:  Aguilera (28).

Notes:  Mack was in left field in place of Dan Gladden, with Gene Larkin in right.  Mack also batted leadoff.  Gladden pinch-ran for Larkin in the eighth and stayed in the game in left field, with Mack moving to right.

Puckett raised his average back up to .331.  Harper went up to .315.  Terry Leach retired both batters he faced to make his ERA 2.82.  Aguilera lowered his ERA to 2.64.

Mack's batting average went up to .296, the highest it had been to this point in the season.

The Twins were able to keep Rickey Henderson completely off the base paths this game, as he went 0-for-5.

Oakland had ten hits.  Six of them were home runs, all solo home runs.  They also had two doubles and two singles.  They stranded eight runners and went 0-for-5 with men in scoring position.  I don't know what the record is for having all of your runs come on solo homers (which don't hurt you), but I would have to think that six is at least in the ball park, so to speak.

David West started for the Twins.  He pitched well other than the home runs, but his line is 5.1 innings, four runs, seven hits, four walks, and six strikeouts.  The Athletics starter was Joe Slusarski.  He pitched well for seven innings, but unfortunately for him he also started the eighth.  That makes his line 7.1 innings, four runs, nine hits, one walk, one strikeout.

This was Slusarski's rookie season.  He's another guy who got chance after chance despite not doing anything.  In 1991 he made 19 starts and went 5-7, 5.27, 1.58 WHIP.  In 1992 he made 14 starts and went 5-5, 5.45, 1.47 WHIP.  He made only two appearances in 1993 and none in 1994.  He was with Milwaukee in 1995 for 12 appearances out of the bullpen and went 1-1, 5.40, 1.80 WHIP.  He next appeared in the majors in 1991 with Houston for 3 games.  In 2000 he had his best major league season, going 2-7, 4.21, 1.33 WHIP in 54 relief outings.  In 2001 he made 12 appearances for Houston and Atlanta, going 0-1, 9.00, 1.81 WHIP.  Add it all together and he was 13-21, 5.18, 1.53 WHIP.  He appeared in 118 games, 34 starts.  His AAA numbers are 34-36, 4.12, 1.36 WHIP, not awful but not particularly impressive, either.  It's yet another case of how some guys get chance after chance without ever showing they deserve it, while other guys star in AAA and at most get one brief major league shot.

The White Sox lost to Baltimore 6-3, so the Twins gained a game.

Record:  The Twins were 62-43, in first place in the American League West, three games ahead of Chicago.