Tag Archives: Wade Taylor

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game One Hundred Thirty-five

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MINNESOTA 3, NEW YORK 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Friday, September 6.

Batting star:  Chuck Knoblauch was 2-for-4 with a triple and a double.

Pitching stars:  Kevin Tapani pitched eight innings, giving up one run on seven hits and no walks and striking out six.  Rick Aguilera struck out two in a perfect inning.

Opposition star:  Wade Taylor pitched 7.1 innings, giving up three runs on six hits and three walks and striking out six.

The game:  The Yankees got a pair of one-out singles in the first, but a popup and a ground out ended the inning.  They scored their run in the third.  A Pat Kelly single and a Bernie Williams double put men on second and third with one out.  Steve Sax then had an RBI fielder's choice, with Williams thrown out trying to go to third.

The Twins had only one hit through three innings.  In the fourth, however, Knoblauch led off with a triple and scored on a Kirby Puckett double.  Kent Hrbek walked, and with one out Brian Harper had an RBI single to put the Twins ahead.  A run-scoring ground out made it 3-1 Twins.

And that was it for the scoring.  New York had just two hits after that, both singles.  Neither man got past first base.

WP:  Tapani (14-7).  LP:  Taylor (7-8).  S:  Aguilera (38).

Notes:  Scott Leius was at shortstop in place of Greg Gagne, with Mike Pagliarulo at third.  Paul Sorrento pinch-hit for Leius in the seventh, with Gagne coming in to play short.

Puckett was 1-for-4 and was batting .331.  Harper was 1-for-3 and was batting .320.  Shane Mack was 1-for-3 and was batting .308.  Tapani lowered his ERA to 2.82.  Aguilera lowered his ERA to 2.24.

This was the one major league season of Wade Taylor's career.  It was not a very good one--he went 7-12, 6.27, 1.69 WHIP in 23 games (22 starts).  He did have a few good starts--three of his starts topped the game score of 57 that he had in this game.  He obviously did not have enough of them, though.  He had injury trouble after this season.  He pitched just thirteen minor league innings in 1992 and thirty in 1993, and then was done.  He pitched pretty well in AAA, and since he was only twenty-five in 1991 he might have figured it out had he stayed healthy, but unfortunately for him, he didn't.  He was a major league scout until 2016, when he lost his job due to salary cutbacks.  He was working for UPS at last report.

I apologize, but the notes section is probably going to be short for a while.  Too much other stuff going on.

The White Sox defeated Texas 11-6, so they did not lose any more ground to the Twins.

Record:  The Twins were 81-54, in first place in the American League West, 7.5 games ahead of Chicago.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Sixty-eight

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MINNESOTA 4, NEW YORK 3 IN NEW YORK

Date:  Saturday, June 22.

Batting stars:  Chili Davis was 2-for-4.  Gene Larkin was 1-for-3 with a walk.

Pitching star:  Kevin Tapani pitched 8.2 innings, giving up three runs on eight hits and no walks and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Matt Nokes was 2-for-4 with a double.  Mel Hall was 2-for-4 with a double.  Wade Taylor pitched 7.1 innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on five hits and two walks and striking out six.

The game:  The Twins again scored in the first inning.  Dan Gladden walked and Chuck Knoblauch was hit by a pitch.  A force out put men on first and third, and Davis delivered an RBI single that put the Twins ahead 1-0.

There was not even another baserunner until the top of the fourth, when Larkin got a two-out single.  In the bottom of the fourth Don Mattingly singled and Hall doubled, putting men on second and third with two out, but Nokes grounded out to end the inning.  The Twins increased their lead in the fifth.  Mike Pagliarulo reached on an error, was bunted to second, and scored on a Knoblauch single, making the score 2-0.  They got a couple more in the eighth.  With one out, Kirby Puckett and Davis singled and Brian Harper followed with a two-run double, giving the Twins a 4-0 lead.

The Yankees got on the board in the eighth on an Alvaro Espinoza home run.  With two out in the ninth Hall singled, Nokes doubled home a run, and Jesse Barfield doubled home another run, cutting the lead to 4-3 with the tying run on second.  Roberto Kelly was intentionally walked, putting the potential winning run on base, but Espinoza struck out to end the game.

WP:  Tapani (5-6).  LP:  Taylor (2-2).  S:  Rick Aguilera (19).

Notes:  Larkin was at first base in place of Kent Hrbek.  Al Newman was at shortstop in place of Greg Gagne.  Scott Leius pinch-hit for Pagliarulo in the ninth and stayed in the game at third base.

Harper was 1-for-4 and was batting .340.  Puckett was 1-for-4 and was batting .326.  Tapani's ERA was 3.33.  Aguilera lowered his ERA to 2.86.

Newman was 0-for-3 and was batting .196.

Aguilera entered the game with the score 4-2.  He gave up the double to Barfield and the intentional walk to Kelly.  "The book" used to say that you never put the potential winning run on base.  Tom Kelly went against the book and it worked.

This was the only major league season of Wade Taylor's career.  He came up to the majors at the start of June and stayed in the Yankees rotation the rest of the season.  He had pitched quite well in AAA, but could not repeat that success in the majors.  In twenty-two starts, he went 7-12, 6.27, 1.69 WHIP.  He apparently had injury problems after that, as he appeared in just five minor league games in 1992, seven in 1993, and then was done.  He was a scout for many years, working for the Yankees, Washington, the Dodgers, and Arizona.  It appears that he has now become a real estate agent in Oviedo, Florida.

The Twins had now won four in a row, nineteen of twenty, and twenty-two of twenty-four.  That's pretty good.

Record:  The Twins were 42-26, in first place in the American League West, four games ahead of Oakland.