Saturday September 26, 1987
Royals 7, Twins 4
Jeff Reardon’s scoreless innings streak ended ubruptly and in a big way. The Twins entered the ninth inning in a tie with the Royals, and things looked great with Reardon carrying a 14 1/3-inning scoreless streak to the mound. Three consecutive one out hits, the capper being a three-run home run by Danny Tartabull, did in Reardon and the Twins in a morning game at the Metrodome.
In the short term, the Royals are considering themselves successful. The Twins will not be able to clinch the AL West at home, and the magic number remains at “3″. The Royals were chanting “Nooooooo bubbly in the Metrodome!” after the game, a take off of PA man Bob Casey’s famous no smoking announcement.
Meanwhile, the Oakland A’s lost their fourth straight game, and have lost five of the last six, to fall the third place in the division, a game behind Kansas City.
The Twins were able to jump on the Royals early with a Kirby Puckett two RBI single in the bottom of the first. Throughout the game, the Twins held leads of 2-0, 2-1, 3-1, and 4-3 before the Royals were able to tie the game with a run in the top of the seventh.
The mini-losing streak has caused a tiny bit of second-guessing in the clubhouse. From the Star Tribune:
“You guys all talk like it’s in the bag,” Twins third baseman Gary Gaetti said. “It isn’t. We can’t look at it like that. If we get ahead of ourselves it ain’t going to happen. That’s when you make mistakes.”
Kirby Puckett is cautiously optimistic:
“In my opinion, we haven’t clinched anything yet,” he said. “Since I’ve been here we haven’t clinched anything – period. I don’t care if it’s at home or on the road. It doesn’t matter.
“But we’re still in first place. We’ll be all right. There’s no problem.”
And from Sid Hartman’s column:
The Twins’ two losses to Kansas City have former owner Calvin Griffith concerned that they may blow the Western Division title even though they had a six-game lead. “It is discouraging to see a team leave 21 men on base like the Twins have the past two days,” he said. “A six-game lead can go in a hurry. I recall Gene Mauch having a 6 1/2-game lead with 12 games to play when he managed the Phillies (in 1964), and they blew it. Anything can happen.”
Bert Blyleven will pitch Sunday’s home finale against the Royals on three days rest due to an injury to previously scheduled starter Joe Niekro.
Player of the Game
Danny Tartabull
AL West Standings through 9/26 (Retrosheet)
Team Name G W L T PCT GB RS RA Minnesota Twins 155 83 72 0 .535 - 761 773 Kansas City Royals 155 78 77 0 .503 5.0 680 666 Oakland Athletics 155 77 78 0 .497 6.0 781 747 Texas Rangers 154 73 81 0 .474 9.5 790 807 Seattle Mariners 154 72 82 0 .468 10.5 718 766 California Angels 155 72 83 0 .465 11.0 726 764 Chicago White Sox 155 71 84 0 .458 12.0 706 734
Tomorrow vs Kansas City: Bert Blyleven 14-11 4.16 vs Charlie Leibrandt (L) 15-10 3.25
Monday-Wednesday @ TEX
Friday-Sunday @ KC
Other Remaining Schedules (3 games unless noted)
Kansas City: @ MIN (1); vs SEA; vs MIN
Oakland: vs CHW (1); vs CLE; @ CHW
