From: chriss@sam.amgen.com (Chris Silvester)
Subject: A's stun Twins...
Organization: Amgen
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 04:58:20 GMT

Whether due to a flaky newsfeed, or some other unknown reason (like mass
depression for Twin.fans), I haven't seen an A's/Twins update from the Twin
faithful, so here goes.

The A's completed a three game sweep of the Twins on Wednesday night at the
Metrodome, pulling them into a tie for first in the AL West.  Both pitchers
struggled early, Stewart for the A's, Krueger for the Twins, and looked as if
neither had a chance of making it into the sixth.  The A's got two unearned
runs in the first, and Krueger continued somewhat shakily even into the fourth.
However, by the eighth, the A's had managed only four hits off of him, and had
not scored since the first.  Meanwhile, it was obvious that Stewart did not 
have his best stuff, and the Twins hit him hard early.  But he hung on like a
bulldog, reaching back when he had to to keep the A's close.  The Twins scored
a run in each of the first three innings, but then Stewart settled in a little
more and held the Twins in check thru the sixth.  However, faltering in the
seventh, Stewart was lifted for Jeff Parret, who came in to finish the inning
and kept the Twins from scoring.  But, in the eighth after two were out, the
Twins scored off of Parret with a single by Greg Gagne and a double from
Knoblauch, who was thrown out trying to stretch his hit into a triple, ending
the inning.  But the Twins now had a 4-2 advantage going into the ninth.

Despite what had become a strong outing for Krueger, he was lifted in favor of
Rick Aguilerra, who came into to pitch the ninth.  The first batter he faced
was left-handed pinch hitter Jerry (the Governor) Browne, who promptly singled.
Then another lefty was brought in to pinch hit, Harold Baines, who also singled.
With Baines representing the tying run, Gene Nelson was sent in to pinch-run.
With runners at first and second, Rickey Henderson flyed deep to right center,
but Puckett caught up to it to record the first out, with Browne tagging and
advancing to third.  Then Mike Fox, called up because of injuries to A's
starters, stepped up to the plate, the Twins looking for the game-ending
double play.  However, Aguilerra uncorked a pitch in the dirt which Harper
couldn't quite handle, allowing Nelson to advance to second, but keeping
Browne from scoring from third.  Now, a basehit could tie the game...

As it turned out, it didn't matter.  Fox took Aguilerra deep into the right
field seats (391 ft) to give the A's the lead. Immediately, Eckersley got up
to throw in the A's bullpen.  Aguilerra finished the inning without further
damage.

As has happened almost w/o fail this season, the Eck proved too much for the
opposition to handle, shutting the Twins down in the bottom of the ninth and
extending his perfect save record this season.  On the final out, he got Chile
Davis looking with a slider on the outside corner.

Apparently, the Twins are still reeling, as they also lost tonite to the
Brewers 5-3, leaving the A's in sole possesion first place in the AL West for
the first time since July 3.

Now, for all those who claimed that those A's couldn't hang with those
incredible Twins...

[woof on]
  We took it to you on your home turf!  YYYYYYYEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!
[woof off]

On a more reasonable note, it'll probably be a fight right down to the wire
now.

Until the next and final '92 showdown,

Chris S.

Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball