Twins and Sahx battle to a draw

9/8 - Metrodome, Time 3:36
GAME 1 - Twins 6, Red Sox 5
The fans at the homer dome were treated to a battle of respective lefty aces (Mel Parnell & Frank Viola).  By the time all the dust and astroturf cleared neither was around to stake claim to a decision.  The Sahx were us 3-2 going into the bottom of the 8th.  Parnell was still on the hill, but it became apparent that he was tiring fast.  A hard ground ball was booted by Vern Stephens at short to put Mickey Hatcher on 1st.  Ron Washington bounced a seeing eye hit in the hole between 1st and 2nd.  Randy Bush's slow roller to second was fielded by Billy Goodman, who got the easy out, but runners were now on the corners with 1 out.  Parnell was able to reach back for one more high hard one as he struck out Tom Brunansky for the 2nd out of the inning.  Al Benton came on board for the righty/righty matchup vs Brown, who bounced one off of Goodman's glove to score Hatcher.  Goodman was charged with an error.  Benton walked the next batter to give the Twins a 4-3 lead, before Kirby Puckett fouled out to the catcher Sammy White to end the inning.  Ron Davis was on the hill to close it out for the Twins and just to make things interesting right off the bat he walked Johnny Lipon on 6 pitches.   The Moose, Walt Dropo crushed a double off the left field fence to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out.  Jimmy Piersall then grounded to Jimenez at short.  The throw went home and Lipon was barely safe to tie the game.  Piersall wound up on 1st as part of the fielder's choice.  Dom DiMaggio followed that one up with a grounder to short as well that Jimenez muffed to allow Dropo to score and give the Sahx a 5-4 lead.  With the bases loaded and 1 out Ted Lepcio hit a hard smash to Jimenez who rifled one to Laudner at the plate and back to Hrbek at first for the rare 6-2-3 DP to end the inning.  This would be huge, because Kent Hrbek lead off the bottom of the 9th with a game tying  418 foot homer to straight away center vs Bill Wright, who is known to be a lefty specialist.  Nothing special about that gopher ball.  Wright stayed in and proceeded to walk Hatcher on 4 straight pitchers.  Wright sawed off Ron Washington's bat, but it didn't matter to anyone...least of all Washington, because the ball wound up dropping into center just over Lepcio's head to put runners at the corners with nobody out.  With 1 out and runners on the corners the stage was set for Brunansky to be there hero.  Bruno was not about to let the opportunity pass, as he lifted a long fly to DiMaggio in center to score Hatcher easily and give the victory to the hometown Twins.

9/9 - Metrodome, Time 3:19
GAME 2 - Red Sox 4, Twins 3
For the second day in a row these two teams hooked up in another 1 run drama fest.  This time the Twins jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first off of Mickey McDermott (1-1, 7.31), who throws hard (8k's), but also throws straight as an arrow.  Ken Schrom was posting goose eggs until the fateful 7th inning when the Bosox touched him for 3.  There was no reason for the "homerdome" fans to worry after Hoot Evers led off the inning and struck out.  Even Vern Stephens' solo homers posed no concern, since the Twins still had a 2-1 lead and Schrom looked to be as strong as an ox, but things turned when backstop Sammy White doubled off the hefty bag.  Johnny Lipon pulled one through the whole to put runners on the corners with 1 out.  Dick Gernert was up next and he lined a bullet into center to score White and tie the game.  Lipon held wisely at second as Puckett was poised to gun him down at 3rd.  Faye Throneberry ripped a single to right to load the bases.  Lipon held at 3rd because the ball was hit too hard and he didn't want to challenge Bruno's arm in right.  The "Little Professor" Dom DiMaggio hit a routine grounder to third.  Instead of trying to cut down the runner (Lipon) at the plate Gaetti chose to go for the DP.  Throneberry was out easily at 2nd, but DiMaggio, who seems to be on his last legs...legged this one out and beat it by a hair to extend the inning and put the Bosox up 3-2.  The top of the 8th would see Boston add a much needed insurance run, when Billy Goodman led off with a walk and was bunted over to second by Hoot Evers.  With 2 out Sammy White his his second consecutive two bagger and Goodman easily walked home to make it 4-2.  Randy Bush led off the bottom of the 8th with a solo shot off of reliever Ellis Kinder to again make it a 1 run game.  Brunansky was up next and he fanned for the 3rd time in the game.  Gaetti singled, but was stranded on first.  Lysander, in relief of Schrom was able to get Boston out easily in the top of the 9th, and so Kinder was now tasked with getting 3 outs and saving the game for McDermott.  Nothing these days comes easily for Boston and the bottom of the 9th would be no exception.  After Puckett hit a lazy fly ball to DiMaggio in center it looked like it just might be easy for Kinder, but the dangerous Hrbek came to the plate and Kinder tried to pick the corners and eventually walked him on a 3-1 curveball that was nowhere near the plate.  Mickey Hatcher lined an opposite field hit to move Hrbek up 90 feet and into scoring position.  On the air at NESN "Rem-Dog" said, "Kind'ah needs to  get his head out of his rear and get this next guy".  A simple statement, but not an easy thing to do.  Kinder battled Tim Teufel, who just got under the ball and hit an elevator in silo.  Bill Goodman camped under it at second and caught it just as the infield fly rule was invoked.  Now with 2 down up stepped Randy Bush who was completely fooled by Kinder's 1-1 offering, but managed to top it down to 3rd.  Stephens had no play on it and the bases were loaded with 2 out.  The fans in the dome were so loud even ear plugs couldn't help.  It all came down to a matchup of power.  Kinder vs Bruno.  Kinder quickly had Bruno in the hole at 0-2 and tried to slip a changeup by the big right fielder.  Kinder's executed his plan to perfection as Bruno was looking fastball and swung years ahead of the 0-2 offering to end the game and record the "Golden Sombrero".

9/10 - Fenway Park, Time 3:14,68ø (Double-Header)
GAME 3 - Twins 6, Red Sox 2
Boston lead 2-1 going into the top of the 7th when the Twins exploded for 4 runs.  Minnesota's rock star with the lumber, Kent Hrbek, started it all out with a clean single.  Bruno walked and Teufel singled.  Brown pinch hit for Engle and put the inning in peril when he grounded into a routine 6-4-3 DP.  Hrbek scored to tie the game, but it looked like Sid Hudson and the Sahx were going to get away without further damage.  That was until Hudson needed a GPS to find home plate and walked both Jimenz and Castino to load the bases.  The diminutive one, Kirby Puckett, came to the plate and scored all three with a bases clearing triple.  A solo run in the 8th provide more insurances as the Twins spoiled Boston's homecoming.  Mike Smithson (2-1, 3.3) got the win and Tim Lysander pitched 2 perfect innings in relief.  Bobby Castillo closed out the 9th in a non-save situation.

GAME 4 - Red Sox 5, Twins 4 (12 inn)
No better way to close out this action packed series than with a 12 inning game that also featured a 1 hour rain delay in the middle of the 2nd inning.  The Twins posted a solo run in the first when Puckett reached first on an error by Johnny Pesky at 3rd.  Pesky, who has been fighting injury and ineffectiveness all season returned to the lineup for the first time since early August and looked rusty at the hot corner on Puckett's smash.  A balk by starter Dizzy Trout allowed Puckett to move up to third where he scored easily on a single by Gary Gaetti.  After the rain cleared the Bosox took a 3-1 lead with a big 4th inning.  Dom DiMaggio led off with a walk and scored when Clyde Vollmer doubled off the Green Monstah.  DiMaggio was able to race home all the way from first as Twins late season call-up Andre David had trouble handling the carom.   Vern Stephens singled home Vollmer and went to second on an ill-advised throw to the plate.  Backup catcher Del Wilber doubled off the Monstah to score Stephens easily.  In the top of the 6th the Twins scored when pinch hitter John Castino singled home Tim Teufel, who led off the inning with a walk.  That made the score 3-2.  By this point both teams were really depleting their bullpens.  Nothing hurts a pen more than a hitter friendly ballpark coupled with a 1 hour rain delay during the second game of a doubleheader.  By the top of the 7th Boston was on their 4th pitcher Al Benton, who served up a leadoff double to Bruno and was sent immediately to the showers in favor of the lefty/lefty matchup of Wight vs Hrbek.  Once again Hrbek proved to be the master of this matchup and again hit a homer off of Wight like he did in game 1.  Ellis Kinder was summoned once again from the pen with a simple set of instructions from his manager "NO MORE F-in RUNS".  Kinder was up for the task and easily got the Bosox out of the inning without further damage.  Minnesota was faring better with pitching by this point.  John Butcher was able to stretch his effectiveness to 5 full innings.  Larry Pashnick relieved Butcher and seemed fine until the bottom of the 8th when he issued a 1 out walk to Vollmer and then balked him over to second.  Vern Stephens, who has struggled this season without Ted Williams hitting in front of him, launched a bullet into the gap in left center for a game tying double.  The game would stay tied and force the cold and soggy fans to stay for extra frames. 

In fact, most were already in the Cask’n Flagon watching the game on the tube and enjoying an adult beverage.  By the time the 12th inning came along Ellis Kinder (2-1, 2.19) had thrown almost 6 innings in relief and allowed just 1 hit and had 6 strikeouts.  Pete Filson, who recorded the final out of the 11th was on board to start up the bottom of the 12th for the Twins.  Kinder, who was going to either win or lose this thing, led off the inning and struck out.  With nobody else left in the pen this was his game.  Billy Goodman walked and Dick Gernert doubled to put runners on second and third with 1 down.  DiMaggio was given and intentional pass to load the bases and hopefully allow the Twins the chance to get an inning ending double play or at least a force at the plate.  Hoot Evers came to the plate and before you knew it was sitting on a 3-0 count.  Given the take sign Evers did just that and Filson threw one right down Broadway for a call strike and a 3-1 count.  The pressure was squarely on Filson's shoulders to deliver 2 more strikes as it looked like Evers was not going to move the bat.  Filson missed high on his next offering and Goodman trotted home for the game winning run on a walk off walk to Evers.