MPR’s Jim Bickal looks at what is behind the Minnesota Twins success during the 1987 MLB season.
MPR’s Jim Bickal looks at what is behind the Minnesota Twins success during the 1987 MLB season.
JIM BICKAL: Like any other game, baseball is a mixture of skill and luck. The Twins have won six games in a row, and part of the reason is that they've been lucky. Last night, they scored on a wild pitch, a check swing sacrifice fly, and a soft line drive that was misplayed into an inside the park home run. After the game, Manager Tom Kelly bristled at the suggestion of luck.
SPEAKER 1: These last few games, you guys have played well, but you've also gotten some pretty big breaks. Do you feel this team's lucky these days?
TOM KELLY: That's all.
JIM BICKAL: Like lots of people in baseball, Kelly has trouble with the idea that their job performance is often affected by chance. But the Twins are lucky in another way. They're lucky that Frank Viola is on their side.
Viola pitched a brilliant game last night, allowing no runs and striking out 10 through 8 innings. With a record of 17 and 9, Viola is one of the top starting pitchers in baseball. Viola had a no hitter going through five innings, but he says he doesn't think about no hitters because of the time he came within two outs of throwing one in college.
FRANK VIOLA: Do you know how the first base hit was?
[CHATTER]
The guy hit a ground ball at first. I forgot to cover. I was excited.
SPEAKER 2: Yeah, right. Yeah.
[LAUGHTER]
FRANK VIOLA: So I just figured it's not in the books for me.
JIM BICKAL: Three Twins batters reached base in the game after being hit by a pitch. One of them was Don Baylor, who's the all time Major League leader in being hit. Baylor says he's been coaching his teammates about an often overlooked part of the game.
DON BAYLOR: Well, I always tell him when you're down in the count, especially when you have two strikes, pitchers hate giving up a hit by a pitch at that time. And Puckett had mentioned it one other time, and he got hit today with two strikes. And especially when you have Charlie Hough out there, I mean, it's not going to hurt. So you might as well take one for the team.
JIM BICKAL: Tonight, Les Straker will pitch for the Twins in the first game of a three-game series against the Kansas City Royals. His opponent will be Danny Jackson. I'm Jim Bickal reporting.
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