20 years ago today my mom turned 48 years old and Game 7 of the 1991 World Series was played between Tom Kelly's Minnesota Twins and Bobby Cox's Atlanta Braves and one of the most amazing thing about this match up was that the season before both teams were worst in their division as the Twins had been 74 and 88 while the Braves were even worst at 65 and 97.
Then U get to the game it was Jack Morris for the Twins and John Smoltz for the Braves and the game went to extra innings scoreless but both teams had a chance each before the eighth as the Twins had a Dan Gladden double that was sac flied to third by Chuck Knoblauch but Smoltz struck out hall of famer Kirby Puckett to end the bottom of the third inning. Then the Braves got Mark Lemke to third with one out as Rafael Belliard had a sac bunt and Lonnie Smith had a bunt single and the Braves had runners on the corner with solid all around player Terry Pendleton who had a .321 and 22 hrs and 86 RBIs at the plate and Ron Gant who was a big time slugger with 32 hrs and 105 RBIs and he was on deck so Jack Morris was in trouble but got Pendleton to pop up and then to strike out to end the top of the fifth. In the top of the eighth the Braves had Lonnie Smith on first with no outs and with Terry Pendleton at the plate the Braves but on a hit and run on and Pendleton delivered with a double into a gap in left center field and Smith probably would of scored but Greg Gagne the twins shortstop and Chuck Knoblauch the Twins second baseman acted like they were forcing Smith at second and caused Smith only to go to third. The Pendleton plate appearance was even more interesting as Pendleton on a 1 and 2 pitch looked to go through the plate and strike out but he applied to home umpire Don Denkinger said he fouled it off and he hit his double on the next pitch. With one out and the bases loaded and the slow Sid Bream at the plate who Jack Morris got to hit into a home to first double play to end the top of the inning and Bream only had 3 hits in the seven game series. In the bottom of the eighth and runners on the corners the Braves made the first move to the bullpen and brought in Mike Stanton to intentionally walk Puckett to load the bases with one out and Stanton then faced Kent Hrbek who he had the number on as he K'd the last three times he faced him and this time he lined out to Braves second baseman Mark Lemke who then stepped on second to force out Knoblauch to end the eighth inning. In the bottom of the ninth both Chili Davis (singled) and Brian Harper (bunt single) reached base and Mike Stanton was injured on Harper's bunt and Alejandro Peña came into pitch to Shane Mac who grounded into a double play and then he struck out Paul Sorrento to send it extras. Jack Morris refused to leave the game and he tired the side in order and throw 126 pitches which gave him an amazing pitches per inning of 12.6 and he only gave up 7 hits over his 10 innings and was simply unbeatable on the night. In the bottom of the tenth Gladden lead off hitting one in front of Hunter in left which took a high bounce off the artificial turf and he ended up with a double and Knoublauch bunted him to third and then Cox loaded the bases with back to back intentional walks and that brought the injured Gene Larkin off the bench for his first World Series plate appearance and on the first pitch he saw he hit a game winning single to give the Twins a 1-0 win in 10 and gave them their second World series title in 5 seasons as they won also won in '87.
Happy Birthday Mom
Tom Mehegan
No comments:
Post a Comment