15 in a Row
As the spring of 1991 started to turn into summer, the Twins found themselves right in the middle of the AL West pack. A loss at Kansas City on the last day of May dropped the team’s record to 23-25, 5.5 games out of first place.
Though there had been some high hopes for the Twins out of spring training, there are several reasons that the team had not lived up to them in the first two months of 1991. The offense was sputtering a bit, scoring about half a run per game less than the league. While guys like Kirby Puckett and new acquisition Chili Davis were producing as expected, others were not hitting so well.
Kent Hrbek had a tough start, going .239/.340/.370 with only four home runs in the first two months of the season. The third base platoon of Mike Pagliarulo (.232/.246/.330, 2 HR) and Scott Leuis (.182/.368/.295, 1 HR) seemed like a failed experiment. Though Shane Mack was starting to turn things around, he had dug himself a deep hole with a horrible April (.143/.189/.343, 1 HR), and stood at .247/.313/.442, 3 HR as June began.
As a staff, the Twins pitching looked pretty good. Jack Morris was starting to rebound from a terrible start to the season to provide the solid starts the Twins expected from him when they acquired him in the off season. Scott Erickson had pitched much better than expected, and carried a seven game winning streak into June. Kevin Tapani provided a third very good starter. It seemed that if the team could score some runs, the Twins might be able to put together a winning season.
Starting June 1, it seemed like someone flipped a switch to turn on the offense. The Twins finished the series in Kansas City with two wins. Chili Davis homered twice in an 8-4 victory on June 1, and Scott Erickson won his eighth decision in a row in a 4-1 victory on June 2.
Following the series win in Kansas City, the Twins had a 10-game home stand at the Metrodome, where they where they were 14-12 so far in the season. A Kent Hrbek home run helped Jack Morris and the Twins take the first game from Baltimore, 3-2. It took ten innings and a walk-off single by Randy Bush to win game two of the series, 4-3; and the Twins completed the series sweep with a 4-3 win on a Wednesday, June 5.
The Twins had won five in a row when Cleveland came to town for a weekend series. Allan Anderson and Rick Aguilera combined for a two-hit shutout in game one of the series, helped by Chili Davis’ 12th home run of the season. Erickson won his ninth decision in a row the next night, a 2-1 victory over the tribe. After several close games in a row, the Twins finally had a bit of a cushion in a 9-2 win on Sunday, another Jack Morris win. The four game sweep was completed on Monday, when the Twins won 8-5 thanks to two RBI by Hrbek and three by Mike Pagliarulo.
The Yankees were the next victims of the streaking Twins, and were dispatched in three games: 5-3, 6-3, and 10-3. Scott Erickson earned his 10th straight decision in the last game of the series. The Twins had finished the 10-game home stand with a perfect record, and were in second place when they headed to Cleveland for a three-game series.
Shane Mack and Kent Hrbek both homered in a 7-0 win on June 14; Jack Morris and Carl Willis combined for the shutout. The Twins scored 11 on Cleveland the next day, thanks in part to a four RBI game for Scott Leius. It took extra innings to earn the win on Sunday, but the Twins did so, 4-2 in 10 innings, to extend the team winning streak to 15 games.
The standings on May 31, 1991 looked like this (Retrosheet):
Team Name G W L T PCT GB RS RA Texas Rangers 43 26 17 0 .605 - 229 194 Oakland Athletics 47 28 19 0 .596 - 242 233 California Angels 47 26 21 0 .553 2.0 213 178 Seattle Mariners 48 25 23 0 .521 3.5 199 195 Minnesota Twins 48 23 25 0 .479 5.5 196 202 Chicago White Sox 44 21 23 0 .477 5.5 177 213 Kansas City Royals 46 21 25 0 .457 6.5 173 184
by June 16th, the AL West looked a lot different:
Team Name G W L T PCT GB RS RA Minnesota Twins 63 38 25 0 .603 - 283 241 Oakland Athletics 62 37 25 0 .597 0.5 320 302 Texas Rangers 57 32 25 0 .561 3.0 290 257 California Angels 61 33 28 0 .541 4.0 267 246 Seattle Mariners 62 33 29 0 .532 4.5 275 261 Chicago White Sox 60 29 31 0 .483 7.5 244 274 Kansas City Royals 60 29 31 0 .483 7.5 241 254
The team finally lost in an extra-inning game in Baltimore (more on that in a different post). Following that loss, the Twins won four more in a row, and finished a stretch in which they won 22 out of 26 games from May 28 to June 22.
Many of those who were struggling for the first two months were the key players in the streak. Kent Hrbek batted .353/.433/.529 with two home runs during that 15-game stretch. Scott Leius went 10-for-21 in limited time over the stretch, and Shane Mack batted .342/.390/.579 with two home runs and 10 RBI. Chili Davis had five home runs and 13 RBI during the streak, while Kirby Puckett added three home runs and 12 RBI.
Not to be forgotten, Scott Erickson allowed only four earned runs in 24 innings pitched. His winning streak continued until he had won 12 consecutive decisions. Jack Morris allowed only three earned runs over 23 innings pitched, and Kevin Tapani allowed only four earned in 22 2/3 innings pitched. Rick Aguilera had seven saves over the stretch that vaulted the 1991 Twins into first place.