June 8, 1994 - New York Yankees at Texas Rangers - Game started at 6:05 and it was 96 degrees. Ugh. Bernie Williams went 3-5 with two doubles and a home run. And he's a good jazz musician, too! My favorite Yankee (admittedly, I don't like too many of them!). His team still lost. Melido Perez gave up 5 runs in 6 innings, and the Yankees had a sloppy 7th where there was a balk, an error, and a bases-loaded walk. No individual Ranger had a standout offensive performance. Dan Smith came in with two Yankees on and one out and got a strikeout and a fly ball. He then pitched himself into a bases loaded situation and got a popup. Really fun game. TEX 6, NYA 5
June 11, 1994 - Cleveland Indians at Milwaukee Brewers - Cleveland had their way. Alomar and Thome both homered. Jason Grimsley pitched a complete game, giving up 5 hits, 2 earned runs, 2 walks, and striking out 7. Cal Eldred shouldn't feel too bad giving up homers to two future Hall-of-Famers. CLE 5, MIL 2
June 13, 1994 - Oakland Athletics at Chicago White Sox - Maybe the best pitching performance on the trip, the St. Louis-Atlanta game later may be an exception. Jason Bere struck out 14 in 8 innings, giving up 2 hits and walking 6, with Roberto Hernandez pitching 1 1 hit inning for the save. Ron Darling also pitched a whale of a game, with 8 innings, 8 hits, 1 earned run, walking 3, and striking out 6. CHA 1, OAK 0
June 15, 1994 - Toronto Blue Jays at Cleveland Indians - This game was electric. The fans were phenomenal. They were pumped on the subway to and from the game. For Toronto, Roberto Alomar went 3 for 5 with only run scored and no RBI, and reached on an error. Joe Carter went 3 for 5 with no runs scored and one RBI. But the Blue Jays hit into 4 double plays. At least Alomar scored on one of them! It was a pretty dismal offensive showing. Todd Stottlemyre pitched 8 innings, allowing 8 hits, 3 earned runs, 2 walks, and struck out 6. Not bad, but not enough. Both pullpens pitched well in extra innings, but poor Scott Brow, with a total of 107 major league innings, allowed the mammoth walkoff to Jim Thome.
On the other side, Charles Nagy threw 9 innings, giving up 3 runs (2 earned), walking 2 and striking out 5. Erik Plunk, Derek Lilliquist, and Jose Mesa shut the door. Cleveland was down 3-0 going into the eighth, when Omar Vizquel doubled, Kenny Lofton doubled, and Wayne Kirby hit a homer.
Jim Thome's home run in the bottom of the 13th was a thing of beauty. Opposite-field, into the left field trees just left of center field. The fans in their shiny new, beautiful ballpark, were delirious. This was a fun, fun game. CLE 4, TOR 3, 13 innings
June 17, 1994 - Minnesota Twins at Baltimore Orioles - Baltimore laid a whuppin' on the visiting Twins. The venerable Dave Winfield hit a double, and Shane Mack hit a dinger, but those were the only Minnesota highlights, as the Orioles had lots of base runners against Kevin Tapani, Brett Merriman, and Carlos Pulido. Ben McDonald pitched a complete game, allowing 8 hits, 2 earned runs, walking nobody and striking out 5. Chris Sabo went 3 for 4 with a double, Rafael went 2 for 5 with a double, and Leo Gomez hit a home run, but there were hits up and down the Baltimore lineup. BAL 9, MIN 2
June 19, 1994 - Toronto Blue Jays at Detroit Tigers - Lots of pitching. Toronto loser Juan Guzman pitched an 9 inning complete game, but he allowed 3 runs on 5 hits with 3 walks. He did strikeout 9. Greg Gohr pitched 7 2/3 innings, allowing 6 hits, 1 earned run, walking 2, and striking out 7. Buddy Groom came in with a runner on 3rd and two outs in the eighth and got Jon Olerud to fly out, and Mike Gardiner pitched the 9th for the save. Home run by Mickey Tettleton. DET 3, TOR 1
June 22, 1994 - San Francisco Giants at Cincinnati Reds - Another game full of pitching, with Barry Larkin hitting a home run in the bottom of the 8th to give Cincinnati the one run lead that it needed to win. The starters, John Burkett, and John Roper, pitched at least 7. Burkett pitched into the eight, but was pulled after he gave up Larkin's home run and he walked another better. The Red's bullpen got both the win (Chuck McElroy) and the save (Jeff Brantley). CIN 2, SF 1
June 24, 1994 - Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins - Jim Deshaies did not have a good year in 1994; he led the league in both home runs allowed (30) and earned runs allowed (107), and finished with an ERA of 7.39. He also, inexplicably, let the league in game started (25). This night, though, he was great, allowing 4 hits, 1 earned run, walking 3 and striking out 8 in 8 innings pitched. Rick Aguilera had a rocky 9th, but closed it out with a save. Vince Coleman, of all people, hit one of his 2 home runs in 1994 off of Deshaies, but that was all of the offense the Royals could muster. The Twins had a 2-hit games from Chuck Knoblauch, Shane Mack, Pedro Munuz, and a 3 hit game from Jeff Reboulet (including 2 doubles). Kent Hrbek had one hit, but it knocked in two. MIN 4, KC 1
June 27, 1994 - Atlanta Braves at Montréal Expos - According to the Expos fans I know, this game will forever be known as the Cliff Floyd game, as he hit a 3 run bomb off of Greg Maddux to take the lead in the bottom of the 7th. Maddux lost only four games in 1994; this was one of them. The best team in the National League managed 4 walks and 9 hits off of the future Hall of Famer. Marquis Grissom was 4 for 5 with 2 doubles and 2 runs scored. The Expos stole 6 bases, 5 off of Maddux. Even defensive replacement Tim Spehr knocked in a scored a run. Ken Hill pitched 7 and 1/3 innings, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits, striking out 3. He did walk 6 batters. Which meant there were always men on base. 45289 fans, my wife, and I thoroughly enjoyed this excellent game in this miserable excuse of a ball park.
