Game of the Day (9/7/91)

Red Sox 11, Mariners 10. Are you tired of these two teams yet?

Like the first game in the series, this one included one of the best starting pitchers of all time. It was not Boston's Kevin Morton, who somehow managed a winning record and an ERA only slightly worse than average in 1991 despite walking almost as many batters as he struck out - but was promptly exiled from the majors after completing his rookie year.

The Hall of Famer was Morton's fellow wild lefty, Randy Johnson, who was on his way to the second of three consecutive AL leads in walks issued. His control would improve at least slightly as his career went on.

Game of the Day (9/6/91)

Red Sox 6, Mariners 5. Seattle started Bill Krueger, who would eventually spend 13 years in the majors, play for eight teams, and split time between starting and relieving while never really distinguishing himself in either role (his career high in wins, set in 1991, was 11; he would amass a total of four major league saves).

His list of achievements still betters that of Matt Young, his opponent in this game. Young would spend 10 seasons in the majors (half of them for Seattle, in fact), and also split them roughly evenly between starting and relief. And in those ten seasons, he had a losing record in nine of them - often hugely so (12-19, 8-18, 0-4, 1-6, 3-7). His career ERA was only slightly worse than league average - but his record was 55-95.

Game of the Day (9/5/91)

Red Sox 4, Mariners 3 (10). Seattle's Erik Hanson was a fine pitcher. In 1990, he had gone 18-9 with an ERA over 20% better than the league average. 1991 was a bit of a step back, but his ERA was still a solid 3.81, and he was on his way to a winning career record and above-average ERA in over 1500 innings.

Boston started Roger Clemens, whose career would encompass over three times as many innings as Hanson's and almost exactly four times as many wins. So... yeah.

Game of the Day (9/4/91)

Expos 8, Braves 4. Atlanta's Steve Avery was 21 and on the way to 18 wins in his second major league season. In his third year, Montreal's Mark Gardner was also heading for a to-date career high in victories... with nine. At the age of 29.

So it probably won't surprise you to learn that... Mark Gardner ended up throwing more innings than Steve Avery? Actually, that might surprise some people.

Game of the Day (9/3/91)

Pirates 5, Giants 3 (10). Pittsburgh's Bob Walk was a veteran nearing the end of a fairly long, fairly respectable career. San Fran's Trevor Wilson was nearly a decade younger, generally not as good, and on his way to a shorter career.

Game of the Day (9/2/91)

Cardinals 7, Dodgers 4 (11). St. Louis started Ken Hill, who is something of a veteran of this feature, having started the Games of three previous Days in 1991. LA's Bob Ojeda had only made two GotD appearances in '91 before this - but also had four in 1984, so he's not exactly in unfamiliar territory either. So it's enough for now to say that both men were good pitchers, in 1991 and for the balance of their careers.

Game of the Day (9/1/91)

Phillies 5, Braves 4 (10). Philadephia's Bruce Ruffin was generally not as good as fellow lefty Charlie Leibrandt, Atlanta's starter for the day. That characterization also applied in 1991. But he was at least close enough that a start featuring the two of them wasn't an utter mismatch.