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Game 3: Tuesday, October 22, 1991 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia
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| Box Score Info. - (read me) | |
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The Braves outlasted the Twins in a thrilling twelve-inning battle, the first World Series game ever played in the Deep South. This game matched Minnesota's twenty-game winner Scott Erickson against Atlanta's late-season hero and NLCS MVP, Steve Avery. In the NLCS, Avery had not allowed a run to the Pirates in sixteen-and-a-third innings. Twins manager Tom Kelly said going into the three games in Atlanta that managing without the designated-hitter rule was "right up there with rocket science." Reminiscent of Game 2, Dan Gladden hit another ball toward David Justice. This time, Justice and Ron Gant miscommunicated, and Gladden wound up at third with a gift triple with nobody out in the top of the first. Gladden then scored on Chuck Knoblauch's sacrifice fly to Justice, ending Avery's shutout streak. The Braves, meanwhile, got the run back in the second when Olson scored on Belliard's single. Justice led off the fourth with his first World Series home run, and the Braves led for the first time in the Series, 2–1. In the fifth, the Braves scored again when Smith homered. Erickson was pulled from the game after allowing Terry Pendleton and Justice to reach base. David West entered the game and allowed an unearned run without recording an out, leaving the bases loaded for Terry Leach who struck out Mark Lemke to end the inning. With the score 4–1, the Braves looked to close it out. As it turned out, the game was just beginning. Except for the run that resulted from the first-inning misplay between Gant and Justice, Avery had been quite effective. But after Kirby Puckett homered in the seventh to make it 4–2 and two other fly outs made it to the warning track, Atlanta manager Bobby Cox reluctantly sent Avery out for the eighth inning. Brian Harper, who had not started the game at catcher (instead Kelly started Junior Ortiz), pinch hit to start the top half of the inning and reached on an error. Avery went to the showers in favor of the Braves' regular-season closer, Alejandro Peña. Peña had been 13 for 13 in save opportunities since joining the Braves in a late-season trade with the Mets, but he had not pitched since the prior Wednesday. The first batter that he faced, pinch-hitter Chili Davis, tied the game with a monstrous home run to left, leaving Avery with nothing to show for a great pitching effort. At this point, the game got bizarre. Substitutions and double switches were used by both teams into the twelfth, when Minnesota manager Tom Kelly used up his entire bench and faced a conundrum in the top of the twelfth inning. After Mark Wohlers retired Randy Bush to lead off the inning, Gladden singled. Knoblauch followed with a double play grounder to second that Lemke misplayed, allowing Gladden to advance to third. With the middle of the Twins' order to follow Cox brought in Kent Mercker to pitch to Kent Hrbek. As he came into the game Tim McCarver theorized on the CBS broadcast that the Twins might be forced to use one of their pitchers as a pinch hitter. McCarver's reasoning came from the fact that the pitcher's spot was due up two batters after Hrbek, with Mark Guthrie still in the game for Minnesota having pitched the tenth and the eleventh innings. Kelly's last reliever, closer Rick Aguilera, was warming in the bullpen, and Kelly had used his last bench player, utility man Al Newman, to pinch hit for third baseman Mike Pagliarulo in the top of the eleventh. On the fourth pitch of the at bat, with Knoblauch running to avoid a potential double play, Hrbek struck out looking. With Puckett now at the plate, Cox brought in Jim Clancy and called for an intentional walk with the pitcher's spot due next. With the bases now loaded Kelly had no choice but to send Aguilera to the plate, although Aguilera did have some success as a hitter and was in fact a converted infielder. On the third pitch of the at-bat Aguilera flied out to deep center field, leaving the bases loaded and the game deadlocked. Kelly said in an interview that if the game had gone on longer, since he had used up all his relief pitchers (and his only other two pitchers were slated to start game four (Jack Morris) and five (Kevin Tapani) if necessary), he would have put left fielder Gladden on the mound and put Aguilera in the outfield. In the bottom of the twelfth, Justice singled to right and after Brian Hunter popped out, Justice stole second. With two outs, Mark Lemke entered the pantheon of World Series heroes by hitting a single to left that enabled Justice to just beat the throw home from Gladden. His score gave the Braves a 5–4 win and cut the Twins lead in the Series to two games to one. Clancy took the win while Aguilera received the loss. The game lasted a then record four hours, four minutes, until broken in 2005 in Game 3 of the 2005 World Series with a time of five hours, forty-one minutes. It was the first of four games in this Series to end with the winning team scoring the deciding run in the ninth inning or later. It was also the first World Series game to be played in the state of Georgia. |