‘Pags’ Rediscovers the Long Ball

TORONTO —  Take one: Mike Pagliarulo swings, Mike Pagliarulo clears the right-field fence, Mike Pagliarulo beats the Toronto Blue Jays in 10 innings.

Double take in the Minnesota Twins’ dugout.

“That surprised everyone in the stadium, including the manager,” said Tom Kelly, the manager.

Really?

Hadn’t Kelly seen the 1987 Twins, with 85 regular-season victories and a two-man pitching rotation, win the American League pennant and then the World Series?

Hadn’t Kelly therefore seen it all?

“I just about (died),” Kelly said, pulling off his hat and wiping his brow. “I saw it and then I started yelling, ‘Call for Aggie! Call for Aggie!’ ”

Aggie is Rick Aguilera, owner of 42 Minnesota saves in 1991. Kelly couldn’t believe he was calling his name, because he couldn’t believe Aguilera had a game to save.

But there it was--a 3-2 lead in the top of the 10th of the third game of the AL playoffs after falling behind by two runs in the first inning . . . and needing a Joe Carter injury to score one run . . . and needing a missed tag by Pat Borders to score another . . . and needing 19 players to break a 2-2 tie that had the potential to last until Columbus Day.

Home run, Pagliarulo. Once a populous species, it was sighted just six times during the 1991 regular season. Since 1988, the official count was 20. That is less than the number of home runs Pagliarulo hit in 1986 (28) and 1987 (32), which begins to lead us to why Pagliarulo was sitting on the Minnesota bench during extra innings Friday night.

Pagliarulo, a third baseman by trade, was supposed to have made two cities forget Graig Nettles. He failed to do so in New York, but Nettles spent his prime-time years with the Yankees and cast a mammoth pin-striped shadow. San Diego was intended to be a simpler task. The Padres had the past-prime Nettles and had been reduced to platooning second basemen at third to replace him. Out of desperation, they traded for Pagliarulo in the middle of the 1989 season--and out of desperation, they advised him to hitch a ride elsewhere after the 1990 season.

“They said I didn’t fit into their plans--and they’re still looking for a third baseman,” Pagliarulo said, true bewilderment in his voice.

Might it have anything to do with Pagliarulo’s .196 batting average for the Padres in 1989?

Or maybe Pagliarulo’s seven home runs and 38 RBIs in 400 at-bats in 1990?

The way San Diego viewed the situation, after Pagliarulo, Jack Howell was an improvement.

In 1991, Pagliarulo found employment the same way he lost it. Out of desperation. On Jan. 24, the Twins lost Gary Gaetti, the venerable G-Man and venerated he-man of the ’87 postseason, to free-agent riches promised in Anaheim. On Jan. 25, the Twins signed Pagliarulo. Tough to play a baseball game with only eight men on the field.

Pagliarulo was going to be a stopgap, nothing more, until he proved to be something less in spring training. “Pags” didn’t have the worst spring in history, but he was bad enough to convince Kelly that Scott Leius, a .229 hitter in triple A, had to be on the opening-day roster as insurance.

Leius and Pagliarulo became a platoon--Leius starting against left-handers--and they combined for 11 home runs, 56 RBIs and a .282 average. Not Mike Schmidt, but not enough to drag down the AL West champions, either.

Pagliarulo started the first two playoff games in Minnesota, went hitless and returned to the bench for Game 3. On Kelly’s list of preferred pinch-hitters, Pagliarulo ranked a distant third, with rookie Paul Sorrento and Gene Larkin getting the first cuts.

With one out in the 10th inning, Kelly decided to finally give Pagliarulo his . . . and lo and behold.

“That might have been the shortest game in my life,” Pagliarulo said, “but it was the biggest game of my life.”

What a time to rediscover the home run stroke.

Not one for statistical research, Pagliarulo tried to insist that it never was lost.

“I had big home run years in New York and I plan to have them in Minnesota, too,” he said. “Why not? You don’t have power and then lose it. It’s impossible. It doesn’t just leave the body.”

Pagliarulo attributes his low totals in Minnesota to strategy. “We’ve been trying to go for average, so I’ve been pulling the ball less.” And in San Diego? “I didn’t play,” he said. “I’d go 0 for 4 and the manager would take me out of the lineup. He’d start me and then I wouldn’t be starting. Basically, it was a lot of baloney.

“I’m only 30. What the heck. I’m young. I’m in great shape. I’ve got nothing to worry about, career-wise. That’s just how things worked out in San Diego. It was a mess there and it’s still a mess.”

He has come to prefer the menu in Minnesota. When the opposition starts a right-handed pitcher, Pagliarulo knows he’ll be hitting. Simple as that.

“I know my role,” he said. “I know what’s coming so I can prepare myself. Most of the time, a ballplayer just wants to know what’s happening.”

Through it all, Pagliarulo said he kept the faith. Someone had to. When the biggest hit of his life happened, his manager nearly fell off the bench.

“I’ll have to talk to him later about that,” Pagliarulo said.

It’s either that or hit game-winning home runs in the playoffs more often.