Minnesota Twins: 5 best middle infield duos in team history
By Nate Palmer
No. 5 – The 1987 Middle Infield
Steve Lombardozzi and Greg Gagne
In all honesty, this duo isn’t truly the fifth best Twins middle infield of all-time but in an effort to try to avoid writing about one of the players in the following pairs a second time this is our number five. Of course the performance of the 1987 club helped to get Steve Lombardozzi and Greg Gagne on this list as the Twins finished with a record of 85-77, finished first in the American League West, and won the World Series by defeating the St. Louis Cardinals.
That season shortstop Gagne ended up slashing .265/.310/.430 along with 10 home runs and 28 doubles. Gagne didn’t collect any personal awards for his performance in 1987 but did have a hand in one of the more influential plays of the World Series. Gagne drove in the eventual game-winning run on an infield hit that drove in Tom Brunansky.
Second baseman Lombardozzi didn’t have that impressive of a stat line as he hit .238/.298/.352 8 home runs and 19 doubles. He did although come through with a good line in 6 games during the World Series. Lobardozzi hit .412/.474/.647 a double and drove in 4 runs in that World Series.
So again, this duo may not have been the fifth best or fifth most talented middle infield in Twins history. They certainly made their mark on the 1987 Twins as they marched towards the World Series title. On the way, Gagne had a season WAR of 3.9 and Lombardozzi’s was 1.3 for a combined of 5.2 WAR and fifth on our list.