May 15, 1991: Paul Molitor hits for the cycle and ignites Brewers’ win over Twins

A midweek crowd of 15,992 came to Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome on May 15, 1991, to watch the Minnesota Twins play the Milwaukee Brewers. They saw Twin Cities native Paul Molitor – a high-school star in nearby St. Paul and a college All-American at the University of Minnesota – almost single-handedly spark the Brewers to a 4-2 victory over the Twins by hitting for the cycle.

In 1991 Molitor – an all-state baseball and basketball player at St. Paul’s Cretin High School and the leader of Minnesota’s 1977 College World Series team – was in his 14th big-league season, all with the Brewers. To that point in his career, the 34-year-old Molitor had made three All-Star teams, received two Silver Slugger Awards, starred for the Brewers’ 1982 AL pennant winners, earned nationwide attention for a 39-game hitting streak in 1987, and racked up a .299 lifetime batting average.

Molitor’s 1991 Brewers were a streaky team, often alternating winning and losing streaks, especially early on.1 From April 25 to May 3, the Brewers won seven of eight games, briefly landing in first place in the AL East Division. Then they lost their next eight games and dropped to fourth place.2

Milwaukee’s eighth straight loss was a 5-1 defeat by the Twins in the series opener on May 14, as veteran Jack Morris – like Molitor, a St. Paul product – pitched a two-hit complete game. After finishing last in the seven-team AL West in 1990 and posting a 9-11 record in April ’91, the Twins had surged in early May, winning 8 of 12 games. Minnesota was on a four-game winning string and only 1½ games out of first place in the AL West.

Right-hander Kevin Tapani started for the Twins on May 15. In just his second full season in the majors, the 27-year-old Tapani was teamed in the rotation with Morris, who had signed with Minnesota after 14 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, and second-year Twin Scott Erickson, giving Minnesota a formidable group of starters.3 Making his seventh start of the season, Tapani brought a 2.66 earned-run average to the mound. He had lost his last two starts, but his teammates had provided virtually no run support.4

Chris Bosio was making his eighth start of the season for the visiting Brewers. The 28-year-old right-hander had pitched at least seven innings in each of his first four outings, but in his next three outings, and he was tagged with two losses. In his previous start (May 4), Bosio injured his back trying to field a bunt and left after just four innings.5 Still, his ERA was a stingy 2.72.

Molitor, nicknamed the Ignitor6 by his teammates, led off for the Brewers. The designated hitter came into the game batting .302 with an OPS of .784. He swung at Tapani’s first pitch of the game, driving it to deep left-center for a triple, his third of the season. The next batter, Jim Gantner, grounded out to shortstop Greg Gagne, and Molitor scored.

Two innings later, Milwaukee’s B.J. Surhoff singled to lead off the third. After Bill Spiers flied out, Molitor lined a single into short left-center field, sending Surhoff to third base. Once again, a Gantner groundout, this time to rookie second baseman Chuck Knoblauch, brought a Brewers runner across the plate. Milwaukee led, 2-0.

Bosio was having an efficient start. He retired the first seven Twins he faced before Mike Pagliarulo reached on an infield single with one out in the third. Gagne then forced Pagliarulo at second. After Gagne stole second, Bosio retired Dan Gladden on a groundout to end the inning.

Robin Yount doubled to start the top of the fourth, the third time a Brewers leadoff batter had reached. He advanced to third on Greg Brock’s fly out to center. Darryl Hamilton hit a dribbler to Minnesota first baseman Kent Hrbek, who took the out at first as Yount scored the Brewers’ third run. Bosio retired the Twins in order in the home half of the fourth.

Milwaukee again threatened in the fifth. Molitor lined a double with one out, giving him three hits in the game. After Tapani retired Gantner for the third time on a groundout (a comebacker to the mound), the Minnesota starter walked Greg Vaughn and Yount on full counts to load the bases. Tapani recovered and struck out Brock to end the inning, stranding all three runners.

The Twins got one of the runs back in the bottom of the fifth. After Chili Davis’s first-pitch lineout to center, Randy Bush also swung at the first pitch he saw and lined the ball deep in the hole at short. Spiers, the shortstop, corralled it but threw the ball away, allowing Bush to go to second.7 Bush scored on Brian Harper’s first-pitch single up the middle.

The score remained 3-1 until the top of the seventh inning, when Molitor settled into the batter’s box for his fourth at-bat. Tapani quickly got ahead in the count. Molitor recalled, “When I was behind 1-and-2, I must have fouled off four pitches, including some real tough ones. But with two strikes, I was just trying to put the homer out of my mind.”8 He added, “I just said to myself, ‘If it’s meant to be, Lord, let it happen.’”9

The future Hall of Famer drove the ball out of the ballpark, over the wall in left-center, for his second home run of the season. His triple had been hit into the same part of the ballpark. The homer completed the cycle for Molitor. It was the first time in the season that Tapani had allowed more than three runs in a start.

Through seven frames, Milwaukee’s Bosio had allowed just one run on four hits, but the Twins got three more hits in the eighth. Harper led off with a double and took third base on Pagliarulo’s groundout. Gagne’s single plated Harper, cutting the deficit to 4-2.

Bosio had thrown only 79 pitches, but Milwaukee manager Tom Trebelhorn brought in right-hander Chuck Crim. Gladden swung at Crim’s first offering and singled, putting Twins at the corners. With the potential tying run at first, Knoblauch – batting .331 entering the game and headed for AL Rookie of the Year honors10 – grounded into an inning-ending double play. Crim and Dan Plesac combined to retire the Twins in order in the ninth, saving the Brewers’ 4-2 victory.

Tapani (2-3) took the loss, as he allowed four earned runs on seven hits in seven innings pitched. He lost his next three decisions, too, but recovered to post a 16-9 record on the season and finish seventh in the AL Cy Young Award voting.11 The Twins’ short winning streak was done, but they won 15 games in a row in June to grab first place in the AL West. They went on to win the 1991 World Series.

Bosio gained the win, evening his record at 4-4. After the game, the right-hander praised Molitor, saying, “He carried that nickname [the Ignitor] tonight. This was a big win for us because we’ve been struggling.”12 The Brewers’ win snapped their eight-game skid, and they ultimately finished over .500 at 83-79.13

Molitor became just the fourth player in Pilots/Brewers franchise history to hit for the cycle, following Mike Hegan (September 3, 1976), Charlie Moore (October 1, 1980), and Yount (June 12, 1988). Of this quartet, Molitor was the first Brewers batter to accomplish the rare feat against just one pitcher,14 and he was also just the second designated hitter to hit for the cycle.15

As of the end of the 2023 season, Molitor ranked 11th in career base hits with 3,319. Only four other batters in the top 10 have hit for the cycle.16

Molitor’s accomplishment marked the second time a batter had hit for the cycle in 1991, following San Francisco’s Robby Thompson (April 22 against the San Diego Padres). Two more batters joined them later in the season: California’s Dave Winfield (June 24 against the Kansas City Royals) and St. Louis’s Ray Lankford (September 15 against the New York Mets).

The 4-for-5 game caused Molitor’s season batting average to shoot up 20 points, to .322, and his slugging percentage jumped 66 points. It set his career average at an even .300.17 The Minneapolis Star Tribune noted that Molitor was one of three St. Paul natives with “milestone games”18 at the Metrodome in the early weeks of the 1991 season, along with Winfield’s three-homer game for the visiting Angels on April 13 and Morris’s 200th career win on April 28.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Madison McEntire and copy-edited by Len Levin. The author appreciates insights and suggestions from John Fredland.

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, MLB.com, Retrosheet.org, and SABR.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN199105150.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1991/B05150MIN1991.htm

Notes

1 The Brewers had 12 different winning streaks of at least three consecutive games and nine different losing streaks of at least three games.

2 This was Milwaukee’s longest losing streak of the season and included two 2-1 walk-off losses.

3 Morris, Tapani, and Erickson combined to win 54 games for the Twins.

4 On May 2 Tapani pitched seven innings, allowing three earned runs. The Twins scored one run for him. A week later, on May 9, Tapani again pitched seven innings, yielding three earned runs on five hits. Minnesota did not score.

5 “Brewers’ Skid Hits 5,” Wausau (Wisconsin) Daily Herald, May 11, 1991: 13.

6 Doug Skipper and Daniel R. Levitt, “Paul Molitor,” SABR Biography Project.

7 Bush was given a single and advanced to second on Spier’s error.

8 Jeff Lenihan, “Molitor Covers All the Bases,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 16, 1991: 1C, 9C.

9 Associated Press, “Brewers Come Full Circle,” Racine (Wisconsin) Journal Times, May 16, 1991: 11.

10 He received 26 of 28 first-place votes.

11 Teammates Erickson finished second and Morris fourth, as Boston’s Roger Clemens won his third Cy Young Award.

12 Associated Press, “Molitor’s Cycle Too Much for Twins,” Sheboygan (Wisconsin) Press, May 16, 1991: 17.

13 The Brewers finished the 1991 season by winning five games in a row, posting a record of 83-79. They were in fourth place.

14 As of the 2023 season, there have been 10 games in which a Brewers batter has hit for the cycle. Christian Yelich has accomplished the rare feat three times for Milwaukee (all against the Cincinnati Reds). Ed Eagle, “Players Who Have Hit for the Cycle,” MLB.com, August 28, 2023, https://www.mlb.com/news/players-who-hit-for-the-cycle-c265552018.

15 Kansas City’s John Mayberry hit for the cycle on August 5, 1977, while playing as the designated hitter for the Royals. This was the first time a DH had hit for the cycle.

16 Molitor finished his career with 3,319 hits. The players with more career hits than Molitor who have also hit for the cycle are Stan Musial (3,630 hits, cycle on July 24, 1949), Tris Speaker (3,514 hits , cycle on June 9, 1912), Honus Wagner (3,420 hits, cycle on August 22, 1912), and Carl Yastrzemski (3,419 hits, cycle on May 14, 1965).

17 Molitor, who led the majors in hits (216) and runs scored (133) and paced the AL in triples (13) in 1991, signed with the Toronto Blue Jays as a free agent for the 1993 season. He spent three seasons in Toronto, earning World Series MVP honors in 1993 and finishing as runner-up in the AL MVP voting in that season. Molitor moved to the Twins in free agency in 1996 and spent the final three seasons of his career in Minnesota. He retired with a career batting average of .306. Molitor was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2004.

18 Lenihan.