BASEBALL DAILY REPORT

With Jack Morris and Kevin Tapani his only remaining players, as Rick Aguilera went out to pitch the 12th inning of Game 3 Tuesday night, Minnesota Manager Tom Kelly said left fielder Dan Gladden would have been his next pitcher if the Atlanta Braves had not won, 5-4, in the 12th.

“I would have hated to do something like that in the World Series,” Kelly said, “but Aggie has pitched great for us this year. I wasn’t going to kill him. I would have only let him pitch two innings.”

Gladden, who pitched an inning against the Angels and another against the Cleveland Indians during the 1988 and ’89 seasons, said he could have “dazzled ‘em for an inning or two.”

His repertoire?

“I’ve got it all, but I’m not telling any secrets,” Gladden said. “They don’t have a scouting report on me.”

If Gladden had gone into pitch, Aguilera, who pinch-hit and flied out in the top of the 12th before taking the mound in the bottom of the inning, would have moved to left field.

Of his first at-bat since 1989, Aguilera said: “I was lucky just to hit the ball and not make a total fool of myself.”

Kelly said he would not second-guess any of the moves that left him without a bona fide pinch-hitter in the 12th.

“We’re carrying nine pitchers as we did in ’87 (when the Twins beat the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series),” he said. “We’re not equipped to play 12 or 13 innings, but within that structure, everything we did was done in an effort to win.”

Kelly said he did not consider using Chili Davis in right field after his two-run, pinch homer tied the game in the eighth, because of his defensive shortcomings, and he bemoaned the three walks that Atlanta catcher Greg Olson received.

“We’re pitching him like he’s Babe Ruth, and I don’t know why,” Kelly said.