Minor Details: Games of 7/16

Rochester 4, Buffalo 2 in Rochester.  The Red Wings scored two in the first and two in the third.  Dustin Martin singled, tripled, and homered, his ninth homer of the year.  Andy Baldwin pitched six strong innings, giving up a run on five hits while walking none.  Jim Hoey worked a perfect ninth for his fourth save.

New Britain 5, Portland 4 in Portland.  The Rock Cats had led 3-0 and 4-2, but needed a run in the ninth to break a 4-4 tie.  Nate Hanson and Evan Bigley each singled and doubled.  Mark Dolenc had two hits.  Deinys Suarez worked 6.2 innings, allowing four runs on five hits while walking none.  Spencer Steedley got the win, striking out two and giving up a hit in 1.1 innings.  Matt Schuld got the save, walking one and striking out three in the ninth.

Daytona 7, Ft. Myers 4 in Ft. Myers.  The Miracle led 3-1 after four, but a four run seventh lifted the Cubs to victory.  Steven Liddle singled and homered, his first.  Nick Romero singled and doubled.  Jhon Garcia allowed five runs (four earned) on ten hits and two walks in 6.2 innings.

West Michigan 5, Beloit 2 in Beloit.  The Whitecaps trailed 2-0 after four but scored four in the fifth.  Daniel Ortiz singled and doubled.  Manuel Soliman allowed all five runs (two earned) on eight hits, striking out five and walking none in six innings.  Sam Spangler struck out three in two perfect innings.  Michael Tonkin struck out three while giving up one hit in the ninth.

Elizabethton 6, Greeneville 0 in Greeneville.  Three Twins pitchers combined for a no-hitter.  Three errors and a hit batsman prevented it from being a perfect game, as Twins pitchers also did not allow a walk.  Tim Shibuya worked seven innings to get the win, striking out six.  Garrett Jewell and Steven Gruver each pitched one inning, with Gruver fanning two.  Miguel Sano singled and tripled.

GCL Red Sox 5, Twins 3 at Red Sox (completion of suspended game).  The Red Sox scored two in the sixth to break a 3-3 tie.  The Twins had only four hits.  Bobby O’Neill pitched the first three innings (prior to the suspension of the game), allowing three runs (two earned) on four hits, walking none and striking out three.  Marcus Limon struck out four in 2.2 innings, but gave up two runs on two hits and a walk to take the loss.  Cole Johnson struck out three in two shutout innings.

GCL Twins 1, Red Sox 0 at Twins (Scheduled 7 innings).  Drew Leachman singled home Stephen Wickens in the third with the game’s only run.  Aderlin Mejia had two hits.  Starter Angel Mata went four hitless innings, walking one and striking out three.  Bobby O’Neill worked the final three innings, giving up two hits.

DSL Twins 13, White Sox 3 at Twins.  The Twins scored multiple runs in four innings.  Jose Ramirez had three hits and drove in three.  Wander Guillen doubled twice.  Victor Arias singled and tripled, driving in three.  Ronald Jimenez and Carlos Martinez each had two hits.  Jonatan Ynojoso walked twice and scored three times.  Ezequiel Zoquiel gave up just an unearned run on three hits and a walk in four innings.  Junior Subero struck out five in three shutout innings, giving up three hits and two walks while lowering his ERA to 0.99.  Yeison Florentino worked two perfect innings.

Happy Birthday–July 17

Hugh "One Arm" Daily (1847)
Ernest Barnard (1874)
Judge Emil Fuchs (1878)
Lou Boudreau (1917)
Roy McMillan (1929)
Jerry Lynch (1930)
Toni Stone (1931)
Deron Johnson (1938)
Don Kessinger (1942)
Charley Steiner (1949)
Pete Ladd (1956)
Bobby Thigpen (1963)
Jason Jennings (1978)

No players with connections to the Minnesota Twins appear to have been born on this day.  However, the original WGOM was born on this day.

Game 92: Twins 4, Royals 3

Now that wasn't so hard, was it?

One night after a gut-busting loss on another Capps blown save, Gardy finally makes the right decision and puts Joe Nathan back in his familiar closer role and suddenly everything seems right with the world. The Twins win at home against an AL Central team and Nathan gets the save with the usual obligatory base runner. Even without a strikeout, Nathan looked good with three popups for outs and the only hit a roller through the infield, which may have been helped with Cuddyer guarding the line in the ninth.

It will be interesting tomorrow if the Twins have another narrow, late lead. I think Gardy may have been hesitant to make Nathan the closer because he has said he won't use Nathan three days in a row. I'm fine with that, since most relievers (outside of LOOGYs) shouldn't be used that often anyways. This undoubtedly means Perkins will close tomorrow, if necessary, and I'm fine with that as well, especially after he dominated Saturday night and absolutely abused Alex Gordon, who's been the Royals' best hitter, on three pitches. The interesting part will be to see who gets the eighth inning, or at least who starts it. If righties are coming up, I wouldn't be surprised to see Capps in there with Mijares warming up. The other choice would be Alex Burnett and neither one inspires a lot of confidence right now, although Capps' splits make me think he can thrive as a protected setup man. Of course, this means the Twins need Mijares to figure out his control problems as well.

It's amazing how much difference one bases-empty single can make. The Royals' Jeff Francis was in cruise control in the eighth inning Saturday before Alexi Casilla flared a single into right field. Joe Mauer followed with a ground ball through the hole created by the presence of Casilla and suddenly Francis was out of the game and ended up with the loss after Cuddyer singled off reliever Aaron Crow to put the Twins ahead.

That eighth inning and Nathan' s save prevented me from a meltdown after two bad calls by the umpires in the sixth inning allowed the Royals to tie the game on an infield out. Both were close plays, but when you have two close calls go against you in one inning of a tight game and both were shown to be bad calls, well that can be pretty tough to take. Fortunately, it didn't mean much more than prevent Pavano from getting the win and give me one more reason to have no respect for Cowboy Joe West.

2011 Game #92: Royals at Twins

I had a post written up about how much Matt Capps sucks, but I wrote it while angry and somewhat inebriated. Today when I read it, I realized that it wasn't even quarter-bakef. We can't have substandard stuff like that, so instead, I'm going to half-bake it on the fly.

Carl Pavano (6-6, 97 ERA+)

Jeff Francis (3-10, 84 ERA+)

The 'stacheless 'stacheman has been pulling it together as of late, that one game in Milwaukee excepted. We've beaten Francis around a little bit in couple of times we've played him this year, so I'm feeling pretty good about tonight's game. I predict Ben Revere will hit an inside-the-park home run in which he will run the last 80 feet backwards.

Matt Capps sucks....but we'd better score a few more runs tonight than we did last night.

2011 Game 91 Recap: Royals 2, Twins 1

Weather: 74 degrees, overcast
Wind: 9 mph, R to L
Time: 2:37
Attendance: 39,177

Box Score
Fangraphs

I <3 Ben Revere

This game was all about pitching. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Nick Blackburn pitched a good game. Luke Hochevar pitched a good game. Both went seven innings. Blackburn gave up no runs on four hits and two walks, Hochevar gave up one on three hits and three walks.

Coming out of the bullpen in the eighth, Joe Nathan and Tim Collins were good, neither giving up a hit and only Collins allowing a base runner on one walk.

Continue reading 2011 Game 91 Recap: Royals 2, Twins 1

Minor Details: Games of 7/15

Buffalo 8, Rochester 4 in Buffalo.  The Bisons scored three in the first and never trailed.  The Red Wings out-hit the Bisons 14-13.  Jeff Bailey had two singles and a double.  Rene Tosoni had three hits.  Chase Lambin and Toby Gardenhire each singled and doubled.  Starter Kevin Slowey gave up the first-inning runs but then pitched pretty well, allowing three runs on six hits and a walk while striking out three in 4.2 innings.

Portland 10, New Britain 6 in Portland.  The Sea Dogs scored eight runs in the eighth to overcome a 5-2 deficit.  Deibinson Romero singled and homered.  Chris Cates singled and doubled.  Chris Herrmann hit a two-run homer.  Starter Brett Jacobson allowed two runs on two hits and a walk in 3.1 innings.  Blake Martin pitched 3.1 scoreless innings, giving up only one hit but walking four.  Deolis Guerra and Tyler Robertson each surrendered four runs in the eighth, with Guerra taking the loss.

Ft. Myers 5, Daytona 4 in Ft. Myers.  The Miracle led 5-0 after six, then held on.  James Beresford singled and doubled.  Steven Liddle had two hits.  Aaron Hicks hit a home run, his fourth.  Logan Darnell pitched six shutout innings before tiring in the seventh; for the game he gave up three runs on seven hits in 6.2 innings, walking none and striking out seven.  Ricky Bowen struck out three in two shutout innings to get the save, giving up only a walk.

South Bend 10, Beloit 2 in Beloit.  The Silver Hawks scored in six of the nine innings.  Lance Ray doubled and homered, his ninth home run.  Daniel Ortiz and Daniel Santana each had two hits.  Starter Ryan O’Rourke took the loss, allowing four runs (three earned) on three hits and five walks while striking out four in four innings.

Elizabethton 7, Greeneville 0 in Greeneville.  The Twins scored three in the first and three in the ninth.  Miguel Sano singled and tripled, Nick Lockwood singled and doubled, and Max Kepler had two hits.  The star, though, was David Hurlbut, who pitched seven innings, giving up three hits and no walks while striking out five.  Nicholas Alloway worked the last two innings, allowing a hit and two walks.

GCL Rays 7, Twins 4 at Twins.  The Rays scored three in the third and never trailed again.  Jorge Polanco singled, doubled, and tripled.  Drew Leachman had three hits.  Dereck Rodriguez singled and doubled.  Starter Hein Robb took the loss, allowing four runs (three earned) on four hits and a walk while striking out five in 3.2 innings.  Mark Trau struck out three in two shutout innings, giving up two hits.

DSL Twins 2, Diamondbacks 1 (14 innings).  Wander Guillen doubled with one out in the fourteenth, scoring Jose Rodriguez with the winning run.  Each team had only four hits.  Guillen had two of them, also getting a single.  Starter Edgar Martinez worked four shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk.  Ezequiel Zarzuela then struck out four in three shutout innings, giving up two hits and three walks.  Francisco Nunez went the final four innings perfectly, striking out three to get the win to raise his record to 6-1 and lower his ERA to 0.29 in 31 innings (13 appearances).

Happy Birthday–July 16

Shoeless Joe Jackson (1889)
Doc Prothro (1893)
Jim Odom (1921)
Dr. Frank Jobe (1926)
Norm Sherry (1931)
Eddie Fisher (1936)
Lee Elia (1937)
Terry Pendleton (1960)
DeMarlo Hale (1961)
William VanLandingham (1970)
Kory DeHaan (1976)

Doc Prothro is the father of former NFL coach Tommy Prothro.  No players with connections to the Twins appear to have been born on this day.