Monthly Archives: October 2016

Keeping Track

1987 Rewind: Game Seventeen

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CALIFORNIA 8, MINNESOTA 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Friday, April 24.

Batting stars:  Tom Brunansky was 3-for-4.  Roy Smalley was 1-for-3 with a walk and a run.  Mark Salas was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Juan Berenguer struck out six in three innings, giving up one run on two hits and two walks.  Joe Klink pitched three innings, giving up one run on six hits and a walk with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Wally Joyner was 4-for-4 with a double and a stolen base, scoring twice and driving in three.  Don Sutton pitched 6.2 innings, giving up one run on nine hits and a walk with two strikeouts.  Brian Downing was 1-for-3 with a walk, scoring three times and driving in one.

The game:  The Angels led 3-0 through three and then scored four in the fourth to put the game away.  The first five batters reached.  Downing drove in a run with a walk and the other three came in on Joyner's bases-clearing double.  The lone Twins run came in the seventh, when they loaded the bases with one out and scored on an RBI groundout by Al Newman.

Of note:  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-4 to raise his average to .338...Salas raised his average to .364...Starter Mark Portugal lasted only three innings, allowing six runs (four earned) on six hits and two walks with three strikeouts.  His line would've been better had he received help from the bullpen.  He left with the score 3-0, the bases loaded, and none out in the fourth.  Berenguer came in to walk Downing and give up the three-run double to Joyner before striking out the next four batters he faced.

Record:  The Twins were 10-7, in second place, trailing California by a game.

Notes:  Newman was again at shortstop in place of Greg Gagne...Randy Bush was again in right field with Brunansky in left...Despite his batting average, Salas would not play again for a week and would play only twice in the next two and a half weeks...The catcher for California was Butch Wynegar, who was nearing the end of his career.  Wynegar was the Angels' starting catcher as the season began, but he apparently got hurt soon after this game.  He played only two games in May and two in June.  He played nine more in July, then was done for the year.  He played in twenty-seven games in 1988, but his season and his career ended in late May.

Cup of Coffee

October 20, 2016: Take Three

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This morning is (or was, for you late risers) my third attempt at getting a work certification done after an apartment fire got in the way of the first attempt and a scheduling snafu screwed up the second. By 10 in the morning I should be done with it, but as I drift off to sleep, I have serious difficulty seeing it happen.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–October 20

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Jigger Statz (1897)
Judy Johnson (1900)
Bruce Campbell (1909)
Mickey Mantle (1931)
Juan Marichal (1937)
Dave Collins (1952)
Keith Hernandez (1953)
Jerry Meals (1961)
Rudy Seanez (1968)
Juan Gonzalez (1969)

William Julius "Judy" Johnson was a star third baseman in the Negro Leagues.

Jerry Meals has been a major league umpire since 1998.

It appears that no players associated with the Twins were born on this day.

We also want to wish a very happy birthday to GreekHouse and to freealonzo’s mother.

Keeping Track

Winter Wonderland: Games of October 18

SALT RIVER 4, SURPRISE 1 IN SURPRISE

Ryan McMahon's two-run triple capped a three-run seventh that broke a 1-1 tie and provided Salt River with its margin of victory.  Mitch Garver was 0-for-4 with an RBI.  Tanner English was 1-for-4.  Mason Melotakis pitched a perfect inning.

MAGALLANES 5, ANZOATEGUI 3 IN ANZOATEGUI

Magallanes took a 3-0 lead after five and never trailed, although Anzoategui twice cut the lead to one run.  Luis Arraez was 1-for-2 with two walks and an RBI for Magallanes.  Niko Goodrum was 0-for-5 for Anzoategui.

CARACAS 1, ARAGUA 0 IN CARACAS

Three consecutive singles brought home the game's only run in the sixth inning.  The last of those was by Wilfredo Tovar, who was 1-for-4 with an RBI for Caracas.

Keeping Track

1987 Rewind: Game Sixteen

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CALIFORNIA 7, MINNESOTA 3 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Thursday, April 23.

Batting stars:  Gary Gaetti was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his fourth.  Kent Hrbek was 2-for-4.  Steve Lombardozzi was 1-for-3 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  None.

Opposition stars:  Wally Joyner was 2-for-4 with a home run (his third) and a walk, scoring twice.  Devon White was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer, his sixth.  Brian Downing was 1-for-5 with a two-run homer, his seventh.

The game:  Gaetti's two-run homer in the first made it 2-0 and an error in the fifth put the Twins up 3-2, but it was all downhill after that.  In the sixth, Joyner's homer tied it and an RBI single by Darrell Miller made it 4-3 Angels.  A three-run ninth made it 7-3.  The Twins didn't give up, loading the bases with none out in the bottom of the ninth, but Mark Salas popped up, Randy Bush struck out, and Dan Gladden flied out to end the game.

Of note:  Gladden went 0-for-5 to drop his average to .314...Kirby Puckett was 0-for-4 with a run.  It was his fourth consecutive oh-fer and dropped his average to .328...Frank Viola started and pitched 7.1 innings, but allowed four runs on seven hits and a walk with six strikeouts.  John Candelaria was the California started.  He worked seven innings and gave up three runs (one earned) on four hits and a walk with six strikeouts.

Record:  The Twins record was 10-6, dropping them into a first-place tie with the Angels.

Notes:  Newman started at shortstop in this game, with Greg Gagne going to the bench...Tim Laudner was the DH, replacing Roy Smalley...When I saw that the go-ahead run was knocked in by "D. Miller", I wondered who in the world that was.  I kind of remember the name "Darrell Miller', but did not remember a thing about him.  It turns out he's the older brother of Cheryl Miller and Reggie Miller.  He spent his entire major league career with the Angels, getting drafted in the ninth round in 1979.  He started out as a catcher, moving to the outfield in 1981.  He reached the majors in mid-August of 1984 after an excellent season in AAA Edmonton.  He spent almost all of 1985 with the Angels but rarely played, appearing in fifty-one games but making only five starts.  Granted that they had Brian Downing, Gary Pettis, and Reggie Jackson in the outfield, but you can't find more than five starts for a guy who hit .326 with a .937 OPS in AAA?  He did well in his limited playing time, batting .375 in 1985, but it did him no good.  He was with California for half of 1986, starting a grand total of six games.  He continued to hit well in AAA.  1987 was his only full season in the majors, but he got only 108 at-bats and started twelve games.  In 1988 they moved him back to catcher and he played a little more, but not much.  The Angels let him go after that season.  He was in AAA with the Yankees in 1989 and with Baltimore and Seattle in 1990.  There could be reasons the Angels didn't think he would succeed--they may have thought his AAA numbers were inflated by playing in the Pacific Coast League, and he may have been a poor defensive player (although, other than Pettis and Devon White, these Angels teams did not exactly have a gold glove outfield).  Still, it looks like Gene Mauch unfairly buried him on the bench without ever giving him a chance to see if he could play, and that's too bad.  According to wikipedia, he is now major league baseball's vice-president of Youth and Facility Development.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–October 19

Mordecai Brown (1876)
Fred Snodgrass (1887)
Bob O'Farrell (1896)
Al Brazle (1913)
Walt Bond (1937)
Sandy Alomar (1943)
Al Gallagher (1945)
Mark Davis (1960)
Tim Belcher (1961)
Dave Veres (1966)
Keith Foulke (1972)
Horacio Estrada (1975)
Michael Young (1976)
Randy Ruiz (1977)
Jose Bautista (1980)
Rajai Davis (1980)
J. A. Happ (1982)

The Twins chose Tim Belcher with the first pick of the 1983 draft, but he did not sign.

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