Monthly Archives: October 2017

Keeping Track

Off-Seasons Greetings: Games of October 10

And we're back, with action from the Arizona Fall League, the Venezuelan League, and the Mexican League.  The Dominican League is scheduled to start Friday, with the Puerto Rican League not slated to get under way for a couple of weeks yet.  The Australian League doesn't get started until mid-November.

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Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Seven

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CLEVELAND 9, MINNESOTA 5 IN CLEVELAND

Date:  Monday, April 2.

Batting stars:  Jacque Jones was 4-for-4 with a walk, a double, and a stolen base.  Corey Koskie was 2-for-4 with two doubles and a walk.  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-5.

Pitching stars:  Jack Cressend and LaTroy Hawkins each pitched two perfect innings, with Cressend striking out three.

Opposition stars:  Matt Lawton was 2-for-4 with a home run, his second.  Ellis Burks was 2-for-4 with a home run.  Travis Fryman was 1-for-4 with a grand slam.

The game:  The Twins again jumped out to a first inning lead, getting RBI singles from Guzman and Dustan Mohr to take a 2-0 lead.  The Indians came right back with three in the bottom of the first, as Omar Vizquel had an RBI triple and Burks hit a two-run homer.  The Twins took the lead back in the third on an RBI double by A. J. Pierzynski and a run-scoring single by Jones.  In the bottom of the third, however, Cleveland took the lead to stay on a grand slam by Fryman that made the score 7-4.  Lawton hit a two-run homer in the fourth to give the Indians a 9-4 advantage.  Torii Hunter singled home a run in the sixth to cut the lead to 9-5, but that was as close as the Twins would come.  Cleveland did not get a baserunner after Lawton's fourth-inning home run, but by then it did not matter.

WP:  Ryan Drese.  LP:  Eric Milton.  S:  None.

Notes:  Denny Hocking started at second base.  He would become the starting second baseman until Luis Rivas came back in early June.  He went 1-for-4 to make his average .111...Future Twin Jim Thome was 1-for-4...Milton lasted four innings, giving up all nine runs on eight hits and a walk.  He did strike out four...Drese did not pitch particularly well either, going five innings and giving up four runs on eight hits and five walks.  He struck out five...Jones raised his average to .467...Mohr was 1-for-5 to make his average .400.

Record:  The Twins were 5-2, in second place, one game behind Cleveland.

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Six

MINNESOTA 10, TORONTO 6 IN TORONTO

Date:  Sunday, April 7.

Batting stars:  Dustan Mohr was 3-for-5 with a home run.  Corey Koskie was 1-for-3 with a home run, two walks, and three RBIs.  Torii Hunter was 1-for-3 with a home run (his third), a walk, and three RBIs.  David Ortiz was 1-for-3 with a home run (his third) and two walks, scoring three times.

Pitching stars:  Bob Wells and Mike Jackson each pitched a scoreless inning.

Opposition stars:  Raul Mondesi was 2-for-5 with a home run, his second.  Carlos Delgado was 2-for-2 with two doubles and a walk.  Chris Woodward was 1-for-3 with a home run.

The game:  The Twins again jumped on a starter early.  A single and two walks loaded the bases with one out in the first.  Hunter hit a sacrifice fly and Koskie followed with a three-run homer to put the Twins in front 4-0.  Mohr led off the fourth with a home run to make it 5-0.  The Blue Jays got on the board in the bottom of the fourth on a Vernon Wells RBI double, but the Twins more than got the run back in the fifth as Hunter hit a two-run homer to make it 7-1.  Jacque Jones had an RBI double in the sixth to make it 8-1.  In the bottom of the sixth, Toronto put men on second and third with none out and a pair of RBI groundouts made it 8-3.  The Blue Jays got back into the game in the seventh, as reliever Jack Cressend gave up a home run to Woodward and a two-run homer to Mondesi to cut the Twins' lead to 8-6.  The Twins loaded the bases with none out in the eighth, but could only get one run on a Denny Hocking sacrifice fly.  Wells and Jackson shut the door on Toronto, however, and an Ortiz home run in the ninth rounded out the scoring.

WP:  Brad Radke.  LP:  Brian Cooper.  S:  None.

Notes:  Warren Morris got the call at second base this time, going 0-for-3.  He was 0-for-6 at this point and would get only one more at-bat as a Twin...Radke pitched six innings, giving up three runs on four hits and three walks with four strikeouts.  The first inning blues had not hit him yet, as he had not given up a run in either of his first innings so far...Cressend would stick around until early June.  He had some good games, but when he was bad he was quite bad, giving up multiple runs in seven of his twenty-three appearances...Jacque Jones was 2-for-5 with a double and was batting .385...Doug Mientkiewicz was 0-for-4 and was batting .320...Mohr raised his average to .467...Cristian Guzman was 1-for-4 and was batting .190...Koskie raised his average to .174...Radke lowered his ERA to 6.97...Future Twin Shannon Stewart went 0-for-4.

Record:  The Twins were 5-1, tied for first with Cleveland.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–October 10

Otto Hess (1878)
Bill Killefer (1887)
Wally Berger (1905)
John Stone (1905)
Floyd Baker (1916)
Bobby Tiefenauer (1929)
Don Schaly (1937)
Gene Tenace (1946)
Roger Metzger (1947)
Terry Enyart (1950)
Les Straker (1959)
Jim Weaver (1959)
Ramon Martinez (1972)
Placido Polanco (1975)
Pat Burrell (1976)
Brad Ziegler (1979)
Troy Tulowitzki (1980)
Kolten Wong (1990)

Don Schaly was the head baseball coach at Marietta College for forty years.  His teams reached the finals of the Division III College World Series ten times, winning three times.

Kolten Wong was drafted by Minnesota in the sixteenth round in 2008, but did not sign.

We would like to wish a happy birthday to Can of Corn's Niblet.

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