Twins pitchers combined for 4.2 scoreless innings.
Continue reading Off-Season’s Greetings: Games of October 17
Monthly Archives: October 2017
2002 Rewind: Game Fourteen
MINNESOTA 8, KANSAS CITY 5 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Tuesday, April 16.
Batting stars: Torii Hunter was 3-for-4 and scored three times. Corey Koskie, Dustan Mohr, and Jacque Jones were each 2-for-4 with a double.
Pitching stars: Tony Fiore pitched 2.2 scoreless innings. J. C. Romero struck out three in 1.1 scoreless innings. Eddie Guardado struck out two in a perfect ninth.
Opposition stars: Mike Sweeney was 3-for-5. Joe Randa was 2-for-3 with a triple. Ex-Twin Chuck Knoblauch was 2-for-5 with a double.
The game: The Royals jumped on Twins' starter Rick Reed early. Michael Tucker hit a two-run double, followed by a sacrifice fly, to give Kansas City a 3-0 lead. Minnesota got two back in the second, scoring one on a wild pitch and one on a Mohr double. The Royals took the lead back to three by scoring two in the third, getting an RBI single by Sweeney and a run-scoring triple by Randa. The Twins again cut the lead to one at 5-4 in the fourth, getting four consecutive singles and an RBI ground out. Minnesota finally took the lead in the sixth, scoring four times. Koskie had an RBI double to tie it, A. J. Pierzynski gave the Twins the lead with a run-scoring single, Jones hit a sacrifice fly, and Cristian Guzman knocked in a run with a single to put the Twins ahead 8-5. Kansas City got the tying run up to bat in the seventh, putting men on first and second with one out, but a ground out and a strikeout ended the inning.
WP: Fiore (1-0). LP: Blake Stein (0-1). S: Guardado (6).
Notes: Tom Prince started the game, but was removed in the third inning after Randa's RBI triple. One assumes there must have been a play at the plate that caused him to come out. Pierzynski replaced him...Denny Hocking was again at second base. He went 1-for-4 to raise his average to .130...Reed lasted just 3.1 innings, allowing five runs on seven hits and three walks with one strikeout. It's remarkable that the Twins won as many games as they did early in the year given how bad their starting pitching was...Jones raised his average to .368...Hunter raised his average to .382...Mohr raised his average to .375...Pierzynski went 1-for-3 and was batting .302...Fiore, Romero, and Mike Jackson all kept their ERAs at zero. Fiore had pitched 3.2 innings, Romero ten, and Jackson six...The Royals used two ex-Twins, Knoblauch and David McCarty. Knoblauch started in left field and raised his average to .200. McCarty was used as a pinch-hitter and went 0-for-1, making his average .182.
Record: The Twins were 9-5, in second place, 2.5 games behind Cleveland.
Haim – “That Don’t Impress Me Much”
So let's see if this works... this video had entirely too much talking and annoying DJs before and after the song, but I can't find a better version. Trying to start it in the right place...
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Happy Birthday–October 18
Candy Cummings (1848)
Cliff Carroll (1859)
Walt Wilmot (1863)
Boileryard Clarke (1868)
Hans Lobert (1881)
Burt Shotton (1884)
Charlie Berry (1902)
Skeeter Newsome (1910)
Roy Cullenbine (1913)
Andy Carey (1931)
Bobby Knoop (1938)
Willie Horton (1942)
Ed Farmer (1949)
George Hendrick (1949)
Andy Hassler (1951)
Jerry Royster (1952)
Mike Walters (1957)
Alan Mills (1966)
Doug Mirabelli (1970)
Alex Cora (1975)
David Murphy (1981)
Yoenis Cespedes (1985)
Alex Cora was drafted by Minnesota in the twelfth round in 1993, but he did not sign.
We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to AMR.
Championship Series Day!
Astro-Yanks in progress on FS1
Dodgers-Cubs 8pm on TBS
Off-Season’s Greetings: Games of October 16
Chris Paul was the hero for Surprise. Andrew Vasquez did well, too.
Continue reading Off-Season’s Greetings: Games of October 16
October 17, 2017: Glass Half Full
NBA action starts tonight (T-pups tomorrow). I’m actually feeling good about this year, which is a great feeling for now before those high hopes inevitably get dashed upon the rocks.
2002 Rewind: Game Thirteen
MINNESOTA 13, DETROIT 7 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Sunday, April 14.
Batting stars: Matthew LeCroy was 3-for-4 with a triple and two doubles. Doug Mientkiewicz was 3-for-4 with a walk. Torii Hunter was 2-for-4 with a walk and three RBIs. Bobby Kielty had a pinch-hit home run.
Pitching stars: Jack Cressend, LaTroy Hawkins, and Tony Fiore each pitched a scoreless inning, with Hawkins striking out two.
Opposition stars: Craig Paquette was 4-for-4 with two home runs and two doubles. Robert Fick was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk. Dmitri Young was 2-for-4.
The game: Young had an RBI single in the first and Paquette hit a solo homer in the second to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead. LeCroy tripled and scored in the bottom of the second to cut the lead to 2-1. In the fourth, RBI singles by Denny Hocking, Mientkiewicz, Hunter, and Corey Koskie put the Twins ahead 5-2. Things were looking good, but the Tigers came roaring back in the sixth. They led off the inning with two walks and Randall Simon followed with a three-run homer to tie the score. Paquette then doubled, chasing starter Joe Mays, and Fick singled later in the inning to put Detroit up 6-5. Paquette struck again in the eighth, leading off with a home run to give Detroit some insurance. It wasn't enough, as it was the Twins turn to come back, this time with an eight-run inning. Kielty hit a pinch-hit two run homer to tie it 7-7. Two singles and a walk loaded the bases and David Ortiz had a pinch-hit three-run triple to give Minnesota a 10-7 lead. Hunter had a run-scoring single to make it 11-7, a bases-loaded walk to Kielty made it 12-7, and Jacque Jones hit a sacrifice fly to close out the scoring. The Tigers went down in order in the ninth.
WP: J. C. Romero (2-0). LP: Matt Anderson (0-1). S: None.
Notes: LeCroy was used as the DH...LeCroy and Ortiz each had one triple on the season, and they both came in this game. It was the only triple of LeCroy's career. Ortiz went hit nineteen triples in his career, with a high of three in 2004...Pinch-hitters really came through for the Twins, with Kielty hitting a two-run homer and Ortiz a three-run triple...Hocking was used at second base...Mays pitched well for five innings, but fell apart in the sixth. His line was five innings, six runs, eight hits, two walks, and no strikeouts...Hawkins lowered his ERA to 0.82...Romero and Fiore kept their ERAs at zero, with Romero having pitched 8.2 innings and Fiore making his season debut in this game...Steve Sparks was the starter for Detroit. He pitched six innings, giving up five runs (one earned) on eight hits and one walk with two strikeouts...Anderson had been unscored upon in three appearances before this game. Here he faced five batters and did not retire any, giving up four hits and a walk...The Tigers fell to 0-11 on the season...Jones was 1-for-5 to make his average .358...Mientkiewicz raised his average to .321...LeCroy was batting .375...Hunter raised his average to .353...Dustan Mohr was 0-for-5 but was still batting .361...In three starts, Mays now had an ERA of 11.57. He missed the next three months due to injury, not pitching again for the Twins until July 20.
Record: The Twins were 8-5, in second place, 3.5 games behind Cleveland.
The Revivalists – “To Love Somebody”
The Revivalists are another band that I've been enjoying quite a bit, and their more country take on this Bee Gees song (the best Bee Gees song?) hits that thing where you want a cover song to add something new, and not just duplicate what went before. Anyway, I dig this.
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Happy Birthday–October 17
Buck Ewing (1859)
Paul Derringer (1906)
Red Rolfe (1908)
Howie Moss (1918)
Johnny Klippstein (1927)
Jim Gilliam (1928)
Pete Cimino (1942)
Dan Pasqua (1961)
John Mabry (1970)
John Rocker (1974)
Gil Velazquez (1979)
Carlos Gonzalez (1985)
Howie Moss hit 279 minor league homers in a thirteen-year career.