Monthly Archives: July 2019

Keeping Track

Minor Details: Games of July 5

The Miracle sweep a doubleheader.  The Kernels win in the bottom of the ninth.

ROCHESTER 4, SCRANTON/WILKES-BARRE 2 IN SCRANTON/WILKES-BARRE (GAME 1)

The Red Wings scored single runs in the first, third, fifth, and sixth to take a 4-0 lead.  Jake Cave was 3-for-4 and is batting .337.  LaMonte Wade was 2-for-2 with a double and a walk.  Brent Rooker was 2-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs.  Lewis Thorpe struck out eight in six innings, giving up two runs on six hits and no walks.  Ryan Eades struck out two in a scoreless inning.

SCRANTON/WILKES-BARRE 7, ROCHESTER 6 IN SCRANTON/WILKES-BARRE (GAME 2--8 INNINGS)

It was 3-3 before the extra inning.  A sacrifice fly brought home the deciding run.  Ronald Torreyes was 3-for-4 with two RBIs.  Jaylin Davis was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer (his seventh) and two runs and is batting .315.  Cody Stashak struck out five in three innings, giving up an unearned run on two hits and a walk and has an ERA of 1.56.  Carlos Torres pitched three shutout innings, giving up one hit and striking out one, and has an ERA of 1.93.  The Red Wings are 43-43, tied for third, 6.5 games back.

BIRMINGHAM 7, PENSACOLA 3 IN BIRMINGHAM

A four-run sixth broke a 3-3 tie.  Alex Kirilloff was 1-for-4 with a home run, his third.  Mark Contreras was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his fifth.  Adam Bray struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up two hits, and has an ERA of 2.38.  The Blue Wahoos are 9-7, tied for first place.

FORT MYERS 4, PALM BEACH 0 IN FORT MYERS (GAME 1)

The Miracle scored two in the first and two in the fifth.  Gabriel Maciel was 2-for-3 with a walk.  Jose Miranda was 2-for-4 with a double.  Blayne Enlow pitched a scoreless inning but gave up three hits.  His ERA is 1.95.  Joe Record struck out four in three shutout innings, giving up one hit.  Cody Allen pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and striking out one and has an ERA of zero.  Zach Neff struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.

FORT MYERS 7, PALM BEACH 3 IN FORT MYERS (GAME 2)

A six-run second took care of things for the Miracle.  Michael Helman was 2-for-3.  Trey Cabbage was 2-for-3 with a triple.  Jose Miranda was 2-for-4 with three RBis.  Melvi Acosta pitched 5.1 innings, giving up two runs on five hits and two walks and striking out five.  His ERA is 2.93.  The Miracle is 8-10, in fifth place, 5.5 games back.

CEDAR RAPIDS 3, BURLINGTON 2 IN CEDAR RAPIDS

Tyler Webb hit a two-out two-run double in the ninth to give the Kernels the win.  It was their only extra-base hit of the game.  Gilberto Celestino was 2-for-4.  Josh Winder struck out eight in seven innings, giving up one run on three hits and no walks.  His ERA is 2.32.  The Kernels are 9-6, tied for fourth, two games back.

ELIZABETHTON 7, KINGSPORT 1 IN ELIZABETHTON

Seth Gray hit a two-run homer in a three-run third that put the Twins in the lead to stay.  Spencer Steer was 2-for-4 with a walk and is batting .327.  Willie Joe Garry, Jr. was 2-for-4 and is batting .333.  Andriu Marin struck out six in four shutout innings, giving up three hits and two walks.  His ERA is 2.77.  Denny Bentley struck out four in 2.1 innings, giving up an unearned run on four hits and no walks.  Frandy Torres retired all eight men he faced, striking out five of them.  The Twins are 9-8, tied for second, two games back.

GCL RED SOX AT GCL TWINS

The game was suspended in the bottom of the eighth with the scored tied 1-1.  It will be completed today.  The Twins are 4-5, tied for fourth, 3.5 games back.

DSL TWINS 9, DSL METS1 6 AT TWINS

The Twins scored four in the second inning to take a 5-0 lead.  Rubel Cespedes was 3-for-4 with a double, a walk, two runs, and two RBIs.  Jeury Lopez was 3-for-4 with a walk and two runs.  Yelinson Pena was 2-for-3 with a double, two walks, and two runs.  Rhodery Diaz was 2-for-3 with a walk and is batting .318.  Jorge Mesa was 2-for-5 with a double and two RBIs.  Luis Baez was 2-for-5 and is batting .313.  Juan Pichardo struck out four in four innings, giving up one run on six hits and a walk and has an ERA of 1.50.  The Twins are 9-18, in eighth place, ten games back.

TODAY'S TILTS

9:00  GCL Red Sox at GCL Twins (completion of suspended game)
GCL Twins at GCL Red Sox (scheduled game)
9:00  DSL Twins at DSL Phillies Red
5:00  Palm Beach at Fort Myers
5:30  Kingsport at Elizabethton
5:35  Rochester at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre
6:30  Pensacola at Birmingham
6:35  Quad Cities at Cedar Rapids

2019 Twins Game Recaps

2019 Recap: Game Eighty-seven

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MINNESOTA 15, TEXAS 6 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Friday, July 5.

Batting stars:  Marwin Gonzalez was 3-for-4 with a double, a hit-by-pitch, two runs and two RBIs.  Jonathan Schoop was 3-for-5 with a home run (his fourteenth), two doubles, two runs, and four RBIs.  Mitch Garver was 2-for-4 with a home run (his thirteenth), a double, a walk, and three runs.  Max Kepler was 2-for-4 with two RBIs.  Jorge Polanco was 2-for-5 with a two-run homer, his thirteenth.  Luis Arraez was 2-for-5 with a home run, his second.  C. J. Cron was 2-for-5 with two doubles, two runs, and two RBIs.  Byron Buxton was 2-for-5 with two doubles and two runs.

Pitching stars:  Martin Perez pitched six innings, giving up four runs on seven hits and two walks and striking out three.  Kohl Stewart retired all four men he faced.

Opposition stars:  Logan Forsythe was 2-for-4 with a home run (his fourth) and two runs.  Rougned Odor was 2-for-4 with a double.  Delino DeShields was 2-for-4 with a double.  Shin-Soo Choo was 1-for-5 with a two-run homer, his thirteenth.

The game:  The Twins started the scoring in the second and did so in a big way.  Garver led off with a double and scored on Gonzalez' single.  A double play made it look like the scoring might end right there, but Arraez followed with a home run, Schoop and Buxton hit back-to-back doubles, Kepler singled, and Polanco hit a two-run homer.  It was 6-0 and the Twins lead would never be threatened.

The Twins kept the scoring going.  Buxton doubled with one out in the fourth and scored on a Kepler single.  In the fifth Gonzalez was hit by a pitch and scored on Schoop's two-out two-run homer.  It was 9-0 through six.

The Rangers tried to get back into the game in the seventh.  Martin Perez, who had cruised through six innings, walked Nomar Mazara to open the seventh.  Singles by Forsythe and Asdrubal Cabrera plated one run and Odor's RBI double made it 9-2.  Ryne Harper came in and allowed a run-scoring ground out, then with two down gave up a homer to Choo, making the score 9-5.

No problem.  Garver led off the bottom of the seventh with a home run.  Gonzalez singled, Cron doubled, and Schoop delivered a two-out two-run double to make it 12-5.  Forsythe homered in the eighth to cut the margin to 12-6, but the Twins added a few more in the bottom of the eighth. Miguel Sano singled, Garver walked, Gonzalez doubled home one and Cron doubled home two.  Texas went down in order in the ninth.

WP:  Perez (8-3).  LP:  Adrian Sampson (6-6).  S:  None.

Notes:  Arraez was at third base in this game, with Gonzalez in left and Sano on the bench.  Sano entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the fourth, as Nelson Cruz left the game.  According to news reports, Cruz had discomfort in his foot because his shoe was too tight.  I don't know why he couldn't simply put on a bigger shoe, but it obviously didn't matter for the outcome of the game.

Arraez actually lowered his average by going 2-for-5--he's now batting .413.  Polanco went up to .314.  Tyler Duffey gave up a run in two-thirds of an inning and has an ERA of 2.60.

As noted above, Perez pitched very well for six innings.  In retrospect you can say he was left in the game too long, but his pitch count wasn't high and there were no obvious signs that he was tiring.  Sometimes a guy just loses it quickly.

Stewart pitched the last 1.1 innings.  It had been widely assumed that he was going to be Sunday's starter, but that seems very unlikely now.  Maybe that never was the plan, or maybe Rocco thought it was better to save the rest of the bullpen now and figure something else out for Sunday.  The pitcher who started in Rochester Tuesday, and so would be going on regular rest Sunday, was Devin Smeltzer.  He did pretty well in his two earlier major league starts, so it would not be surprising to see him back for the Sunday start.

This was the kind of game we saw a lot the first couple of months of the season and haven't seen much lately.  Will this be the start of a hot streak?  The Twins had a game like this Saturday and we hoped it might be the start of a hot streak, but instead it was just a one-off.  So I guess we'll see.

The win guarantees that the Twins will go into the all-star break not having more than a two-game losing streak.  That's pretty remarkable.

Record:  The Twins are 55-32, first in the American League Central, 6.5 games ahead of Cleveland.

Projected record:  We're still on track for 130-32!

2019 Twins Game Recaps

2019 Rewind: Game Eighty-six

OAKLAND 7, MINNESOTA 2 IN OAKLAND

Date:  Thursday, July 4.

Batting stars:  Nelson Cruz was 3-for-5 with a double.  Ehire Adrianza was 2-for-3.  Jonathan Schoop was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Zack Littell pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two hits and striking out one.  Trevor May struck out three in a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Chris Herrmann was 4-for-4.  Robbie Grossman was 3-for-4.  Marcus Semien was 2-for-4 with two home runs (his twelfth and thirteenth) and five RBIs.  Tanner Anderson pitched 4.2 innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on nine hits and two walks and striking out three.  Wei-Chung Wang pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up no hits and a walk and striking out one.

The game:  A two-out rally in the first produced one run for the Twins.  Cruz and Luis Arraez singled and Miguel Sano walked to fill the bases and Adrianza reached on catcher's interference.  They missed a chance for more, though, when Schoop flied out.  They missed another chance in the third, when Cruz led off the inning with a single but was caught stealing.  The Twins got two more singles in the inning, but they went for naught.

The Athletics similarly missed a chance in the third, when they had men on first and third with one out, but they tied it in the fourth on singles by Khris Davis, Grossman, and Herrmann.  The Twins took the lead back in the fifth when Cruz doubled and Adrianza singled him home, but Oakland went in front to stay in the bottom of the fifth.  Semien homered to start the inning.  Matt Chapman walked, Matt Olson singled, and Davis walked.  A double play brought home the go-ahead (or go-behind, depending on your point of view) run.

It remained 3-2 until the eighth, when Oakland broke it open.  Grossman and Herrmann singled and Jurickson Profar was hit by a pitch, loading the bases.  Semien unloaded them with a grand slam, and the game was gone.  The Twins, who had not mounted a threat since the fifth, got a leadoff double in the ninth from Max Kepler, but he did not move past second.

WP:  Wang (1-0).  LP:  Jose Berrios (8-5).  S:  None.

Notes:  Arraez remained in left field.  Adrianza was at first base in place of C. J. Cron.

Arraez was 1-for-5 and is batting .414.  Polanco was 0-for-5 and is batting .313.

I don't know why Rocco has suddenly decided Littell is a one-inning guy.  The whole point of putting him on the roster was to have a guy who could pitch multiple innings.  His last four games, though, he's gone one inning in each, and the game before that he went two.  To his credit, he's done well in that role.  In fact, if you throw out the awful game in Tampa Bay, he has an ERA of zero and has given up six hits and three walks in eight innings.  That's pretty good.  But he's supposed to be The Bullpen Guy Who Can Fill Up Some Innings, and Rocco's not giving him the chance to do that.

This was kind of an embarrassing loss for the Twins.  Tanner Anderson is a career nothing whose major league ERA was 6.83 going in and who wasn't any good in AAA this year either.  Yet, the Twins could manage only two runs off him in 4.2 innings, and if not for catcher's interference it would've been one.  Yes, they had nine hits, but only one of them was for an extra base.  The Twins could also do nothing with Lou Trivino (ERA 4.62) and Joakim Soria (4.76).  Plus, the Twins had their best pitcher going.  This is a game they should've won easily, and instead they lost by five runs.  Yes, this is baseball and it happens, but it's been happening a lot to the Twins lately, and it's not good.

But, there's nothing to be done about now, so we head home to take on the Texas Rangers.  Maybe Martin Perez will have a good game and the Twins can put together a few wins heading into the all-star break.

Record:  The Twins are 54-32, in first place in the American League Central, six games ahead of Cleveland.

Projected record:  We'll just have to settle for 130-32!

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–July 5

Jack Farrell (1857)
Robert Brown (1876)
Charles Stoneham (1876)
Bump Hadley (1904)
Jack Krol (1936)
Curt Blefary (1943)
Gary Matthews (1950)
Rich Gossage (1951)
Dave Eiland (1966)
Tim Worrell (1967)
Bo Porter (1972)
Jesse Crain (1981)
Marco Estrada (1983)
Jorge Polanco (1993)
Shohei Ohtani (1994)

 Robert Brown owned various teams in Vancouver from 1910-45.  He was also president of the Western International League in 1953.  He is a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

Charles Stoneham owned the New York Giants from 1919 until his death in 1936.

Jack Krol was a long-time minor league manager and major league coach. coaching for St. Louis from 1977-80 and San Diego from 1981-86.

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