Monthly Archives: November 2019

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Fifty-three

MINNESOTA 4, BALTIMORE 3 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Wednesday, June 5.

Batting stars:  Chili Davis was 3-for-4 with a stolen base.  Lenny Webster was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his second.

Pitching star:  Kevin Tapani pitched 7.2 innings, giving up one run on seven hits and a walk and striking out four.

Opposition stars:  Randy Milligan was 2-for-4 with a home run, his fifth.  Mike Devereaux was 2-for-4.  Cal Ripken was 2-for-4.  David Segui was 1-for-4 with a home run.

The game:  Nobody got past first until the fourth inning, when the Twins put men on second and third with two out.  The Twins started the scoring in the fifth, when Mike Pagliarulo walked and Webster followed with a two-run homer, giving the Twins a 2-0 lead.

The Orioles got one back in the sixth when Devereaux singled, Tim Hulett walked, and Joe Orsulak delivered an RBI single.  The Twins got the run back plus another in the bottom of the sixth on singles by Kent Hrbek and Davis and a two-run single-plus-error by Shane Mack, making the score 4-1.

Baltimore got a pair of two-out singles in the eighth, but Rick Aguilera came in to retire Orsulak.  In the ninth, however, with Aguilera still in the game, the Orioles got one-out back-to-back homers from Milligan and David Segui to cut the lead to 4-3.  Aguilera came back to strike out Chris Hoiles and Ernie Whitt to save the win.

WP:  Tapani (3-6).  LP:  Jose Mesa (4-6).  S:  Aguilera (13).

Notes:  Al Newman was at second base in place of Chuck Knoblauch.  He batted second despite his .484 OPS.  Webster was behind the plate in place of Brian Harper.

Webster was batting .333.  He had two hits to this point in the season, both home runs.  Kirby Puckett was 0-for-3 with a walk and was batting .330.  Greg Gagne was 0-for-3 and was batting .311.  Davis raised his average to .304.  Despite giving up two runs, Aguilera still had an ERA of just 2.33.

Newman was 0-for-4 and was batting .187.

Mesa pitched 5.1 innings and allowed four runs (three earned) on six hits and three walks and struck out one.

The Twins had won five in a row.  That matched their longest winning streak of the season, April 24-28.

Record:  The Twins were 28-25, fifth in the American League West, but just one percentage point behind fourth-place Seattle.  They trailed Oakland by 4.5 games.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–November 30

Due to personal time constraints, this is a reprint from last year, which in turn was a reprint from the year before, and has not been updated.

Mordecai Davidson (1845)
Frank Killen (1870)
Josh Billings (1891)
Firpo Marberry (1898)
Clyde Sukeforth (1901)
Steve Hamilton (1935)
Craig Swan (1950)
Juan Berenguer (1954)
Dave Engle (1956)
Steve Shields (1958)
Bob Tewksbury (1960)
Bo Jackson (1962)
Gary Wayne (1962)
Mark Lewis (1969)
Ray Durham (1971)
Matt Lawton (1971)
Shane Victorino (1980)
Rich Harden (1981)
Luis Valbuena (1985)

Mordecai Davidson was the owner of the Louisville Colonels in the late 1880s.  Under financial pressure, he tried to save money in a variety of ways, including fining players each time the team lost.  As a result, he is credited with inspiring the first baseball players' strike.  Nobody ever seems to name their kid "Mordecai" any more.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–November 30 →

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Fifty-two

MINNESOTA 4, BALTIMORE 3 IN MINNESOTA (10 INNINGS)

Date:  Tuesday, June 4.

Batting stars:  Brian Harper was 3-for-5 with a double.  Scott Leius was 2-for-4.  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-5 with a home run, his seventh.  Dan Gladden was 2-for-5 with two stolen bases, his third and fourth.

Pitching stars:  Terry Leach retired all five men he faced.  Steve Bedrosian pitched two shutout innings, giving up three hits and a walk.  Carl Willis pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Cal Ripken was 3-for-5 with two doubles.  Chris Hoiles was 2-for-4 with a double.  Joe Orsulak was 2-for-4.  Mike Devereaux was 2-for-5.  Mark Williamson struck out three in three shutout innings, giving up two hits and a walk.  Mike Flanagan pitched two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk.

The game:  Puckett homered in the first inning, giving the Twins a 1-0 lead.  In the bottom of the first, Dwight Evans drew a one-out walk.  With two out, Orsulak singled and Bob Melvin walked, loading the bases.  Bill Ripken then delivered a two-run single to put the Orioles up 2-1.

The lead didn't last long.  With two out in the second Leius singled, Greg Gagne tripled, and Gladden singled, giving the Twins a 3-2 advantage.  It stayed 3-2 until the fifth, when Devereaux singled and scored on a one-out double by Cal Ripken.

Each team threatened to take the lead, but neither could through the ninth inning.  In the fifth, Gladden singled, stole second, and went to third on a wild pitch with two out.  Hoiles hit a leadoff double in the sixth.  The Twins got two singles in the eighth, putting men on first and third with two out.  The Orioles got two singles in the ninth, putting men on first and second with two out.  But it was still 3-3 until the tenth.

Cal Ripken led off the tenth with a double and Randy Milligan walked.  Willis came in to get a fly out and a double play to end the threat.  In the bottom of the tenth, the first two Twins were retired.  Harper then singled, Kent Hrbek walked, and Randy Bush delivered a pinch-hit single to end the game.

WP:  Willis (2-1).  LP:  Gregg Olson (0-2).  S:  None.

Notes:  Shane Mack started in right field, the first time he had done so since May 18.  He would remain a regular the rest of the season.  Most of that time would be in right field, but he shifted to left for about a month when Gladden was out.

Pedro Munoz pinch-ran for Harper in the tenth and scored the winning run.  Bush pinch-hit for Mack in the tenth.

Puckett raised his average to .335.  Harper went up to .333.  Gagne was 1-for-3 and was batting .317.  Leach lowered his ERA to 3.09.  Willis dropped his ERA to 3.22.

With his pinch-hit, Bush raised his average to .189.

Mike Flanagan, of course, had been a fine starting pitcher for many years, winning the Cy Young award in 1979.  He was near the end of his career in 1991.  In fact, he had been released by Toronto in May of 1990 and had not been picked up by anyone the rest of the season.  Baltimore, where he'd had his best seasons, gave him a spring training invitation.  Whether that was out of sentiment or a belief that he could still pitch, it worked out well for the Orioles.  Flanagan had a fine year in relief, posting and ERA of 2.38 and a WHIP of 1.11.  It was the last good year he would have.  He pitched again in 1992 but did not do well and his career ended.

This was the fourth win in a row for the Twins.  They had won four in a row in May, of course, and then went on to lose nine of their next twelve.  Would that happen again?

Record:  The Twins were 27-25 in the American League West, in fifth place, 4.5 games behind Oakland.  They were two games ahead of sixth-place Chicago and a game behind fourth-place Seattle.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–November 29

Due to personal time constraints, this is a reprint from last year which has not been updated.

Tom Hughes (1878)
Irv Noren (1924)
Minnie Minoso (1925)
Vin Scully (1927)
George Thomas (1937)
Dick McAuliffe (1939)
Bill Freehan (1941)
Otto Velez (1950)
Mike Easler (1950)
Rick Anderson (1956)
Joe Price (1956)
Dennis Burtt (1957)
Howard Johnson (1960)
Bob Hamelin (1967)
Mariano Rivera (1969)
Brian Wolfe (1980)
Guillermo Quiroz (1981)
Craig Gentry (1983)

Continue reading Happy Birthday–November 29 →

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Fifty-one

MINNESOTA 3, BALTIMORE 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Monday, June 3.

Batting stars:  Chili Davis was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.  Kent Hrbek was 2-for-4 with a home run (his fifth) and a double.

Pitching stars:  Jack Morris pitched eight innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and a walk and striking out five.  Rick Aguilera pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Cal Ripken was 3-for-4 with a double.  David Segui was 2-for-4.  Todd Frohwirth retired all seven batters he faced, striking out one.

The game:  The Twins got a one-out double from Chuck Knoblauch in the first and from Pedro Munoz in the third, but could not bring either of them home.  With one out in the fourth, however, Hrbek hit a home run to make it 1-0.  The Twins added to their lead in the fifth.  Greg Gagne singled with one out.  With two down, Puckett reached on a single-plus-error, scoring Gagne, and Hrbek followed with a double to make it 3-0.

The Orioles got on the board in the sixth when Tim Hulett drew a two-out walk and scored on Ripken's double.  They threatened in the seventh when Ernie Whitt hit a one-out double, but the score stayed 3-1 going to the ninth.

Morris started the ninth inning, but came out after giving up a leadoff single to Ripken.  He had thrown 129 pitches.  Aguilera came in to strike out Joe Orsulak, but Sam Horn delivered an RBI double, cutting the lead to 3-2 and putting the tying run in scoring position.  David Segui hit into a fielder's choice, with pinch-runner Chris Hoiles out trying to advance to third on a ground ball to the pitcher.  But Ernie Whitt walked, putting the tying run back in scoring position and the lead run on base.  Jeff McKnight then fouled to third to end the game.

WP:  Morris (6-5).  LP:  Jeff Robinson (3-5).  S:  Aguilera (12).

Notes:  Dan Gladden was again out of the lineup, with Pedro Munoz in left and Gene Larkin in right.  Gladden entered the game as a pinch-runner in the fourth when Larkin was hit by a pitch.  He remained in the game in left field, with Munoz moving to right.  Gagne manned the leadoff spot in the batting order.

Al Newman entered the game in the seventh inning as a defensive replacement for Mike Pagliarulo at third base.

Puckett was 1-for-4 and was batting .333.  Brian Harper was 0-for-4 and dropped to .324.  He was 1-for-17 in his last five games.  Gagne was 1-for-4 and was batting .317.  Aguilera's ERA fell to 1.75.

Morris' 129 pitches were the most he had thrown in a game to this point in the season.  He would top that number only once.  It was, however, the seventh consecutive game and tenth of twelve in which he had thrown more than a hundred pitches.  His low to this point was ninety-six, on April 28.  His average was one hundred eleven.

It was the fifth appearance of the season for Todd Frohwirth.  In those five appearances, covering six innings, he had not allowed a baserunner.  No hits, no walks, no hit batsmen, nothing.  He would give up a walk in his next appearance, but would not give up a hit or a run June 8, when he surrendered two of each to Toronto.

The Twins had won three in a row to climb back over .500.  Could they stay there?  We'll see.

Record:  The Twins were 26-25, in fifth place in the American League West, 4.5 games behind Oakland.  They were two games ahead of sixth-place Chicago and a game behind fourth-place Seattle.