Monthly Archives: November 2019

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Twenty-five

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MINNESOTA 5, MILWAUKEE 2 IN MILWAUKEE (10 INNINGS)

Date:  Sunday, May 5.

Batting stars:  Mike Pagliarulo was 2-for-3.  Chili Davis was 1-for-3 with two walks.

Pitching stars:  Allan Anderson pitched seven innings, giving up one run on four hits and three walks and striking out two.  Rick Aguilera pitched three innings, giving up one run on four hits and a walk and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Bill Wegman pitched six shutout innings, giving up two his and a walk and striking out one.  Jim Gantner was 2-for-4 with a double.  Paul Molitor was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his second.

The game:  There were no hits until the top of the third, when the Twins got one-out singles from Pagliarulo and Greg Gagne.  Nothing came of it, and there were no other threats from either team until the bottom of the sixth.  Rick Dempsey led off the inning with a single-plus-error, reaching second.  With one out, Molitor singled him to third and stole second.  Willie Randolph was intentionally walked to bring up Robin Yount (!).  Yount was accidentally walked to force in a run.  Franklin Stubbs hit into a flyball double play, with Molitor thrown out at the plate by Kirby Puckett, but the Brewers led 1-0.

The Twins had men on first and third with one out in the seventh, but Puckett was thrown out trying to score on an infield grounder.  They broke through in the eighth, though.  Pagliarulo led off with a single and Al Newman came in to run.  With one out, consecutive singles by Dan Gladden, Chuck Knoblauch, and Puckett gave the Twins a 2-1 lead.  Milwaukee tied it in the bottom of the eighth when Molitor walked, went to third on Randolph's single, and scored on Yount's sacrifice fly.

Neither team scored in the ninth, so we went to an extra inning.  Knoblauch walked.  Puckett bunted and reached base on an error, putting men on first and second.  Gene Larkin then bunted the runners to second and third.  Davis was intentionally walked, and Shane Mack hit a sacrifice fly to give the Twins the lead.  Brian Harper followed with a two-run single and the Twins were up 5-2.  The Brewers did not threaten in the bottom of the tenth.

WP:  Aguilera (1-2).  LP:  Edwin Nunez (1-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  Puckett started in center, with Randy Bush in right.  Mack pinch-hit for Bush in the seventh and stayed in the game, but went to right field, with Puckett remaining in center.  Puckett would remain the center fielder the rest of the season.

Kent Hrbek come out of the game after batting in the eighth inning.  He would miss the next several games, returning May 14.  Gene Larkin played first base the rest of the game.

Newman remained in the game after pinch-running for Pagliarulo.  Scott Leius pinch-ran for Harper but did not remain in the game, with Junior Ortiz coming in to catch.  Apparently Tom Kelly believed Newman to be the superior third baseman.

Gagne was 1-for-4 and was batting .328.  Knoblauch was 1-for-4 with a walk and was batting .316.  Puckett was 1-for-3 with a walk and was batting .312.  Harper was 1-for-5 and was batting .311.

Mack was 0-for-2 and was batting .175.  Hrbek was 0-for-3 with a walk and was batting .183.  Aguilera had an ERA of 2.38.

I have a really hard time figuring out why you would walk Willie Randolph to pitch to Robin Yount.  Yes, it set up a double play, but that's all it did.  Both were right-handed batters, so you did not gain a platoon advantage.  And, no disrespect to Randolph, he was no Robin Yount, especially at this stage of their careers.  As of this game, Randolph was batting .255/.340/.255.  Yount was batting .295/.373/.526,  Maybe TK had some numbers that indicated Allan Anderson did really well against Yount or something, I don't know.  But it sure is not a move that makes much sense to me.

Isn't baseball great?  We can sit here and second-guess the manager twenty-eight years later.

Bill Wegman was a decent but not great pitcher.  1991 was the best year he had, going 15-7, 2.84, 1.12 WHIP.  He was pretty good in 1992 as well:  13-14, 3.20, 1.17 WHIP.  He did not have an ERA under four in any other season, although he was at 4.51 or below four other seasons.  For his career, all with Milwaukee, he was 81-90, 4.16, 1.29 WHIP in 1482.2 innings.  He played in 262 games, 216 of them starts.  Not an ace, not even usually a number two guy, but a good guy to have to fill out your rotation.

Record:  The Twins were 12-13, tied for fifth with Seattle in the American League West, 3.5 games behind Oakland.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–November 2

Dutch Zwilling (1888)
Chief Hogsett (1903)
Travis Jackson (1903)
Johnny Vander Meer (1914)
Al Campanis (1916)
Ron Reed (1942)
Tom Paciorek (1946)
Scott Boras (1952)
Paul Hartzell (1953)
Greg Harris (1955)
Willie McGee (1958)
Sam Horn (1963)
Orlando Merced (1966)
Travis Miller (1972)
Orlando Cabrera (1974)
Sidney Ponson (1976)
Wilson Betamit (1981)
Yunel Escobar (1982)
Daryl Thompson (1985)

Dutch Zwilling held the record for last major leaguer in alphabetical order until Tony Zych came along.

Al Campanis was the general manager of the Dodgers from 1969-1987.

Scott Boras has been a player agent for many years.

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Friday Music Day

FMD — Karaoke

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DK posted a video of Glen Campbell singing Rhinestone Cowboy over at the video section. As I commented, that song is one of my go to karaoke songs. The other one is Love Hurts. I in fact one "sang" Love Hurts at a lesbian bar in Nashville and the the cross-dressing host said afterward, thanks for bringing the mood down, now someone give this guy a blow job! (no one did).

So do you have a go to karaoke song? What works, what doesn't? I found that Born in the USA is just a bunch of shouting and really hard to maintain through the whole song. Gave me even a greater appreciation for the fact that Bruce does that for 3 freaking hours. I have a friend who's kind of nerdy and loves to do country party songs for karaoke. The "problem" is that's kind of awkward and his fist pumps and hip shaking are somewhat half-assed. It's very endearing and fun to watch.

Anyway favorite karaoke? Do you like it when someone just nails the song or when they are really bad but their heart is really into it?

Also drop 'em if you got 'em.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Twenty-four

MINNESOTA 7, MILWAUKEE 4 IN MILWAUKEE

Date:  Saturday, May 4.

Batting stars:  Greg Gagne was 3-for-4 with a home run (his third), two doubles, and two runs.  Chili Davis was 3-for-5 with two doubles.  Randy Bush was 3-for-5.  Shane Mack was 2-for-3 with a walk.  Kent Hrbek was 2-for-5 with a double, two runs, and two RBIs.

Pitching star:  Mark Guthrie pitched six shutout innings, giving up three hits and three walks and striking out four.

Opposition stars:  Willie Randolph was 2-for-4.  Greg Vaughn was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his sixth.  Rick Dempsey was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his second.

The game:  In the second, Davis led off with a double, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a ground out to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  Gagne homered in the third to make it 2-0.

The Brewers got their first threat in the fourth, when Randolph singled and Franklin Stubbs drew a two-out walk, but Vaughn fouled out to end the inning.  The Twins added another run in the fifth when Gagne doubled with one out and scored on a Dan Gladden single.  Milwaukee got another threat in the sixth on one-out singles by Randolph and Robin Yount, but a pop up and a strikeout put it to bed.

The Twins took control in the seventh.  Gagne led off with a double but was thrown out trying to go to third on Gladden's ground ball to short.  Chuck Knoblauch walked, though, putting men on first and second, and Hrbek came through with a two-run double.  Singles by Davis and Bush scored Hrbek to increase the Twins' lead to 6-0.  They got one more in the ninth when Hrbek singled and scored on Davis' double.

The Brewers did not quit, though.  Steve Bedrosian, in his third inning, gave up a one-out single to Stubbs and Vaughn followed with a two-run homer.  Dante Bichette reached on an error, and with two out Dempsey homered to cut the lead to 7-4.  Greg Brock grounded out, however, and the game was over.

WP:  Guthrie (1-2).  LP:  Chris Bosio (3-3).  S:  Bedrosian (1).

Notes:  Bush was in right field in this game, with Mack in center and Kirby Puckett given the day off.

Gagne raised his average to .333.  Knoblauch was 0-for-3 with two walks and was batting .319.  Davis raised his average to .303.

Mike Pagliarulo was 0-for-4 and was batting .179.  Mack raised his average to .184.  Hrbek raised his average to .190.

With his six shutout innings, Guthrie lowered his ERA to 7.94.  That may not sound like much, but it was 16.88 going into the game.  He had made two starts and two relief appearances going into this game.  He would be in the starting rotation through the end of June, then go to the bullpen for the rest of the season.  He did much better there--for the season he was 5-4, 5.73, 1.78 WHIP as a starter, 2-1, 2.51, 1.37 WHIP as a reliever.  He would make only two more starts the rest of his career, both in 1994.

I'm sure I included it in his biography, but I had completely forgotten that Rick Dempsey was even still in the league in 1991, much less played for the Brewers.  He appeared in 60 games, but had just 147 at-bats.  He would have one last hurrah with Baltimore in 1992 before hanging it up for good at age forty-two.

The Twins were 0-for-2 in stealing bases, with Mack and Bush getting caught stealing.  Plus, there was Gagne getting thrown out trying to go from second to third on a grounder to short.  It didn't cost them the game, but losing three baserunners is not the recommended way to go about things.

Bedrosian got a three-inning save despite giving up four runs in the ninth.  He would have six saves on the season, three of them of the three-inning variety.

Milwaukee starter Chris Bosio pitched 6.1 innings, allowing six runs on ten hits and three walks and striking out four.  It's interesting how much the game has changed, and how much longer starters were allowed to stay in games in 1991 even when they were giving up runs.

Record:  The Twins were 11-13, tied for fifth with Seattle in the American League West, 4.5 games behind Oakland.

 

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–November 1

Doc Adams (1814)
Bid McPhee (1859)
Larry French (1907)
Pat Mullin (1917)
Vic Power (1927)
Jim Kennedy (1946)
Miguel Dilone (1954)
Gary Redus (1956)
Fernando Valenzuela (1960)
Eddie Williams (1964)
Bob Wells (1966)
Ryan Glynn (1974)
Cleatus Davidson (1976)
Coco Crisp (1979)
Steven Tolleson (1983)
Alex Wimmers (1988)

Daniel Lucius "Doc" Adams was instrumental in developing the rules of baseball and was the first man to play what we now know as shortstop.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–November 1 →