Monthly Archives: December 2019

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Sixty-seven

MINNESOTA 5, NEW YORK 4 IN NEW YORK

Date:  Friday, June 21.

Batting stars:  Chuck Knoblauch was 3-for-4 with a double, a stolen base (his seventh), and two RBIs.  Dan Gladden was 3-for-5 with a home run (his fourth), a double, two runs, and two RBIs.  Shane Mack was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his fifth.

Pitching stars:  Mark Guthrie pitched seven innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on nine hits and a walk and striking out five.  Steve Bedrosian struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up two hits.  Rick Aguilera struck out two in a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Carlos Rodriguez was 2-for-3.  Mel Hall was 2-for-4.  Don Mattingly was 2-for-5 with a two-run homer, his sixth.  Greg Cadaret pitched three shutout innings, giving up two hits and a walk and striking out two.

The game:  Gladden led off the game with a home run, giving the Twins a 1-0 lead.  Knoblauch followed with a double, but the Twins could do no more in the first inning.  The Yankees came back in the second.  Hall hit a one-out single, Alvaro Espinoza reached on an error, and RBI singles by Bob Geren and Rodriguez put the Yankees up 2-1.

The Twins got the lead back in the fourth.  They started the inning with consecutive singles by Chili Davis, Brian Harper, and Mack, tying the score.  A pair of fly outs followed, but then came a double by Gladden and a single by Knoblauch to give the Twins a 5-2 advantage.

There was no more scoring until the seventh.  With two out, Steve Sax walked and Mattingly hit a two-run homer, cutting the margin to 5-4.  They threatened to take the lead in the eighth.  Pat Sheridan had a one-out single and Espinoza had a two-out single, putting men on first and third, but pinch-hitter Matt Nokes struck out to end the inning.  The Yankees went down in order in the ninth.

WP:  Guthrie (5-3).  LP:  Scott Sanderson (7-3).  S:  Aguilera (18).

Notes:  The Twins went with a pretty standard lineup.  Al Newman pinch-hit for Mike Pagliarulo in the ninth and stayed in the game to play short.  Gene Larkin pinch-hit for Greg Gagne in the ninth, with Scott Leius coming into the game at third base.  As you were going to put Leius in the game anyway, I don't know why you wouldn't rather use him as a pinch-hitter than Newman against the left-handed Greg Cadaret, but Newman walked, so I guess you can say it worked.

Harper went 1-for-4 and was batting .342.  Kirby Puckett was 1-for-4 and was batting .327.  Steve Bedrosian lowered his ERA to 3.47.  Aguilera's ERA fell to 2.88.

This was the only two-hit game Carlos Rodriguez had in 1991.  He was twenty-three that year, and wasn't ready yet.  He appeared in just 15 games and batted .189.  He was in the minors for two more years, then went to the Boston organization.  He was with the Red Sox for half of 1994 and batted .287/.330/.397 as a part-time player.  He got a September call-up in 1995 and batted .333/.394/.400.  Then, however, he had rotator cuff surgery and went into coaching.  He eventually did some more playing, too, appearing in twenty-four games in 1999 and playing regularly in the Mexican League from 2002-2003.  He currently owns "The Strike Zone", a youth baseball training facility in Winchester, Ohio.  If not for his injuries, he might have had a decent career.

The Twins had now won three in a row, eighteen of nineteen, and twenty-one of twenty-three.

Record:  The Twins were 41-26, in first place in the American League West, three games ahead of Oakland.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–December 14

John Anderson (1873)
Lefty Tyler (1889)
Bob Weiland (1905)
Eddie Smith (1913)
Rusty Peters (1914)
Bobby Adams (1921)
Sam Jones (1925)
Bob Clear (1927)
Pete Whisenant (1929)
Jim Roland (1942)
Jerry May (1943)
Greg Goossen (1945)
Bill Buckner (1949)
Craig Biggio (1965)
Ken Hill (1965)
Scott Hatteberg (1969)
Marcus Jensen (1972)
Billy Koch (1974)
Rodrigo Lopez (1975)
Dave Gassner (1978)

Bob Clear was in baseball from 1945-1987 as a minor league player and manager, major league coach, and as a scout.

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Friday Music Day

FMD — Christmas Songs?

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So I'm not a big fan of Christmas songs and I have noticed this year that I have pretty much avoided them. Not sure if I'm lucky or I've arranged my life to avoid them. I saw a tweet about Paul McCartney's Wonderful Christmas time that made me laugh. I can't find it now but I think I pretty much recreated it:

Wonderful Christmas Time sounds like a when you're involved in a pagan ritual and then the relatives walk in the room:

The Mood Is Right
The Spirits Up
We're Here Tonight
And, That's Enough
SIMPLY HAVING!
A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS TIME!

Drop 'em if you got 'em.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Sixty-six

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MINNESOTA 8, BALTIMORE 4 IN BALTIMORE

Date:  Wednesday, June 19.

Batting stars:  Mike Pagliarulo was 2-for-3 with a hit-by-pitch.  Kent Hrbek was 2-for-5 with a double.  Chili Davis was 1-for-5 with a three-run homer, his sixteenth.

Pitching star:  Jack Morris pitched a complete game, giving up four runs on six hits and three walks and striking out six.

Opposition stars:  Jeff Robinson pitched 7.2 innings, giving up three runs on five hits and no walks and striking out five.  David Segui was 2-for-3.  Leo Gomez was 1-for-2 with a two-run homer (his third), two walks, and two runs.

The game:  The Twins again jumped out to an early lead with a two-out first inning rally.  Kirby Puckett was hit by a pitch, Hrbek singled, and Davis hit a three-run homer to give the Twins a 3-0 lead.  The Twins threatened to blow it open early, as in the second they put men on second and third with one out, but a short fly ball and a strikeout ended the threat.  The failure allowed the Orioles to get back into the game, as Joe Orsulak drew a one-out walk in the bottom of the second and Gomez followed with a two-run homer, cutting the lead to 3-2.

Baltimore threatened to tie it in the fifth, as Gomez led off with a walk and Segui singled, but a long fly out and a double play ended the threat.  The Orioles did more than threaten in the seventh.  With one out Orsulak singled and Gomez walked.  Consecutive RBI singles by Segui and Ernie Whitt put Baltimore ahead 4-3.  The score remained there through eight innings.

But in the ninth the Twins came back, with plenty of help from the Orioles.  They began the inning with singles by Brian Harper, Gene Larkin, and Pagliarulo to tie it 4-4.  With one out, a wild pitch moved the runners to second and third, resulting in an intentional walk to Randy Bush.  A wild pitch-plus-error scored two runs and yet another wild pitch scored a third run, making the score 7-4.  Shane Mack then singled and scored from first on Puckett's single, making it 8-4.  Baltimore went down in order in the bottom of the ninth.

WP:  Morris (9-5).  LP:  Olson (0-3).  S:  None.

Notes:  Al Newman replaced Chuck Knoblauch at second base, and his .286 OBP was placed in the leadoff spot.  He went 0-for-4.  Mack was in left in place of Dan Gladden and batted second.  Pedro Munoz started in right.

The Twins made a bunch of changes in the ninth inning.  Gene Larkin pinch-hit for Munoz.  Knoblauch then pinch-ran for Larkin and went to second base.  Gladden pinch-ran for Harper and stayed in the game in left field, with Mack moving to right.  Bush pinch-hit for Newman.

Harper was 1-for-4 and was batting .344.  Puckett was 1-for-4 and was batting .328.

As I go through Morris' games, I wonder if Tom Kelly was a little intimidated by him.  Maybe not, maybe Kelly just had that much confidence in him.  But Morris was allowed to stay in games much longer than any other pitcher would have been, even in 1991, and this is one example of that.  Morris had pitched well for six innings and the Twins led 3-2.  He struck out the first batter he faced, but then he gave up a hit.  Then he walked a batter.  His pitch count was approaching a hundred.  But he stayed in the game.  Then he gave up another hit, tying the score and putting men on first and third.  Still, he stayed in the game.  He gave up another hit, losing the lead.  Still, he stayed in the game.  He got a double play to end the inning, then cruised through the eighth and ninth.  The Twins came back and won, so it worked out, but there's no other pitcher who would've been allowed to stay in the game through the seventh inning.

This was Davis' seventh home run in June.  He would go on to hit ten in June, more than a third of his season total and twice as many as he would hit in any other month.  His other June numbers were not particularly outstanding--in June he batted .253/.345/.596, his season numbers were .277/.385/.507.  I don't know that we can contribute his June homers to anything but coincidence, but it's kind of interesting.

The Twins had now won seventeen of eighteen and twenty of twenty-two.

Record:  The Twins were 40-26, in first place in the American League West, 1.5 games ahead of Oakland.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–December 13

Jack Taylor (1873)
Hank Majeski (1916)
Larry Doby (1923)
Shotgun Shuba (1924)
Carl Erskine (1926)
Billy Loes (1929)
Bubba Morton (1931)
Lindy McDaniel (1935)
J. C. Martin (1936)
Ron Taylor (1937)
Ferguson Jenkins (1942)
Paul Boris (1955)
Dale Berra (1956)
Mike Mordecai (1967)
Matthew LeCroy (1975)
Ricky Nolasco (1982)

We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to spookymilk's mom.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–December 13 →

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Sixty-five

MINNESOTA 9, BALTIMORE 2 IN BALTIMORE

Date:  Tuesday, June 18.

Batting stars:  Shane Mack was 2-for-3 with a home run (his sixth), two walks, and two runs.  Kent Hrbek was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-4.  Chuck Knoblauch was 2-for-5.  Junior Ortiz was 2-for-5.

Pitching star:  Scott Erickson pitched six shutout innings, giving up one hit and five walks and striking out three.

Opposition stars:  Bob Melvin was 2-for-4.  Paul Kilgus pitched 2.1 innings, giving up an unearned run on no hits and two walks and striking out one.

The game:  The Twins took the lead early, scoring two in the first inning.  With two out, Puckett singled and scored on Hrbek's double.  A wild pitch sent Hrbek to third and a balk scored him to make it 2-0.  In the third, Mack singled and scored on a Mike Pagliarulo double.  Ortiz followed with an RBI single to make it 4-0. With one out a walk and a single loaded the bases.  A force out scored one run and Hrbek singled in another to increase the lead to 6-0.

There were no more hits by either side until the sixth, when Ortiz singled.  He was caught stealing (!), but with two out Gladden singled, stole second, and scored on Knoblauch's single.  It went to 8-0 in the eighth when the Twins scored on an error, a walk, and a sacrifice fly.

The Orioles got on the board in the bottom of the eighth.  A pair of walks and a fly ball put men on first and third with one out.  A ground out scored one and Leo Gomez singled in another to make it 8-2.  A Mack home run in the ninth closed out the scoring.

WP:  Erickson (11-2).  LP:  Roy Smith (3-1).  S:  Carl Willis (1).

Notes:  With Erickson pitching, Ortiz was catching.  The Twins made some late-game changes with the big lead.  Pedro Munoz pinch-ran for Puckett in the sixth and went to right field, with Mack moving to center.  Scott Leius pinch-hit for Pagliarulo in the seventh and went to third base.  Gene Larkin pinch-hit for Hrbek in the eighth and went to first base.

Puckett was batting .329.  Erickson's ERA went down to 1.51.  Willis got a three-inning save, giving up two runs.  His ERA was 3.14.

Baltimore's starter was ex-Twin Roy Smith.  He pitched 5.2 innings, allowing seven runs on eleven hits and three walks and striking out one.

This was one of two saves for Willis in 1991, with the other coming August 4.  He had thirteen saves in his career, with a high of five in 1993.  The Twins had five pitchers with saves in 1991--Rick Aguilera (42), Steve Bedrosian (6).  Mark Guthrie (2), Willis (2), and Gary Wayne (1).

Despite the end of their winning streak yesterday, the Twins had won sixteen of seventeen and nineteen of twenty-one.  Could they start a new streak?

Record:  The Twins were 39-26, in first place in the American League West, 1.5 games ahead of Oakland.