Monthly Archives: February 2020

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game One Hundred Forty-three

TEXAS 3, MINNESOTA 0 IN TEXAS

Date:  Saturday, September 14.

Batting stars:  Shane Mack was 2-for-3.  Chuck Knoblauch was 2-for-4.

Pitching star:  Carl Willis struck out three in three shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Oil Can Boyd pitched seven shutout innings, giving up five hits and no walks and striking out three.  Brian Downing was 3-for-4 with a double.  Ruben Sierra was 2-for-4.  Mario Diaz was 2-for-4.

The game:  There was no score until the fourth.  Sierra and Kevin Reimer led off with singles.  The next two batters went out, but Diaz singled to load the bases and Ivan Rodriguez delivered a two-run single to make it 2-0 Rangers.  They added another run in the fifth when Downing singled, went to third on a Rafael Palmeiro double, and scored on a ground out.

And that was it for the scoring.  The Twins did not get a hit until the fourth, when Knoblauch got a one-out single.  The closest the Twins came to scoring was the fifth.  Brian Harper and Mack had one-out singles and a fly ball moved them to second and third, but Al Newman grounded out to end the inning.  The Twins did not advance a man past first after that.

WP:  Boyd (8-13).  LP:  Tom Edens (1-2).  S:  Kenny Rogers (5).

Notes:  Al Newman was at shortstop in place of Greg Gagne.  Scott Leius pinch-hit for Kent Hrbek in the ninth.

Kirby Puckett was 0-for-4 to drop his average to .326.  Mack raised his average to .316.  Harper was 1-for-4 and was batting .311.  Willis' ERA fell to 2.35.

Edens started and pitched five innings, giving up three runs on nine hits and two walks and striking out four.  His ERA was 5.85.

It may seem strange to pinch-hit Leius for Hrbek, but in 1991 Leius batted .305 with an OPS of .872 against left-handers, while Hrbek batted .281 with an OPS of .797 against them.

I had completely forgotten that Oil Can Boyd pitched for Texas.  He was traded there from Montreal in July of 1991.  This was the only season he would pitch for them and it was his last season in the majors.  This was also the last good game he would pitch in his career.  As a Ranger, he was 2-7, 6.68, 1.58 WHIP.  For the season he was 8-15, 4.59, 1.39 WHIP.  He had pitched well for the Expos, but when he did poorly in Texas he did not get another chance.  Well, he did pitch in independent ball from 1994-1997 and again in 2005, but that was it.

The Twins had scored just eleven runs in their last four games, with four of them coming in the tenth inning of yesterday's game.

Chicago lost to California 3-2 in ten innings, again missing a chance to gain ground.

Record:  The Twins were 86-57, in first place in the American League West, 8.5 games ahead of Chicago.

In the East, Toronto defeated Oakland 6-0 and Boston lost to New York 3-1, so the Blue Jays now led by 4.5 games.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–February 27

Walter Briggs (1877)
Cy Perkins (1896)
Hilton Smith (1907)
Bill Capps (1919)
Buck Elliott (1919)
Johnny Pesky (1919)
Connie Ryan (1920)
John Wockenfuss (1949)
Ron Hassey (1953)
Greg Cadaret (1962)
Pete Smith (1966)
Matt Stairs (1968)
Willie Banks (1969)
Craig Monroe (1977)
Anibal Sanchez (1984)
Denard Span (1984)
Yovani Gallardo (1986)

Walter Briggs was involved in the ownership of the Detroit Tigers from 1920-1952, becoming sole owner in 1935.

Hilton Smith was a star pitcher in the Negro Leagues from 1931-1950.  Some observers considered him the equal of, if not better than, Satchel Paige.

Bill Capps was a third baseman who played in the minors for twenty years, fifteen of them at Class A or below.

Buck Elliott was an outfielder who played in the minors for fourteen years, all but one of them at Class A or below.

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Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game One Hundred Forty-two

MINNESOTA 7, TEXAS 3 IN TEXAS (10 INNINGS)

Date:  Friday, September 13.

Batting stars:  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-4 with a walk and two runs.  Chuck Knoblauch was 2-for-5 with a double.  Kent Hrbek was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer, his seventeenth.

Pitching stars:  David West struck out five in four innings of relief, giving up one run on two hits and two walks.  Gary Wayne struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Kevin Brown pitched seven innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on five hits and a walk and striking out five.  Mario Diaz was 3-for-3 with two runs.  Brian Downing was 2-for-5 with a home run, his sixteenth.

The game:  Downing led off the bottom of the first with a home run, giving the Rangers a quick 1-0 lead.  The Twins tied it in the third.  Gladden and Knoblauch hit two-out singles, putting men on first and third, and a pickoff attempt went awry to allow Gladden to score.

Texas went back into the lead in the fifth.  Diaz led off with a single, went to second on a wild pitch, took third on a ground out, and scored on a sacrifice fly, making it 2-1 Rangers.  The Twins again tied it in the seventh.  Puckett singled and Hrbek walked.  A double play moved Puckett to third and he scored on Randy Bush's pinch-hit single, making it 2-2.

Texas again went back into the lead in the bottom of the seventh.  One-out singles by Diaz and Downing put men on first and third and a ground out made it 3-2 Rangers.  The Twins again tied it in the eighth.  Gene Larkin drew a one-out walk.  Pinch-runner Jarvis Brown stole second and third and scored on a Knoblauch double to tie it at three.

The Twins took their only lead of the game in the tenth.  With one out Lenny Webster singled and Gladden walked.  Puckett's two-out single scored one run and Hrbek delivered a three-run homer to give the Twins a 7-3 advantage.   Texas got only one single in the bottom of the tenth.

WP:  Terry Leach (1-1).  LP:  Kenny Rogers (9-10).  S:  None.

Notes:  Pedro Munoz was in right field in place of Shane Mack.  Junior Ortiz caught in place of Brian Harper.

The Twins made extensive use of the bench.  Bush pinch-hit for Munoz in the seventh and remained in the game in right field.  Al Newman pinch-hit for Ortiz in the seventh and remained in the game at shortstop.  Larkin pinch-hit for Greg Gagne in the seventh.  Brown pinch-ran for him and Webster then came in to catch.  Mack entered the game in the eighth in right field in place of Bush.  Scott Leius pinch-hit for Mike Pagliarulo in the ninth and remained in the game at third base.  I'm going to miss teams being able to make that many moves in September games.

Puckett raised his average to .328.  Mack was 0-for-1 and was batting .313.  Webster was 1-for-1 and was batting .400.

Scott Erickson started for the Twins but pitched just two innings, giving up one run on two hits and a walk.  He threw twenty-nine pitches.  I assume he came out because of his elbow.  He would not miss a start, however.

Erickson's ERA went to 3.15.  Leach pitched two-thirds of an inning scorelessly to make his ERA 3.06.  Rick Aguilera similarly pitched two-thirds of an inning scorelessly to make his ERA 2.17.

This was Leach's only win of the season.

Kenny Rogers was primarily a reliever in his first four years in the majors.  In fact, he led the league in appearances in 1992 with 81.  He made just twelve starts in those first four seasons before becoming a full-time starter in 1993.

Diaz was not in the starting lineup.  He batted for Jeff Huson in the fifth inning.

The White Sox defeated California 1-0, but again, time was running out on them.

Record:  The Twins were 86-56, in first place in the American League West, 8.5 games ahead of Chicago.

In the East, Toronto and Boston both won, so the Blue Jays remained in the lead by 3.5 games.

 

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–February 26

Grover Alexander (1887)
Rip Collins (1896)
Preacher Roe (1916)
Johnny Blanchard (1933)
Don Lee (1934)
Hiromitsu Kadota (1948)
Jack Brohamer (1950)
Rick Wieters (1955)
Kelly Gruber (1962)
Scott Service (1967)
J. T. Snow (1968)
Mark DeRosa (1975)

Hiromitsu Kadota is third on the Japanese professional baseball home run list with 567.

The father of Matt Wieters, Rick Wieters pitched in the minor leagues for five years, reaching AA.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 26 →