Monthly Archives: May 2020

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 1982, Game One Hundred Fifteen

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MINNESOTA 3, SEATTLE 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Friday, August 13.

Batting stars:  Ron Washington was 2-for-4.  Kent Hrbek was 1-for-3 with a walk.

PItching stars:  Bobby Castillo pitched a complete game, giving up one run on three hits and one walk and striking out three.

Opposition stars:  Gaylord Perry pitched an eight-inning complete game, giving up three runs (two earned) on eight hits and a walk and striking out five.  Bruce Bochte was 2-for-3.

The game:  Joe Simpson led off the game with a triple and scored on Bochte's single to give the Mariners a 1-0 lead.  The Twins put men on first and third in the bottom of the first but did not score.

No one got a man past first in innings two through five.  In the sixth, however, the Twins got consecutive one-out singles from Tom Brunansky, Hrbek, Gary Ward, and Gary Gaetti, plating two runs and giving the Twins a 2-1 lead.  The Twins added a run in the eighth when Washington singled, then was picked off first but reached second on an error.  Hrbek was intentionally walked.  Ward hit a potential double play ball, but the throw to first was wild and Washington came in to score, making it 3-1 Twins.

Castillo was in total control.  He gave up only one hit after the first inning, a two-out single by Bochte in the fourth.  He retired the last ten batters he faced.

WP:  Castillo (6-9).  LP:  Perry (7-10).  S:  None.

Notes:  Washington was the shortstop in this game.  Lenny Faedo is listed as the Twins starting shortstop in 1982, but Washington actually played slightly more games there (92 to 88).

Randy Johnson was the Twins DH.  He's listed as the Twins starting DH in 1982, and he got more time there than anyone, but it was only 66 games.  Others who spent significant time at DH were Jesus Vega (39 games), Mickey Hatcher (29), Randy Bush (26), and Dave Engel (20).

Hrbek was the only Twins above .300, at .315.  He would finish at .301.  This was the only time Hrbek was named to the all-star team.  He deserved more appearances, but after a snub early in his career he said that he was not interested in going.

This was one of the two best seasons of Castillo's career, and his best as a starter.  He was 13-11, 3.66, 1.28 WHIP.  His other good season was when he was a reliever for the Dodgers in 1980.  By game scores, this was his best game of the season.  He did, however, have six complete games in 1982.  He would have three the next season, and those were the only complete games he had in his career.

Perry was in his age forty-three season in 1982.  He was obviously not what he once was, but he was still decent--10-12, 4.40, 1.38 WHIP.  He would pitch one more season before calling it quits.

Record:  The Twins were 40-75, in seventh (last) place in the American League West, 26.5 games behind California.  They would finish 60-102, in seventh place, thirty-three games behind California.

The Mariners were 56-58, in fourth place in the American League West, ten games behind California.  They would finish 76-86, in fourth place, seventeen games behind California.

Twins Top Moments

Johan Santana Region: Play-In

Okay, we still have one more tie to break.  This poll will expire at midnight.

#11  Carlos Silva Throws 11-Hit Shutout

Against the Angels, Silva allowed a baserunner in every inning, including 11 hits, 2 walks, and 1 error.  He induced four ground-ball double plays and two line out double plays.  When Silva's magic was working it was delightful.

#11  Francisco Liriano Outduels Roger Clemens

As has been discussed, this was one of the seasons where Clemens joined half-way through the season to much fanfare.  Liriano was good, not great.  And Clemens was also good (and he had a fantastic season just like F-Bomb), not great.  But this was about the narrative.

Liriano had a couple of 8-inning, 12-strikeout games in 2006 and some more dominating performances, but this game was probably the most memorable.

The Better Moment

  • Liriano Outduels Clemens (67%, 6 Votes)
  • Silva Tosses 11-Hit Shutout (33%, 3 Votes)

Total Voters: 9

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Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–May 3

George Gore (1857)
Garry Herrmann (1859)
Eppa Rixey (1891)
Red Ruffing (1905)
Goose Tatum (1921)
Chuck Hinton (1934)
Chris Cannizzaro (1938)
Davey Lopes (1945)
Dan Iassogna (1969)
Darren Dreifort (1972)
Ryan Dempster (1977)
Homer Bailey (1986)
Ben Revere (1988)
Mike Morin (1991)

Garry Herrmann was the president of the Cincinnati Reds from 1903-1920 and was chair of the National Commission from its creation in 1903 until the commissioner's office was created in 1920.  It is puzzling that he is not in the Hall of Fame.

Better known as a member of the Harlem Globetrotters, Goose Tatum played in the Negro Leagues for several years in the 1940s.

Dan Iassogna has been a major league umpire since 1999.

I just realized that I forgot about Homer Bailey.  I don't have time to do a bio now--he'll have to wait until next year.  Sorry about that, Homer.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–May 3 →

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 1977, Game Fifty

BOSTON 5, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Saturday, June 4.

Batting star:  Larry Hisle was 3-for-4 with a home run (his twelfth) and a double.

Pitching star:  Tom Burgmeier pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Bill Lee pitched a complete game, giving up two runs on six hits and no walks and striking out one.  Denny Doyle was 2-for-3 with a double, a walk, a stolen base (his second), and two runs.  Bernie Carbo was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.  Fred Lynn was 2-for-5 with two RBIs.  Carlton Fisk was 2-for-5 with a stolen base, his fifth.

The game:  The Twins had men on first and third with none out in the second, but Butch Wynegar hit into a 6-2-5-3-6 double play to take them out of the inning.  The Red Sox got on the board in the third when Doyle doubled and Fred Lynn singled.  They made it 2-0 in the fourth when Carl Yastrzemski tripled and Carbo singled.

The Twins got on the board in the fourth when Hisle homered.  Boston got the run back in the fifth on two-out singles by Fisk and George Scott and a wild pitch.  They added a run in the seventh when Doyle singled, stole second, and scored on Lynn's single.  They got one more in the eighth when Carbo doubled, was bunted to third, and scored on a sacrifice fly.

The Twins got their second and last run in the eighth when Wynegar doubled and scored on a pair of ground outs.

WP:  Lee (3-1).  LP:  Paul Thormodsgard (3-2).

Notes:  The only change from their regular lineup is that Jerry Terrell was at third base in place of Mike Cubbage.  Terrell, who had a .295 OBP, was batting leadoff for some reason.  His career OBP was .288, so it's not like he was just in a temporary slump.  What makes it worse is that Lyman Bostock, who was batting .331 with an OBP of .399, was batting seventh.  I know some people say batting order doesn't make a lot of difference, but it seems like you should still try to take advantage of whatever little difference it makes.

Rod Carew was leading the team in batting at .376, despite going 0-for-4 in this game.  He would finish at .388.  For as great a hitter as he was, I don't remember Carew ever having a really long hitting streak.  My memory is that he tended to get his hits in bunches.  Obviously, when you bat .388 you're not getting a lot of 0-for-4s, but I suspect it was not as uncommon as one might expect.

Hisle was batting .328.  He would finish at .302 and lead the league in RBIs with 119.

Roy Smalley was batting just .210, and he would finish the season at only .231.  He was twenty-four in this season, and had not yet established himself as a batter.  He would bat .273 in 1978 and would go on to be a productive batter through 1983.

Thormodsgard pitched 5.2 innings, allowing three runs on seven hits and a walk and striking out one.  This was his only full season as a rotation starter.  He went 11-15, 4.62, 1.38 WHIP.  For a twenty-three-year-old who had been jumped from A ball, that's not awful.  It was as good as it would get for him, though.  He started 1978 in the rotation, but in twelve starts he went 1-6, 5.05, 1.49 and was sent back to AAA.  He pitched well in AAA for the Twins in 1978 and 1979 and for Philadelphia in 1980, but he never got another chance at the majors.  I'm sure there were reasons, but it seems like he did enough to deserve more of a chance than he got.  As we've observed many times, life and baseball are not always fair.

Carlton Fisk had 128 stolen bases in his career.  His high was seventeen, which he did twice, in 1982 and again in 1985, when he was thirty-seven.

Record:  The Twins were 31-19, in first place in the American League West, two games ahead of Chicago.  They would finish 84-77, in fourth place, 17.5 games behind Kansas City.

The Red Sox were 26-23, in third place in the American League East, two games behind Baltimore.  They would finish 97-64, tied for second, 2.5 games behind New York.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–May 2

Eddie Collins (1887)
Bing Crosby (1904)
Joe Falls (1928)
Eddie Bressoud (1932)
Gates Brown (1939)
Clay Carroll (1941)
Keith Moreland (1954)
Dr. A (1956)
Felix Jose (1965)
Paul Emmel (1968)
Jerrod Saltalamacchia (1986)
Neftali Feliz (1988)

Entertainer Bing Crosby was part-owner and a vice president of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1947 into the 1960s.

Joe Falls was a long-time sportswriter in Detroit and had a weekly column in The Sporting News for many years.

Paul Emmel has been a major league umpire since 1999.

It appears that no players with connections to the Minnesota Twins were born on this day.  However, it is the birthday of my brother, retired professor at Virginia Tech.  Happy Birthday, Dr. A!

We would also like to wish a very happy anniversary to Mr. and Mrs. Butch.

Friday Music Day

FMD – Fun times with Pandemic Music?

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Any new musical discoveries during this pandemic/quarantine? Trying to discover new music or leaning on old standbys? Earlier this week I was working at home, all alone and it was pouring rain outside. So I listened to Elliot Smith's debut, Roman Candle. Perfect for an isolating raining day.

My love for Van Halen's first album is well known and I thought, since Eruption is such a great intro to You Really Got Me, what other songs would it be a great intro to. The cool thing with streaming music services, is that it's really easy to find out so I created a bunch of playlist pairing a song with Eruption.

I discovered, to no surprise, that Eruption before a quiet song just doesn't work. I thought perhaps the daring difference would be kind of cool, but nope, it's just too discordant. Also pairing Eruption with any other classic rock song works pretty good. Eruption leading into Welcome to the Jungle doesn't miss a beat.

It also works pretty well with some GBV songs, particularly Motor Away and I am a Tree. It really works with a song called Soul Barn, which is an amazing toss-off song buried on a demo release. In all cases, if the production were better, all these combo's would be really cool

Any way, long way to say so stay safe and listen to music, it can really be a balm in these trying times.

Drop 'em if you got 'em.