Monthly Archives: October 2020

Keeping Track

Mazatlan Recap: Game One

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Winter baseball has started, with the Mexican League the first league to begin play.  I have done lots of things in covering the Mexican League, from doing recaps of every game to doing nothing at all.

I would love to do recaps of every game again, but I simply don't have time for that.  But I don't like doing nothing at all, either.  So I thought, this year, I would try following one team from each winter league.  The team will be selected by random.org.  For the Mexican League, it is the Venados de Mazatlan.

I come into this knowing nothing about that team, so I'll be learning along with you.  That is, if anyone actually reads these recaps.  The season started last night, so here we go.

MAZATLAN 5, LOS MOCHIS 2 AT LOS MOCHIS

Batting star:  Issmael Salas was 2-for-3 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  Francisco Rios struck out five in five shutout innings, giving up two hits and three walks.  Ivan Zavala pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Eddy Martinez was 2-for-4.  Adrian Hernandez struck out six in 2.1 perfect innings.  Erubiel Armenta pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one walk.

The game:  Mazatlan started the scoring in the second.  Ricky Alvarez and Salas singled and Ramon Rios was hit by a pitch, loading the bases with none out.  A wild pitch brought home the first run.  Ricardo Valenzuela singled home the second run, and an error brought home a third, giving Mazatlan a 3-0 lead.  Mazatlan added a run in the fourth.  With one out, Alvarez walked and went to second on a wild pitch.  Salas singled him to third, and a force out brought him home to make it 4-0.  It went to 5-0 in the fifth.  Carlos Munoz and Anthony Giansanti walked, a ground out moved them to second and third, and Rios hit a sacrifice fly to bring home the run.

Los Mochis got on the board in the seventh.  Walks to Leandro Castro and Saul Soto put men on first and second with one out.  Carlos Soto then singled home a run.  They added one more in the ninth.  With two out Saul Soto singled, Fernando Inzunza walked, and Juan Uriarte singled, making the score 5-2.  A hit batsman loaded the bases and brought the winning run up to bat, but Josuan Hernandez struck out to end the game.

WP:  Rios (1-0).  LP:  Daniel Duarte (0-1).  S:  Ryan Newell (1).

Notes:  Newell faced two batters, hitting the first one but striking out the second to end the game.

Looking at the box score, it appears that the Mexican League does not have a three-batter minimum rule.  They may have a mound visit rule, though, because the play-by-play always notes mound visits.

Mazatlan used eight pitchers, six of them in the last three innings.

It was 32 degrees in Los Mochis, with a 21 mile-an-hour wind.  I don't know whether they're allowing fans, but it would not have been a pleasant night to be at the old ball park.  Unless that's 32 Celsius, of course, in which case it would've been about 90 degrees fahrenheit.  And, as I look at it, that's probably the case, as the forecast for Los Mochis today is a high of 103.  That's not very pleasant, either, but I could handle 90 degrees for baseball a lot better than 32.

Next game:  Mazatlan plays Los Mochis again tonight.

Record:  Mazatlan is 1-0, tied for first with Monterrey, Hermosillo, Obregon, and Guasave.

For some reason, it is not easy to find the Mexican League standings.

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game Fifteen

MINNESOTA 6, DETROIT 0 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Thursday, April 17.

Batting stars:  Chris Gomez was 3-for-4.  Torii Hunter was 2-for-3 with two doubles and a walk.  Michael Cuddyer was 2-for-3 with a triple, a walk, and two runs.  Bobby Kielty was 2-for-4 with two home runs, his second and third.  Corey Koskie was 1-for-4 with a home run and two runs.

Pitching stars:  Kenny Rogers struck out nine in eight shutout innings, giving up seven hits and no walks.  Tony Fiore pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Eugene Kingsale was 2-for-3.  Omar Infante was 2-for-4.

The game:  The Twins did not have a big inning, but just eased out to a comfortable lead.  In the first, a single by Cristian Guzman and a double by Hunter led to a run.  Kielty homered leading off the second to make it 2-0.  Koskie homered with one out in the third to make it 3-0.  In the fourth, Cuddyer led off with a triple and scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-0.

I don't know if there's ever been a game in which a team scored exactly one run in each inning, and sadly this would not be one.  The score remained 4-0 until the eighth.  The Tigers had a threat in the fifth when Infante led off with a double and Kingsale had an infield single with one out.  A strikeout and a ground out ended the threat, and Detroit would not threaten again.

The Twins got their final two runs in the eighth.  Kielty again lead off the inning with a home run.  With one out Cuddyer walked, went to third on a Gomez single, and scored on a sacrifice fly.

WP:  Rogers (2-0).  LP:  Jeremy Bonderman (0-3).  S:  None.

Notes:  Gomez was at second base in place of Luis Rivas.  Kielty was in center field, with Hunter at DH.  Cuddyer was in right field.  The Twins made no position player substitutions.

Gomez was batting .467.  Kielty was batting .387.  Guzman was batting .347.  Jacque Jones was 0-for-4 and was batting .333.  Koskie was batting .306.

Rogers lowered his ERA to 3.50.  That was as low as it would get all season.  By game scores this was his second-best game of the season, topped only by a game in Kansas City in mid-August.

Six of the Tigers' starters had batting averages below .200:  Eric Munson (.175), Infante (.167), Carlos Pena (.167), Dean Palmer (.118), Brandon Inge (.091), and Hiram Bocachica (.045).

Jeremy Bonderman started for Detroit.  He pitched six innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on ten hits and a walk and striking out four.

This was the fifth consecutive series sweep the Twins were involved in at the start of the season.  They had been on the winning end of three and the losing end of two.  I don't know what the record is.  Of course, the year the Orioles started 0-21, they must have been on the losing end of several sweeps.

Record:  The Twins were 9-6, tied for second in the American League Central with Chicago, 2.5 games behind Kansas City.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–October 16

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Art Devlin (1879)
Goose Goslin (1900)
Boom-Boom Beck (1904)
Matt Batts (1921)
Dave DeBusschere (1940)
Tim McCarver (1941)
Don Hood (1949)
Brian Harper (1959)
Kevin McReynolds (1959)
Billy Taylor (1961)
Darren Reed (1965)
Josias Manzanillo (1967)
Jonathan Schoop (1991)
Bryce Harper (1992)

Goose Goslin was a star for the franchise in the 1920s, when it played in Washington.

Better known as a basketball player, Dave DeBusschere pitched for the White Sox from 1962-1963.

It clearly doesn't mean anything, but it seems like kind of an odd coincidence that Brian Harper and Bryce Harper were born on the same day.

We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to spookymilk’s daughter, Sour Cream.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–October 16 →

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game Fourteen

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MINNESOTA 4, DETROIT 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Wednesday, April 16.

Batting stars:  Corey Koskie was 3-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-3 with a double, a hit-by-pitch, and two runs.  A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-4 with a double.  Jacque Jones was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his third.

Pitching stars:  Rick Reed pitched six innings, giving up two runs on six hits and a walk and striking out five.  Johan Santana retired all four batters he faced, striking out one.  Eddie Guardado pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Wil Ledezma retired all seven batters he faced, striking out three.  Bobby Higginson was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.

The game:  The Tigers put a man on second with two out in the first and did not score.  The Twins put men on second and third with one out in the first and did not score.  The Twins got on the board in the second when Bobby Kielty and Pierzynski started the inning with back-to-back doubles, putting Minnesota up 1-0.  They got one more in the third.  Guzman was hit by a pitch and Koskie singled, putting men on first and third with none out.  Torii Hunter then hit into a double play which scored a run and made it 2-0.

The Twins put together a two-out rally in the fourth.  Jones and Guzman singled with two down and Koskie hit a two-run double to increase the lead to 4-0.  The Tigers cut the lead in half in the fifth.  Eric Munson singled and scored on a one-out double by Matt Walbeck.  With two out, Bobby Higginson hit an RBI single and it was 4-2.

And there it stayed.  Detroit did not get a hit after the fifth inning.  They did get a pair of two-out walks in the seventh, but Santana came in to retire Carlos Pena on a fly ball.  Detroit did not get a baserunner after that.

WP:  Reed (1-2).  LP:  Adam Bernero (0-3).  S:  Guardado (6).

Notes:  Kielty was at DH in this game.

The Twins made no in-game lineup substitutions.

Kielty was 1-for-3 and was batting .370.  Jones raised his average to .358.  Guzman raised his average to .341.  Koskie raised his average to .311.

Dustan Mohr was 0-for-4 and was batting .125.  Hunter was 0-for-4 and was batting .137.

Juan Rincon pitched two-thirds of an inning without giving up a run.  He and Santana each had an ERA of zero.  Guardado lowered his ERA to 1.35.

Tiger players with a Twins connection are Walbeck and Munson.  Craig Paquette was drafted by them but did not sign.

Bernero pitched 5.2 innings, giving up four runs on ten hits and two walks.  He struck out none.  Detroit had a 1-12 record at this point in the season.

The Twins had won three, lost six, and now had won five.  They would go for the series sweep the next day.  If they got it, it would be the fifth consecutive series sweep they had been involved in to start the season.

Record:  The Twins were 8-6, tied for second with Chicago in the American League Central, 3.5 games behind Kansas City.