Monthly Archives: November 2020

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–November 4

Bobby Wallace (1873)
Tommy Leach (1877)
Skeeter Webb (1909)
Carl Sawatski (1927)
Dick Groat (1930)
Tito Francona (1933)
Dick Selma (1943)
Doug Corbett (1952)
Jon Shave (1967)
Eric Karros (1967)
Carlos Baerga (1968)
Kevin Frederick (1976)
Carmen Cali (1978)
Chih-Wei Hu (1993)

We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to davidwatts, yickit, and kalarson.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–November 4 →

The Nation Has An Appetite

Cajun Pot Roast

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So this isn't authentic by any means and, for being Cajun, it isn't particularly spicy. However, I incorporated the holy trinity to give this much more flavor than any Midwestern pot roast I grew up with in the Midwest.

Start with a rub. I used salt, white pepper, black pepper, cayenne pepper, nutmeg, and allspice. (More of the first half of list, less of the second half of the list.) Apply to a chuck roast. (I didn't remove the fattiest parts of the roast, but probably should have in hindsight.) Put roast in the crock pot.

Next, chop up two onions, a green bell pepper, and three ribs of celery. Spread across the top of the roast. Mince two cloves of garlic and also place on top. Drop in a bay leaf or two. Then, dump in a can of diced tomatoes. Finally, pour in some red wine and beef stock (lift the roast to let some liquid get underneath). Then, let the crock pot work its magic. I had mine on high for 4 hours and then switched to warm for another hour. It was very tender and fell apart pretty easily, but I think I let it cook just a smidge too long (my timing got off a little waiting for the potatoes.

The end product was really good (I ate mine after covering it with copious amounts of the au jus and chopped veggies left behind in the slow cooker), and it shall be made again.

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game Thirty-three

MINNESOTA 5, TAMPA BAY 0 IN TAMPA BAY

Date:  Thursday, May 8.

Batting stars:  Dustan Mohr was 2-for-4 with a double and two runs.  Corey Koskie was 1-for-2 with two walks.

Pitching star:  Kyle Lohse pitched a complete game shutout, giving up five hits and no walks and striking out three.

Opposition star:  Rocco Baldelli was 2-for-4.

The game:  The Twins opened the game with singles by Jacque Jones, Cristian Guzman, and Koskie, plating a run.  A double play took them out of the inning, but the Twins led 1-0.  Mohr led off the second with a double, Doug Mientkiewicz singled to put men on first and third, A. J. Pierzynski doubled home a run, and a ground out brought home another, making it 3-0 Twins.

It remained 3-0, with neither team building much of a threat, until the seventh.  Mohr singled, went to second on a passed ball, and scored on an error to make it 4-0.  They added one more in the eighth when Guzman reached on an error, went to second when Koskie walked, took third on a double play, and scored on a Torii Hunter double.

The Devil Rays only once got a man as far as second base.  Al Martin led off the second with a single and stole second with one out.  He was stranded there.

WP:  Lohse (3-3).  LP:  Dewon Brazelton (0-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  Bobby Kielty was the DH.  The Twins made no in-game lineup substitutions.

Jones was 1-for-4 and was batting .333.  Kielty was 0-for-4 and was batting .304.

Luis Rivas was 0-for-4 and was batting .188.

By game scores, this was Lohse's second-best game of the season, second to his eight innings of shutout ball on April 3.  He threw 101 pitches.  He would pitch very well through the middle of June, then pitch quite poorly until mid-September, when he got it going again.  His ERA was 3.57 at this point.

Tampa Bay's starter, Brazelton, did not pitch badly.  He went seven innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on seven hits and two walks and struck out three.  This was only his second game of the season and just the fourth of his major league career.  I don't mean to be unkind to him, but he simply was not a good major league pitcher.  His best season was 2004, when he went 6-8, 4.77, 1.44 WHIP in 120.2 innings (22 games, 21 of them starts).  For his career he was 8-25, 6.38, 1.68 WHIP in 271 innings (63 games, 43 of them starts).  He wasn't very good in AAA, either--14-19, 4.55, 1.44 WHIP in 219.2 innings (42 games, 41 of them starts).  He was drafted third overall, behind Joe Mauer and Mark Prior, which is probably why he got as many chances as he did.  But he walked too many guys, didn't strike out very many, and really had no business having as long a career as he had.  He does have an interesting life story, though, and I encourage you to read the SABR biography of him.

It was yet another series sweep the Twins were involved in, their eighth in ten series.  The Twins had won four in a row and eight of nine.

Record:  The Twins were 18-15, in second place, three games behind Kansas City.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–November 3

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Jim McCormick (1856)
Larry Kopf (1890)
Homer Summa (1898)
Johnny Keane (1911)
Bob Feller (1918)
Ken Holtzman (1945)
Dwight Evans (1951)
Larry Herndon (1953)
Bob Welch (1956)
Paul Quantrill (1968)
Armando Benitez (1972)
Kyle Seager (1987)

Johnny Keane managed the St. Louis Cardinals from 1961-1964 and the New York Yankees from 1965-1966.

There do not appear to be any players with connections to the Twins born on this day. It should be noted that Homer Summa is a great name for a ballplayer.

We also want to wish a happy anniversary to the Dread Pirate and Mrs. Pirate.

Keeping Track

Mazatlan Recap: Games Sixteen and Seventeen

MAZATLAN 4, MEXICALI 3 IN MAZATLAN (11 INNINGS)

Batting stars:  Ramon Rios was 3-for-4 with a double.  Jose Augusto Figueroa was 2-for-5 with two RBIs.  Francisco Hernandez was 2-for-5.  Ricky Alvarez was 1-for-5 with a two-run homer, his second.

Pitching stars:  Carlos Morales pitched six innings, giving up two runs on five hits and one walk and striking out three.  Alejandro Soto pitched a scoreless inning, walking one.  Ivan Zavala pitched a scoreless inning, walking one.  Roberto Espinosa pitched two perfect innings and struck out one.

Opposition stars:  Javier Solano pitched eight innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and no walks and striking out five.  Luis Juarez was 2-for-5.  Eric Aguilera was 1-for-3 with a home run (his third) and a walk.  Thomas Malgarejo pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit and striking out one.

The game:  In the first inning Rios hit a one-out double and Alvarez hit a two-out two-run homer, putting Mazatlan up 2-0.  Mexicali got on the board in the third when Xorge Carrillo walked, went to third on a Fabricio Macias double, and scored on a ground out.  Aguilera homered leading off the fifth to tie it 2-2.

There was no more scoring until the eleventh.  One-out singles by Daniel Castro and Juarez put men on first and third, and a wild pitch put Mexicali up 3-2.  In the bottom of the inning Carlos Munoz drew a one-out walk.  With two out, Ricardo Valenzuela singled and Chris Roberson walked, loading the bases.  Figueroa then delivered a two-run single to win the game for Mazatlan.

WP:  Ryan Newell (1-1).  LP:  Edgar Gomez (0-2).  S:  None.

Notes:  Figueroa is batting .500.  Munoz was 0-for-4 and is batting .310.

Zavala's ERA is 2.25.  Espinosa has an ERA of 1.04.

If we must have the "start with a runner on second" rule, the way the Mexican League does it, starting that rule in the twelfth inning, makes more sense to me.  Give them a couple of extra innings to try to settle it with real baseball before using a gimmick to get the game over.

Mexicali was 0-for-7 with men in scoring position.

MEXICALI 11, MAZATLAN 5 IN MAZATLAN (10 INNINGS)

Batting stars:  Jose Augusto Figueroa was 3-for-4 with a walk.  Carlos Munoz was 2-for-4 with a home run, a walk, two runs, and two RBIs.

Pitching stars:  Fernando Burgueno pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up three hits and striking out one.  Adolfo Ramirez pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Xorge Carrillo was 4-for-6 with a double and two RBIs.  Javier Salazar was 3-for-6.  Eric Aguilera was 2-for-3 with a double, three walks, four runs, and two RBIs.  Alex Mejia was 2-for-6 with a double and three RBIs.  Greg Mahle pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit and striking out one.  Roque Gutierrez pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two walks.

The game:  Munoz homered with two out in the first to give Mazatlan a 1-0 lead.  Mexicali responded in the third, scoring three times.  Daniel Castro and Luis Juarez opened the inning with walks, Aguilera delivered a two-run double, and Carrillo had a two-out RBI single, making it 3-1.

Mazatlan came back to tie it in the sixth.  Figueroa had a one-out single.  With two down, Hector Mora singled and Francisco Hernandez walked, loading the bases.  Walks to Ramon Rios and Munoz forced in two runs, making the score 3-3.

Mexicali went back in front in the eighth.  Aguilera singled, went to third on two wild pitches, and scored on a Mejia single to make it 4-3.  They added an insurance run in the ninth when Aguilera walked, Miguel Choice singled, and Carrillo had an RBI single.  But Mazatlan came back to tie it again in the bottom of the ninth.  Munoz singled, Isaac Paredes walked, Ricardo Valenzuela had an RBI single, and a passed ball tied it 5-5.

But Mexicali put it away in the tenth.  A single, an error, and a walk, loaded the bases.  A sacrifice fly brought home the go-ahead run, Jose Manuel Orozco tripled home two, a walk and a sacrifice fly made it 9-5, and back-to-back doubles by Carrillo and Mejia made it 11-5.  Mazatlan loaded the bases in the bottom of the tenth on two walks and a hit batsman, but could not come back.

WP:  Jake Sanchez (1-0).  LP:  Ryan Newell (1-2).  S:  None.

Notes:  Figueroa is batting .563.  Jose Luna was 0-for-1 as a pinch-hitter and is batting .333.  Munoz is batting .323.

Burgueno has an ERA of 2.70.  Roberto Espinosa gave up a run in two-thirds of an inning to make his ERA 1.93.

Mazatlan has been using Newell as a closer, but he's just not getting it done.  In this game he gave up four runs (two-earned) in a third of an inning to raise his ERA to 10.29.

There were eighteen walks and three hit batsmen in the game.  Mazatlan pitchers walked seven and Mexicali pitchers walked eleven.  You'd think eleven walks and nine hits would produce more than five runs, but Mazatlan stranded sixteen and went 1-for-13 with men in scoring position.  Mexicali, on the other hand, went 7-for-15 with men in scoring position.

Record:  Mazatlan is 6-11, tied for seventh, nine games behind Obregon.

Next game:  Mazatlan goes to Guasave (6-11) Tuesday night.