Monthly Archives: November 2020

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game Thirty-two

MINNESOTA 11, TAMPA BAY 6 IN TAMPA BAY

Date:  Wednesday, May 7.

Batting stars:  Dustan Mohr was 3-for-5.  A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-4 with a grand slam (his third homer), a double, and five RBIs.  Bobby Kielty was 2-for-4 with a home run (his fifth), two runs, and two RBIs.  Michael Cuddyer was 2-for-4 with a walk.  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-5 with a stolen base.  Corey Koskie was 2-for-5 with a stolen base, his second.  Jacque Jones was 2-for-6 with a double.

Pitching stars:  Juan Rincon pitched 3.1 scoreless innings of relief, giving up two hits and a walk and striking out one.  LaTroy Hawkins struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.  J. C. Romero struck out the side in a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Rocco Baldelli was 3-for-5 with a double.  Carl Crawford was 2-for-5 with a double.  Aubrey Huff was 2-for-5 with a double.  Travis Harper pitched 2.2 scoreless innings, giving up two hits and striking out one.

The game:  For all the runs, the scoring was packed into a few big innings.  The Twins started it with four in the first.  With one out they put together six consecutive singles (Guzman, Koskie, Kielty, Torii Hunter, Mohr, and Michael Cuddyer) plus a sacrifice fly to score the runs.  The Devil Rays loaded the bases in the bottom of the first when Baldelli singled, Huff doubled, and Travis Lee walked, but could only score once on a ground out, making the score 4-1.

It stayed 4-1 until the fourth, when Tampa Bay came storming back to take the lead.  They started the inning with four singles of their own (Lee, Marlon Anderson, Toby Hall, and Al Martin) to score two runs.  A bunt moved the runners up and a ground out scored a run, tying the score.  Crawford then had an RBI double and Baldelli contributed a run-scoring single, giving the Devil Rays a 6-4 lead.

Their momentum lasted until the first batter of the next half-inning.  Kielty led off the fifth with a home run to cut the margin to 6-5.  Hunter walked, Mohr singled, and Cuddyer walked, loading the bases.  Pierzynski then hit a grand slam to put the Twins in front 9-6.  They weren't done in the inning, though.  Chris Gomez singled and scored from first on a Jones double.  Guzman then hit an RBI single to make the score 11-6.

And that's where it stayed.  The Devil Rays put men on second and third with two out in the sixth, but did not score.  That was their only real threat the rest of the game.

WP:  Rincon (1-0).  LP:  Joe Kennedy (2-3).  S:  None.

Notes:  Cuddyer was at first base in place of Doug Mientkiewicz.  Gomez was at second in place of Luis Rivas.  Kielty was the DH.

Mientkiewicz replaced Cuddyer at first base in the eighth inning.

Jones was batting .336.  Kielty raised his average to .318.

Joe Mays started and did okay for three innings.  His line, though was 3.2 innings, six runs, nine hits, and one walk.  His ERA was 6.18.  By game scores this was tied for his second-worst game of the season, topped (or bottomed) only by a start in Chicago on June 30.

On the other hand, Rincon lowered his ERA to 1.15 and Hawkins was at 1.64.

Tampa Bay's starter, Joe Kennedy, fared even worse than Mays.  He pitched four innings and allowed ten runs on thirteen hits and two walks, striking out one.  His game score was -5.  It was, as you would expect, his worst start of the season.

This would be Cuddyer's last game before being sent down.  Oddly, the Twins sent him down just as he was starting to get hot.  He was 5-for-12 with a triple and three walks, raising his average from .197 to .233.  He would hit .306 with an OPS of .827 in Rochester, but would not come back until September.

At this point in the season Koskie had more stolen bases than Guzman, 2 to 1.  It would not stay that way, but the margin was not as big at the end of the season as you might think.  Guzman led the team with 18 stolen bases, but Koskie was fourth with 11.  Guzman was 18-for-27 while Koskie was 11-for-16.  The Twins were seventh in the league in stolen bases with 94.  The were fourth in caught stealing with 44.

The Twins had now won three in a row and seven of eight.

Record:  The Twins were 17-15, in second place in the American League Central, 3.5 games behind Kansas City.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–November 2

Dutch Zwilling (1888)
Chief Hogsett (1903)
Travis Jackson (1903)
Johnny Vander Meer (1914)
Al Campanis (1916)
Ron Reed (1942)
Tom Paciorek (1946)
Scott Boras (1952)
Paul Hartzell (1953)
Greg Harris (1955)
Willie McGee (1958)
Sam Horn (1963)
Orlando Merced (1966)
Travis Miller (1972)
Orlando Cabrera (1974)
Sidney Ponson (1976)
Wilson Betamit (1981)
Yunel Escobar (1982)
Daryl Thompson (1985)

Dutch Zwilling held the record for last major leaguer in alphabetical order until Tony Zych came along.

Al Campanis was the general manager of the Dodgers from 1969-1987.

Scott Boras has been a player agent for many years.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–November 2 →

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Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench – American Girl / Something Good Coming / We What Boogie Bout Midnight

Video 6 Comments

Happy 70th birthday, Tom!

(h/t painter)

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Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–November 1

Doc Adams (1814)
Bid McPhee (1859)
Larry French (1907)
Pat Mullin (1917)
Vic Power (1927)
Jim Kennedy (1946)
Miguel Dilone (1954)
Gary Redus (1956)
Fernando Valenzuela (1960)
Eddie Williams (1964)
Bob Wells (1966)
Ryan Glynn (1974)
Cleatus Davidson (1976)
Coco Crisp (1979)
Steven Tolleson (1983)
Alex Wimmers (1988)

Daniel Lucius "Doc" Adams was instrumental in developing the rules of baseball and was the first man to play what we now know as shortstop.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–November 1 →

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game Thirty-one

MINNESOTA 7, TAMPA BAY 3 IN TAMPA

Date:  Tuesday, May 6.

Batting stars:  Jacque Jones was 5-for-5 with two home runs (his second and third), a double, a stolen base (his fifth), and three runs.  Dustan Mohr was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer, his fourth.  Bobby Kielty was 2-for-4.  Torii Hunter was 1-for-5 with a two-run homer, his fourth.

Pitching star:  Brad Radke pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and one walk and striking out six.

Opposition stars:  Rey Ordonez was 2-for-4 with a double.  Rocco Baldelli was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his third.  Nick Bierbrodt pitched three shutout innings, giving up three hits and striking out two.  Jesus Colome struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.

The game:  Jones led off the game with a home run, putting the Twins up 1-0.  With one out in the second, Kielty singled and Mohr followed with a home run, giving the Twins a 3-0 lead.  Jones led off the third with another home run.  Later in the inning, with two out, Todd Sears walked and Hunter hit a two-run homer, leaving the Twins ahead 6-0.

After one in the first, two in the second, and three in the third, it would've been cool for the Twins to score four in the fourth, but they didn't.  In fact, they didn't score again until the ninth.  It didn't matter, though, as they already had all the runs they would need.  The Devil Rays put two on in the first and again in the fourth, but did not score until the sixth.  They started the inning with consecutive singles by Baldelli, Aubrey Huff, and Travis Lee, loading the bases with none out.  All they could do, though, was score one run on a ground out and another on a sacrifice fly, only cutting the margin to 6-2.

Tampa Bay put two on again in the seventh, but a double play took them out of the inning.  In the ninth Jones singled, stole second, and scored on a Corey Koskie single to increase the lead to 7-2.  The Devil Rays got that run back when Chris Truby walked and scored from first on an Ordonez double, but that was all they could do and the Twins had the victory.

WP:  Radke (3-3).  LP:  Steve Parris (0-3).  S:  None.

Notes:  A. J. Pierzynski returned to the lineup behind the plate.  Sears was at first base in place of Doug Mientkiewicz and Chris Gomez was at second in place of Luis Rivas.  Kielty was the DH.

The Twins made no in-game lineup substitutions.

Jones raised his average to .336.  Kielty was batting .310.

Radke lowered his ERA to 5.65,  Johan Santana gave up a run on a hit and a walk in two innings, raising his ERA to 1.59.

Jones raised his average by 30 points with his 5-for-5 game.  His slugging average went up 86 points, from .414 to .500.

Tampa Bay starter Parris pitched three innings, allowing six runs on six hits and a walk and striking out one.  I don't really remember him, but he pitched in the majors for parts of eight seasons:  two for Pittsburgh, three for Cincinnati, two for Toronto, and his last with the Devil Rays.  He had a couple of good years for the Reds, going 6-5, 3.73, 1.22 WHIP in 1998 and 11-4, 3.50, 1.37 in 1999.  He hadn't done much since, though, and by 2003 was at the end of the line.  This was his last major league start--he would make three relief appearances. then was released and his playing career was over.

After losing eight out of nine, the Twins had now won six out of seven and were back over .500.

Record:  The Twins were 16-15, in second place in the American League Central, 4.5 games behind Kansas City.