Shorter recaps again today.
Jose Aguilar's RBI single with one out in the ninth won the game for Monterrey. Jose Augusto Figueroa led Mazatlan's offense with a 2-for-4 day. Carlos Morales started and pitched five innings, giving up one run on two hits and four walks and striking out four.
Record: Mazatlan is 18-20, in seventh place, seven games behind Obregon. They are two games behind sixth-place Culiacan.
Next game: Mazatlan is again at Monterrey tonight.
A completely random fact I recently learned was the apparently now very out of print copy I had of Weird Al's Peter & the Wolf was also written by Wendy Carlos. That makes total sense to me now.
Date: Tuesday, June 17.
Batting stars: Dustan Mohr was 2-for-4 with a home run (his eighth), a double, a walk, and two runs. Denny Hocking was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk. Tom Prince was 2-for-5 with a two-run homer, his second. Justin Morneau was 1-for-1 with a home run.
Pitching star: LaTroy Hawkins pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a walk and striking out one.
Opposition stars: Ken Harvey was 4-for-5 with three doubles and five RBIs. Raul Ibanez was 3-for-5 with three runs and two RBIs. Mike Sweeney was 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, two runs, and two RBIs. Jeremy Affeldt pitched five innings, giving up one run on five hits and five walks and striking out three.
The game: The Royals scored in the third when Carlos Beltran walked and scored from first on Harvey's double. The Twins loaded the bases in the third but did not score. They did tie it in the fifth when Lew Ford walked, went to third on Hocking's double, and scored on a sacrifice fly. They took the lead in the sixth. Bobby Kielty singled, stole second, and scored on a Luis Rivas triple. Hocking's RBI single then made it 3-1 Minnesota.
Kansas City then exploded for twelve runs in the bottom of the sixth. Two walks and a single loaded the bases. Consecutive singles by Beltran, Ibanez, and Harvey plated four runs. A bunt gave the Twins their first out, but singles by Brent Mayne and Carlos Febles scored two more. Two consecutive hit batsmen brought home another run, Sweeney hit a three-run double, Ibanez had an RBI single, and Harvey had a run-scoring double. It was 13-3, and the game was pretty much over at that point.
The Twins scored two in the seventh on Prince's two-run homer and one in the eighth on a solo shot by Morneau. Harvey doubled home a run in the bottom of the eighth and Mohr homered in the ninth to bring us to the final score of 14-7..
WP: Kris Wilson (3-0). LP: Kenny Rogers (5-3). S: None.
Notes: This was the B lineup. Prince was behind the plate in place of A. J. Pierzynski. Matthew LeCroy was at first base in place of Doug Mientkiewicz. Hocking was at short in place of Cristian Guzman. Ford was in left in place of Jacque Jones. Kielty was the DH.
Mientkiewicz came in for defense in the sixth inning in place of LeCroy. Morneau pinch-hit in the eighth and stayed in the game at first base.
Ford was 1-for-4 and was batting .455. Morneau was 1-for-1 and is batting .364.
Hocking raised his average to .190.
Rogers pitched five innings, allowing seven runs on six hits and four walks and striking out three. His ERA was 5.14. Hawkins lowered his ERA to 2.16. Eddie Guardado allowed a run in one inning to raise his ERA to 3.03.
The Twins stranded 12 runners and were 2-for-9 with men in scoring position. The Royals stranded 5 and were 8-for-14 with men in scoring position.
This was Morneau's first major league home run.
I wonder what the most runs scored against the Twins in one inning is. I doubt that it's twelve, but that can't be too far down the list.
The Twins only had two guys who played in this game whose averages were above .300, and they were both guys who hadn't batted much. However, they had four players who were in the .290s: Mientkiewicz (.299), LeCroy (.298), Mohr (.297), and Corey Koskie (.291).
The Royals were rapidly gaining ground on the Twins.
Record: The Twins were 38-31, in first place in the American League Central, two games ahead of Kansas City.
Joe Kelley (1871)
Cy Seymour (1872)
Adam Comorosky (1905)
Joe DeMaestri (1928)
Billy Klaus (1928)
Darold Knowles (1941)
Jim Merritt (1943)
Del Unser (1944)
Jerry Cram (1947)
Doc Medich (1948)
Steve Christmas (1957)
Ed Romero (1957)
Juan Samuel (1960)
Tony Tarasco (1970)
Todd Van Poppel (1971)
Tony Batista (1973)
Adam Wilk (1987)
Outfielder Del Unser was drafted by Minnesota in the second round in 1965, but did not sign. Catcher Steve Christmas was drafted by Minnesota in the thirty-third round in 1975, but did not sign.
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Loading... Batting stars: Yonathan Mendoza was 2-for-4 with a double. Josmar Cordero was 2-for-4 with a double.
Pitching star: Wilking Rodriguez pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits.
Opposition stars: Frank Lopez pitched five innings, giving up one run on five hits and three walks and striking out four. Ericson Leonora was 3-for-3 with a double and a walk. Alexander Palma was 3-for-4 with a home run, a double, two runs, and two RBIs. Jose Rondon was 2-for-4 with a home run (his second), a walk, two runs, and three RBIs. Jhonny Pareda was 2-for-5.
The game: Mendoza doubled and scored on a Yordanys Linares single to put Lara on the board in the first inning. It was all Caracas from there. Rondon hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the first to make it 2-1. In the third, Ronny Cedeno hit a solo homer and Palma hit a two-run homer to make it 5-1. Romer Cuadrado singled home a run in the fifth, and another scored on a double play, increasing the lead to 7-1. In the eighth, a single and four walks brought home the final two runs.
WP: Lopez (1-0). LP: Daniel Alvarez (0-1). S: None.
Notes: Mendoza is batting .419. Gabriel Moreno was 1-for-3 and is batting .419. Cordero is batting 389.
Alvarez started but pitched just two innings, allowing four runs on six hits and a walk and striking out one.
Lara used six pitchers. Four of them have ERAs of nine or higher. The lowest of the six was Fabian Blanco, who is at 5.40.
Record: Lara is 6-4, in first place in the West Division by one game over Magallanes and Margarita.
Next game: Lara hosts Zulia tonight.
Batting stars: Jose Siri was 3-for-5 with two runs. Ronald Guzman was 3-for-5. Wilin Rosario was 1-for-2 with a home run.
Pitching stars: Oddy Nunez pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two hits. Marcos Molina pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk. Jose Valdez pitched a scoreless inning despite giving up two hits and a walk. He struck out one. Fernando Romero struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.
Opposition stars: Rangel Ravelo was 3-for-5 with two doubles. John Nogowski was 3-for-5 with two RBIs. Wilmer Difo was 3-for-5 with a triple. Melky Cabrera was 2-for-5 with a double. Juan Lagares was 2-for-6.
The game: The Gigantes scored in the first inning on two singles and a ground out. Aguilas tied it in the third when Difo tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly. They went into the lead to stay with a four-run fourth. Ravelo singled, Cabrera doubled, and Nogowski drove them both in with a single. Francisco Pena singled to score Nogowski, a Difo single and a hit batsman loaded the bases, and Johan Camargo walked to force in a run. It was 5-1 Aguilas through four.
Rosario homered in the fifth to cut it to 5-2. Later in the inning, Siri singled, went to third on Guzman's single, and scored on a double steal of second and home to make it 5-3. But Aguilas got the two runs back in the sixth when Victor Robles homered, Camargo singled, and Raelo had an RBI double.
It was 7-3 after six, and it was 7-3 after nine. The Gigantes loaded the bases with one out in the seventh, but a strikeout and a fly out ended the inning. They did not threaten to get back into the game again.
WP: Wendolyn Bautista (1-1). LP: Dustin Crenshaw (0-2). S: None.
Notes: Siri is batting .349. Guzman is batting .340. Kelvin Gutierrez was 1-for-4 and is batting .333. Luis Marte was 0-for-1 and is batting .308.
Dustin Crenshaw started and pitched 3.1 innings, allowing five runs on nine hits and no walks and striking out one. Joe Van Meter started for Aguilas and pitched 4.2 innings, giving up three runs on six hits and one walk and striking out seven.
Jesus Reyes, Nunez, Jose A. Valdez, and Romero all have ERAs of zero.
There were 28 hits in the game, 17 by Aguilas. The teams combined to strand 21, 13 of them by Aguilas.
Record: The Gigantes are 6-5, in third place, a half-game behind first place Este.
Next game: The Gigantes host Licey for a doubleheader today.
Date: Monday, June 16.
Batting stars: Matthew LeCroy was 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs. Doug Mientkiewicz was 3-for-5. Lew Ford was 2-for-2 with a three-run homer (his second), a double, a walk, and two runs. Corey Koskie was 2-for-5 with a double and two runs.
Pitching star: Micheal Nakamura pitched a perfect inning and struck out one.
Opposition stars: Carlos Beltran was 2-for-2 with a double, a stolen base (his seventeenth), three walks, and two runs. Mike Sweeney was 2-for-4 with a home run (his twelfth), a walk, two runs, and five RBIs. Angel Berroa was 2-for-4 with a double. Michael Tucker was 2-for-4 with a walk and two runs. Raul Ibanez was 2-for-5.
The game: It was all Royals early. Beltran's two-out RBI double put Kansas City up 1-0 in the first. It stayed 1-0 until the fourth, when Aaron Guiel hit a run-scoring single to make it 2-0.
Then the Royals really took control. Sweeney hit a three-run homer in the fifth to take the lead to 5-0. In the sixth a double and two walks loaded the bases, a ground out scored one, and Sweeney's two-run single made it 8-0 Kansas City.
Then the Twins mounted a comeback. With one out in the seventh, Ford's double, a Mientkiewicz single, and a walk to Dustan Mohr loaded the bases. A. J. Pierzynski singled to get the Twins on the board and a ground out made it 8-2. In the eighth an error, a Koskie single, and Ford's three-run homer cut the lead to 8-5. The Twins started the ninth with consecutive singles by Jacque Jones, Cristian Guzman, and Koskie to score one run and LeCroy doubled home to more to tie the score. The Twins had the go-ahead run on second with none out, but could not take the lead.
It cost them. Beltran walked to lead off the bottom of the ninth and went to second on a wild pitch. Ibanez then singled him home for the deciding run.
WP: Mike MacDougal (3-3). LP: Eddie Guardado (0-2). S: None.
Notes: Ford pinch-hit for Torii Hunter in the seventh, leading one to think Ron Gardenhire had probably given up on the game at that point. He stayed in the game in center field. Bobby Kielty pinch-hit for Luis Rivas in the seventh. Denny Hocking went to second in the eighth. Justin Morneau pinch-hit for Hocking in the eighth. He stayed in the game at first base, with Mientkiewicz moving to second. Tom Prince pinch-ran for LeCroy in the ninth, which probably tells you all you need to know about LeCroy's speed.
Ford raised his average to .500. Morneau was 0-for-1 and was batting .333. Jones was 1-for-5 and was batting .307. LeCroy was batting .305. Pierzynski was 1-for-4 and slipped back below .300 at .299.
Kyle Lohse started for the Twins. He did okay for four innings, but his line is five innings, five runs, eight hits, two walks, and three strikeouts. His ERA went up to a still good 3.23. Guardado gave up a run without retiring anyone, so his ERA went up to 2.83.
Nakamura had been on the team for nine games and had appeared in seven of them. The Twins already had "Everyday Eddie"--was he "'Most every day Micheal"?
This was actually the second time Prince had been used as a pinch-runner this season. The other time was on May 13, when he also ran for LeCroy. I could not quickly find if he had any other pinch-running appearances in his career.
While the Twins were a good team, one thing that is becoming clear as we go through these games is how much they benefited from playing in a weak division. I know it was commented on at the time, too, but the Twins' winning percentage would have put them in third place in four of the other five divisions.
Record: The Twins were 38-30, in first place in the American League Central, three games ahead of Kansas City.
Congratulations to the Loons in cementing themselves in the pantheon of Minnesota Sports Teams not named the Lynx!
Jack Rowe (1856)
Jimmy Austin (1879)
Sam Zoldak (1918)
Jim Pagliaroni (1937)
Brant Alyea (1940)
Ed Brinkman (1941)
Ken Roy (1941)
Masahiro Doi (1943)
Alan Foster (1946)
Jeff Grotewold (1965)
Mike Mussina (1968)
Garvin Alston (1971)
Reed Johnson (1976)
Vernon Wells (1978)
Josh Donaldson (1985)
Ken Roy was a minor league umpire for two years before becoming a Catholic priest. He said that his umpiring career helped him in ministry because it gave him more patience with people and made him a better listener.
Masahiro Doi was a fifteen-time all-star in the Japanese Pacific League, playing from 1962-1981.
We would also like to wish a happy birthday to AMR’s son, HPR.
