Leah Ottman passed away last week at the age of 33.
2015
(3 votes, average: 8.33 out of 10)
Loading... Denny Galehouse (1911)
Dick Donovan (1927)
Hal Smith (1930)
Don Cardwell (1935)
Bo Belinsky (1936)
Alex Johnson (1942)
Johnny Bench (1947)
Ozzie Virgil (1956)
Shane Mack (1963)
Tino Martinez (1967)
Eric Chavez (1977)
Saul Rivera (1977)
Yasiel Puig (1990)
Mark Payton (1991)
Pete Alonso (1994)
Mark Payton was drafted by the Twins in the thirty-first round in 2010 but did not sign.
Shorter recaps today. Lara did not play Sunday, so both these games are from Saturday.
Trailing 2-0, Lara scored three in the seventh to win it. Yonathan Mendoza's two-run single brought home the tying and go-ahead runs. Mendoza was 2-for-3. Ex-Twin Logan Darnell pitched five innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on five hits and one walk and striking out none.
Lara scored all six runs in the sixth inning after trailing 1-0 through five. Josmar Cordero had a three-run single-plus-error and Yonathan Mendoza hit a two-run homer. Cordero was 2-for-3. Alejandro Requena pitched three shutout innings, giving up one hit and no walks and striking out one.
Record: Lara is 6-3, in first place in the West Division, one game ahead of Margarita.
Next game: Lara is at Caracas tonight.
Shorter recaps today.
Saturday
The Gigantes scored two in the ninth to break a 1-1 tie. Steven Souza had an RBI single to break the tie and Carlos Peguero doubled home an insurance run. Richard Urena was 2-for-3 with a home run. Richelson Pena pitched 5.1 innings, giving up one run on five hits and no walks and striking out one.
Sunday
The Gigantes scored three in the first and two in the second to take a 5-1 lead. Ronald Guzman had a home run in the first to put the Gigantes in front, then hit a two-run homer in the second. It was essentially a bullpen game for the Gigantes, as they used seven pitchers. Rogelio Armenteros pitched the longest, 2.1 innings, and gave up the only run.
Record: The Gigantes are 6-4, in first place by percentage points over the Toros del Este. The Toros have played sixteen games compared to ten for the Gigantes.
Next game: The Gigantes host Aguilas tonight.
Shorter recaps today.
Saturday
The lone run came in the second inning on a Carlos Munoz homer, his fourth. Francisco Rios struck out five in five shutout innings, giving up five hits and four walks. Four relievers each pitched a scoreless inning. Jalisco stranded eight and was 0-for-12 with men in scoring position. Mazatlan stranded two and did not have an at-bat with a man in scoring position.
Sunday
Mazatlan trailed 2-1 after six, but scored four in the seventh and two in the eighth. Jose Augusto Figueroa, who has all the vowels in his last name, hit a two-run double in the seventh to put Mazatlan in the lead to stay. Figueroa was 3-for-4 with two doubles and a triple, scoring three times. Matt Gage pitched 5.1 innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on two hits and five walks and striking out five.
Record: Mazatlan is 18-19, in seventh place, six games behind Obregon. They are two games out of sixth.
Next game: Mazatlan is off today. They go to Monterrey on Tuesday.
I'm thinking we're also a pass on holiday travel. We'd need at least two stops in Wisconsin (both ways), and that's a bridge too far to travel.
Date: Sunday, June 15.
Batting stars: Corey Koskie was 3-for-3 with a double, a walk, three runs, and two RBIs. A. J. Pierzynski was 3-for-4 with three RBIs. Jacque Jones was 2-for-5 with a double. Cristian Guzman was 2-for-5.
Pitching star: J. C. Romero pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk.
Opposition stars: Tony Womack was 4-for-6 with a double, a stolen base (his seventh), and two RBIs. Robby Hammock was 3-for-5 with a home run (his second), a double, two runs, and three RBIs. Alex Cintron was 3-for-5 with two runs. Rod Barajas was 2-for-4. Carlos Baerga was 2-for-5 with two RBIs.
The game: Baerga's two-out RBI single gave the Diamondbacks a 1-0 lead in the first. The Twins tied it on the second on Pierzynski's RBI single. In the third, Arizona loaded the bases with two out and then got back-to-back two-run doubles from Lyle Overbay and Hammock to take a 5-1 lead.
The Twins got one back in the third, but they still trailed 5-2 until the fifth. In that inning, the Twins loaded the bases with two out and all three scored on a single-plus-error by Pierzynski to tie it 5-5. The tie lasted until the next half-inning, when Womack's two-run double put the Diamondbacks back in front 7-5.
The Twins again came back, scoring two in the sixth to tie it 7-7. In the eighth, however, Arizona scored four times to put it out of reach. Cintron had an RBI single, Luis Gonzalez hit a sacrifice fly, and Baerga had a two-run single-plus-error to give the Diamondbacks an 11-7 lead. The Twins got one back in the bottom of the eighth, but Hammock homered in the ninth to round out the scoring.
WP: Mike Koplove (3-0). LP: LaTroy Hawkins (4-2). S: None.
Notes: Bobby Kielty was in right field. Justin Morneau was again the DH. The Twins did not make any in-game lineup substitutions.
Morneau was 1-for-5 and was batting .350. Jones raised his average to .309. Pierzynski climbed up to .300 with his 3-for-4 day.
Brad Radke's struggles continued. He pitched 5.1 innings, allowing seven runs on nine hits and two walks and striking out two. His ERA climbed to 6.00. Hawkins allowed four runs in two-thirds of an inning, but all were unearned, so his ERA went down to 2.23.
There were twenty runs scored in the game but there was just one home run, and that was a solo shot in the ninth inning.
Arizona players with Twins connections were Chad Moeller and Quinton McCracken.
Elmer Dessens started for Arizona. He pitched 4.2 innings, allowing five runs (four earned) on ten hits and three walks and struck out three. He is the only major league player named "Elmer" since ex-Twin Elmer Valo retired in 1961.
I hadn't thought about Mike Koplove in a very long time, but he was a fine reliever for three seasons. 2003 was the last and best of those seasons: he went 3-0, 2.15, 1.09 WHIP. But he would be injured just a few days after this game and miss the rest of the season. He had surgery for a frayed labrum and rotator cuff. He came back to appear in 76 games (!) for the Diamondbacks in 2004, but had an ERA of 4.05 and a WHIP of 1.42. He had a worse year in 2005, then made only seven more major league appearances from 2006-2007. He continued to pitch in the minors and in independent ball through 2011, and actually had a really good AAA year in 2009, but he did not get a call back to the majors. We'll never know what might have happened otherwise, but using him in almost every other game when he was coming off surgery doesn't seem like it was a very good idea. At last report, Mike Koplove was a scout for the Phillies.
Record: The Twins were 38-29, in first place in the American League Central, four games ahead of Kansas City.
These guys just put out a live album too...don't think this one is on it though
(1 votes, average: 6.00 out of 10)Loading... Congratulations to JAXA and the safe retrieval of Hayabusa2's payload.
Date: Saturday, June 14.
Batting stars: Corey Koskie was 2-for-3 with two walks. Cristian Guzman was 2-for-5.
Pitching star: Juan Rincon struck out four in 3.1 scoreless innings of relief, giving up two hits and no walks.
Opposition stars: Miguel Batista struck out seven in six innings, giving up an unearned run on four hits and three walks. Alex Cintron was 3-for-4 with two doubles, a walk, and three runs. Luis Gonzalez was 3-for-5 with a double and four RBIs. Carlos Baerga was 2-for-4 with two doubles, two runs, and two RBIs. Rod Barajas was 2-for-4 with two doubles and three RBIs.
The game: Cintron hit a one-out double and scored on Gonzalez' two-out single to put the Diamondbacks on the board in the first inning. The Twins had a pair of singles in the bottom of the first but did not score. Back-to-back doubles by Baerga and Barajas made it 2-0 in the second. The Twins again put two on in the bottom of the second but did not score.
Arizona broke it open in the fifth. Tony Womack singled, Cintron walked, and Junior Spivey was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Gonzalez doubled in two runs. An intentional walk to Mark Grace re-loaded the bases. A force out at home made two outs, but back-to-back ground-rule doubles by Baerga and Barajas brought in four more runs, making the score 8-0 Diamondbacks.
The Twins got on the board in the sixth. Koskie singled and an error put men on first and third with none out, but Torii Hunter's RBI ground out produced the only run of the inning. In the seventh, consecutive one-out singles by Luis Rivas, Lew Ford, and Guzman produced another run. Koskie walked to load the bases, but Justin Morneau grounded into a double play to end the inning.
Arizona added a run in the ninth on a double by Cintron and a single by Gonzalez.
WP: Batista (4-3). LP: Joe Mays (7-4). S: None.
Notes: Matthew LeCroy was behind the plate in place of A. J. Pierzynski. Morneau was the DH.
Ford replaced Jacque Jones in left field in the sixth inning. Tom Prince pinch-hit for Doug Mientkiewicz in the sixth and stayed in the game behind the plate, with LeCroy moving to first base.
Morneau was 0-for-4 and was batting .400. Jones was 0-for-3 and was batting .307.
Mays started for the Twins and pitched 4.2 innings. As you can see, he didn't do badly for the first four, but his line was eight runs, eight hits, two walks, and four strikeouts.
Guzman had two hits in each of the last four games. He was 8-for-19 with a triple. He raised his average from .255 to .268.
The Twins stranded 10 and were 1-for-9 with men in scoring position.
I remember Batista, but I'd forgotten he was around so long. He played in eighteen seasons, playing until he was 41. 2003 was right about in the middle of his career. He never had a season in which he didn't have at least one relief appearance, but he was primarily a starter through 2008 with the exception of 2005, when he made 71 appearances out of the bullpen for Toronto. 2003 was probably his best season: he was 10-9, 3.54, 1.33 WHIP. He was never great, but with a few exceptions he was never really bad, either. For his career he was 102-115, 4.48, with an ERA+ of 100. He appeared in 658 games, 248 of them starts. He pitched 1956.1 innings. Control, or rather a lack of it, contributed to keeping him from being better: he walked 4.1 per nine innings and the only things he ever led the league in were walks (96 in 2004) and wild pitches (14 in 2006). A guy who can be counted on to be average has value, and that value kept Miguel Batista in the majors for quite a long time.
Record: The Twins were 38-28, in first place in the American League Central, five games ahead of Kansas City.
