Monthly Archives: January 2021

Keeping Track

Winter Wonderland: Game of January 28

MELBOURNE 10, BRISBANE 8 AT BRISBANE

Brisbane had leads of 2-0, 7-3, and 8-7.  Melbourne had leads of 3-2 and 9-8.  All that happened in the first four innings.  There was only one run scored after that, an insurance run for Melbourne in the ninth.  Chris Burke was 3-for-4 with a home run (his third), a walk, three runs, and four RBIs.  Blake Gailen was 2-for-5 with a home run (his fifth) and two RBIs.  Ex-Twin Delmon Young was 2-for-6 with a two-run homer, his third.  Starter Tyler Beardsley lasted just three innings, allowing eight runs on seven hits and five walks and striking out four.

Stats:  Young is batting .418.  Colin Willis was 1-for-3 and is batting .343.  Damek Tomscha was 1-for-5 and is batting .321.  Darryl George was 1-for-6 and is batting .309.  Jon Kennedy pitched three shutout innings and has an ERA of 1.65.  Josh Tols pitched a scoreless inning and has an ERA of 2.31.  Drew Anderson struck out five in two shutout innings and has an ERA of zero.

Record:  Melbourne is 15-7, in first place in the Australian League, 2.5 games ahead of Perth.

Next game:  Melbourne is at Brisbane this afternoon.

Friday Music Day

FMD 01.29.2021: The List

3 Comments

Hey, here's the guest DJ schedule. Finally...

freealonzo 2/1-2/7
nibbish 2/22-2/28
Pepper 3/22-3/28
eschapp 4/12-4/18
New Britain Bo 5/10-5/16
Twayn 6/14-6/20
Zee German 7/12-7/18
MagUidhir 8/9-8/15
Daneekas Ghost 9/13-9/19
Philosofer 10/11-10-17
CarterHayes 11/15-11/21

11 spots and 11 volunteers, so no tricky business this year.

Duder20112012201320142015201620172018201920202021
Algonad-X----X--X-
AMRXX-X-X--X--
BeauX--X--X-XX-
bjhess----X------
brianS-X-----X---
Can of CornX-X--X--X--
CarterHayes-X---X-X-XX
cheaptoyX-X-X------
Daneeka's GhostX--XX--X-XX
davidwatts--X--XX-XX-
DKXX-X-X-----
E-6-X--X--X---
freealonzoX-X--XX-X-X
FT'hm'LT--X--------
GreekHouse---X-------
Jeff A--X---X----
MagUidhirX-X-X-X--XX
meat------X-X--
MelissaDiamondPhillips-------X---
New Britain Bo-X-X-X-X--X
nibbish-X-X-XX-XXX
Pepper----XXX-X-X
Philosofer--X-X-X-XXX
punmanbowler---X-------
Rhubarb_RunnerXX-X-X-X-X-
Rowsdower--X----X---
Sheenie--X--------
spookymilk-X-X-X-X---
The Dread Pirate-X-X----X--
TwaynX-X-X--X-XX
Yickit----X-----X
ZackX-X-X-X--X-
Zee German-------XX-X

And hey, drop a list of your own, yeah?

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game One Hundred Twenty

CLEVELAND 5, MINNESOTA 0 IN MINNESOTA (14 INNINGS)

Date:  Wednesday, August 13.

Batting star:  Jacque Jones was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Johan Santana struck out eight in eight shutout innings, giving up four hits and a walk.  LaTroy Hawkins struck out four in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.  Eddie Guardado pitched two perfect innings, striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Jason Davis struck out six in six shutout innings, giving up two hits and two walks.  Rafael Betancourt struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk.  Terry Mulholland pitched four shutout innings, giving up two hits and striking out two.  Ben Broussard was 3-for-5 with a double and a stolen base, his fourth.  Jhonny Peralta was 2-for-5 with a walk and a stolen base.  Jody Gerut was 2-for-6.

The game:  This is what you would call a pitchers' duel.  Neither team even put two men on base until the seventh, when the Twins got two-out singles from Jones and Torii Hunter.  Neither team got a man to third until the eighth, when Michael Ryan doubled and went to third when Cristian Guzman reached on an error.  That was the closest the Twins came to scoring:  they had men on first and third with none out.  But Shannon Stewart grounded out, Luis Rivas hit into a fielder's choice with Ryan thrown out at the plate, and Corey Koskie grounded out.

It remained scoreless until the fourteenth, when it all fell apart for the Twins.  Juan Rincon was in his second inning of work.  He gave up consecutive singles to Casey Blake, Gerut, and Ryan Ludwick, with the last one bringing home the first run of the game.  J. C. Romero came in.  A bunt moved the runners up, Tim Laker was intentionally walked, Travis Hafner was hit by a pitch to bring in a run, Peralta singled home two, and a ground out brought home the fifth run.  The Twins got a leadoff walk in the bottom of the fourteenth, but that was all.

WP:  Mulholland (2-2).  LP:  Rincon (3-5).  S:  None.

Notes:  Stewart was again in left, with Dustan Mohr in right and Jones at DH.  Ryan pinch-hit for Mohr in the eighth, with MIchael Restovich going to right field.  Denny Hocking pinch-ran for Jones in the ninth.

Ryan had his second consecutive pinch-hit hit and was batting 1.000.  Stewart was 1-for-6 and was batting .317.  Jones was batting .307.  Koskie was 1-for-5 and was batting .301.

Santana lowered his ERA to 2.96.  His game score of 81 was his best of the season.  He now had back-to-back eight-inning starts without giving up an earned run.  It's almost like they should've put him in the rotation sooner or something.

Hawkins lowered his ERA to 2.25.

By games scores, this was tied for Jason Davis' best game of the season.  He equaled his score of 72 of June 18, when he allowed one run in a complete game against Detroit.  For the season, he would go 8-11, 4.68, 1.33 WHIP.  It was the best season of his career, although he did have a decent year pitching out of the bullpen for the Indians in 2006.  For his career, he was 22-26, 4.82, 1.52 WHIP in 461 innings.  He appeared in 144 games, 56 of them starts.

After winning four in a row, the Twins had now dropped two straight and were falling back toward .500.

Record:  The Twins were 61-59, in third place in the American League Central, 3.5 games behind Kansas City.  They were two games behind second-place Chicago.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–January 29

Ray Hayworth (1904)
Pancho Coimbre (1909)
Bill Rigney (1918)
Hank Edwards (1919)
Frank Gravino (1923)
Bobby Bolin (1939)
Sergio Ferrer (1951)
Steve Sax (1960)
Mike Aldrete (1961)
John Habyan (1964)
Jason Schmidt (1973)
Alex Avila (1987)

Pancho Coimbre was a star in the Caribbean Leagues and the Negro leagues in the 1940s.  Roberto Clemente said that Coimbre was a better player than Clemente was.  Coimbre played two full seasons in the Puerto Rican League in which he did not strike out.

Frank Gravino played in the minors from 1940-1942 and 1946-1954.  He has been called the greatest slugger in Northern League history, hitting 108 home runs in two seasons there.

We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to Beau's son.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 29 →

Keeping Track

Winter Wonderland: Game of January 27

MELBOURNE 9, BRISBANE 2 AT BRISBANE

Melbourne scored two in the first and five in the second to take control early.  Ex-Twin Delmon Young hit a grand slam in the second inning.  Young was 3-for-5 and the home run was his second.  Colin Willis was 3-for-5 with a home run, a double, three runs, and two RBIs.  Darryl George was 3-for-5 with two RBIs.  Damek Tomscha was 2-for-5 with two doubles.  Brian Flynn pitched six innings, giving up one run on two hits and three walks and striking out three.

Stats:  Young is batting .425.  Willis is batting .344.  Tomscha is batting .329.  George is batting .318.  Jack Barrie was 1-for-5 and is batting .304.  Flynn has an ERA of 1.69.  Jeremy Young gave up a run in three innings and has an ERA of 1.00.

Record:  Melbourne is 14-7, in first place in the Australian League, two games ahead of Adelaide.

Next game:  Melbourne is at Brisbane this afternoon.

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game One Hundred Nineteen

CLEVELAND 9, MINNESOTA 6 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, August 12.

Batting stars:  Shannon Stewart was 3-for-5 with a double.  Matthew LeCroy was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his eleventh.

Pitching stars:  None.

Opposition stars:  Travis Hafner was 3-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs.  Ryan Ludwick was 2-for-4 with two home runs (his eighth and ninth), a walk, three runs, and three RBIs.  Jody Gerut was 2-for-4 with a walk.  Jhonny Peralta was 2-for-4.  Casey Blake was 2-for-5 with a home run, his thirteenth.  Ben Broussard was 2-for-5 with a double.  Angel Santos was 1-for-4 with a home run, his third.  Rafael Betancourt struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.

The game:  Hafner hit a two-run double in the second to put the Indians up 2-0.  The Twins tied it in the third on a two-run strikeout.  With men on second and third, Doug Mientkiewicz struck out.  The ball was not held, and on the throw to first Cristian Guzman scored from third.  The throw from the first baseman was wild, allowing Stewart to score from second and tie it up 2-2.

Cleveland got the lead back in the fourth on Peralta's RBI single.  The Twins took their first and only lead of the game in the fifth when LeCroy hit a two-out two-run homer to put MInnesota up 4-3.

The Indians tied it in the sixth when Ludwick homered.  They went into the lead to stay in the seventh.  Santos led off with a homer, Blake hit a one-out homer, and Ludwick hit a two-out, two-run homer to make it 8-4 Cleveland.

That was pretty much it.  Each team scored in the ninth.  The Indians got an RBI single by Broussard and the Twins got a two-run single by Mientkiewicz.  The Twins had the tying run up to bat with one out, but Corey Koskie fouled out and A. J. Pierzynski fanned to end the game.

WP:  Betancourt (2-1).  LP:  James Baldwin (0-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  LeCroy was behind the plate in place of Pierzynski.  Pierzynski pinch-hit for him in the ninth.  Stewart was in left, Dustan Mohr in right, and Michael Restovich at DH.

Michael Ryan pinch-hit for Guzman in the ninth.  Jacque Jones pinch-hit for Luis Rivas in the ninth.  Chris Gomez pinch-ran for Jones in the ninth.

This was Ryan's first game with the Twins in 2003.  He had played seven games in the majors in 2002.

Ryan was 1-for-1 and was batting 1.000.  Stewart was batting .320.  Restovich was 1-for-3 and was batting .314.  Jones did not have an official at-bat and was batting .305.  Koskie was 1-for-4 and was batting .302.  Pierzynski was 0-for-1 and was batting .300.

Joe Mays started.  He pitched five innings, giving up three runs on eight hits and a walk and striking out three.  His ERA went down to 6.38.

Billy Traber started for Cleveland.  He pitched three innings, giving up two runs on five hits and a walk and striking out three.  This was his rookie season, and the only season in which he pitched more than fifty innings.  He threw 111.2 innings and went 6-9, 5.24, 1.54 WHIP.  He was in 33 games, 18 of them starts.  He had started the season in the bullpen but went into the rotation in early June.  He did substantially better as a reliever:  2-1, 3.52 versus 4-8, 5.68 as a starter.  He then was injured and didn't make it back to the majors until 2006, with Washington.  For his career he was 12-14, 5.65, 1.59 WHIP.

Record:  The Twins were 61-58, in third place in the American League Central, 2.5 games behind Kansas City.  They were two games behind second-place Chicago.