Happy Birthday–January 28

George Wright (1847)
Ducky Holmes (1869)
Bill Doak (1891)
Lyn Lary (1906)
Bob Muncrief (1916)
Pete Runnels (1928)
Bill White (1934)
Fredi Gonzalez (1964)
Kevin Tolar (1971)
Jermaine Dye (1974)
Magglio Ordonez (1974)
Lyle Overbay (1977)

Fredi Gonzalez managed the Florida Marlins from 2007-2010 and managed the Atlanta Braves from 2011-2016.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 28

Winter Wonderland: Games of January 26

LARA

ANZOATEGUI 8, LARA 7 AT ANZOATEGUI (10 INNINGS)

Lara had leads of 3-0 and 6-5.  Anzoategui had leads of 4-3, 5-4, and 7-6.  In other words, it was what they call a see-saw game.  Gorkys Hernandez had an RBI single in the ninth to tie it 7-7.  In the tenth, however, Cristhian Pedroza scored from first on a single to right by Niuman Romero to win it for Anzoategui.  It was actually a ground ball down the right field line that should have been a double, but Romero was apparently so confident that Pedroza would score that he stopped at first base.  At any rate, it won the game and the series for Anzoategui.

For Lara, Osman Marval was 2-for-4 with a double and two walks.  Ildemaro Vargas was 2-for-5 with a double, a walk, and two runs.  Hernandez was 2-for-5.  Carlos Rivero was 1-for-6 with a three-run homer.  Nestor Molina started put pitched just 2.2 innings.  He allowed four runs on six hits and a walk and struck out none.

Record:  Lara loses the Venezuelan League Championship series 0-4.

MELBOURNE

No game scheduled.  Melbourne is scheduled to play at Brisbane this afternoon.  Melbourne is 13-7, in first place in the Australian League, 1.5 games ahead of Perth.

2003 Rewind: Game One Hundred Eighteen

MINNESOTA 5, CLEVELAND 3 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Monday, August 11.

Batting stars:  Dustan Mohr was 3-for-4 with two doubles and a stolen base, his fourth.  Luis Rivas was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his fourth.

Pitching stars:  Kyle Lohse pitched eight innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and two walks and striking out four.  LaTroy Hawkins pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Jody Gerut was 3-for-4 with a double.  Terry Mulholland struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up two hits.

The game:  The Twins opened the scoring in the third inning.  Mohr led off with a double and Cristian Guzman followed with an RBI single.  Rivas then hit a one-out two-run homer to make it 3-0 Twins.  The Indians got one back in the fourth on two singles and a doubleplay grounder, cutting the lead to 3-1.

It stayed 3-1 until the sixth.  Torii Hunter was hit by a pitch with two out and scored on A. J. Pierzynski's double.  Mohr followed with a run-scoring single to make it 5-1 Minnesota.

There was no more scoring until the ninth.  Gerut and Ben Broussard opened the inning with back-to-back doubles.  Ryan Ludwick singled, bringing the tying run to the plate in the dangerous Travis Hafner.  But Hawkins got him to hit into a double play, bringing home a run but emptying the bases.  Josh Bard then struck out to end the game.

WP:  Lohse (9-9).  LP:  Jake Westbrook (5-7).  S:  Hawkins (1).

Notes:  Stewart was in left, Mohr in right, and Jones at DH.  Michael Restovich pinch-ran for Jones in the eighth.

Stewart was 0-for-3 and was batting .316.  Jones was 1-for-3 and was batting .305.  Corey Koskie was 1-for-4 and was batting .303.  Pierzynski was 1-for-4 and was batting .301.

Lohse got his ERA back below five at 4.97.

Hawkins lowered his ERA to 2.33.  I don't know why Ron Gardenhire went with Hawkins rather than Eddie Guardado.  Guardado had pitched the day before, but had thrown just fifteen pitches.  He had not pitched the day before that, and after all, he was "Everyday Eddie".  This was one of two saves Hawkins had for the season.

Westbrook pitched six innings, but allowed five runs on eight hits and a walk and struck out three.  His ERA was 4.77.

The Twins had won four games in a row and were in striking distance of second place.

Record:  The Twins were 61-57, in third place in the American League Central, 2.5 games behind Kansas City.  They were one game behind second-place Chicago.

Happy Birthday–January 27

Andy Lotshaw (1880)
Milt Gaston (1896)
Bibb Falk (1899)
Fred Heimach (1901)
John Lowenstein (1947)
Tom Trebelhorn (1948)
Eric Wedge (1968)
Phil Plantier (1969)
Angel Berroa (1980)
Gavin Floyd (1983)
Julio Teheran (1991)

Andy Lotshaw had a thirteen-year minor league career as an outfielder/first baseman, leading his league in triples four times and in home runs five times.  He also played professional basketball.  He then became the trainer for the Chicago Cubs from 1922-1952.

Tom Trebelhorn managed the Milwaukee Brewers from 1986-1991 and the Chicago Cubs in 1994.

There do not appear to be any players with connections to the Minnesota Twins born on this day.

Weekly Wild Whangdoodle: Week 3

This week's schedule:

Four home games this week, the Wild get another look at the Kings and then start a stretch of four in a row against the Avalanche.

Both of these teams are currently at .500 (Kings are 2-2-2, Avs are 3-3-0). That's surprising in both cases, although for different reasons.

Last week's results:

MIN 0 - ANA 1 - Highlights

The power play is bad (0 for 5 on this night, 0 for the season through three games). The Wild actually had the better control of play, but couldn't solve Gibson. Cam Talbot played a pretty good game in goal. Losing 1-0 is just so annoying. The team shooting percentage went from 11% (highest in the West) before the game to 7.7% (middle of the pack) after.

MIN 3 - ANA 2 - Highlights

The Wild were cruising, up 2-0, outshooting Anaheim 24-7 and then they just kind of lost it at the end of the second period and allowed the Ducks to tie the game. Then Kaprizov to Greenway to Eriksson Ek about 90 seconds into the third period and the Wild had their third win of the season.  And they got a power play goal! Their power play was now 1 for 20 (5%) on the season. Infinitely better than 0%, but still not great. On the other side the penalty kill was 12 for 13 on the year and added a short handed goal in this one.

MIN 4 - SJ 1 - Highlights

Hey! A game with a goal differential greater than one! Thanks to two empty net goals by the Wild, but at least Parise and Fiala got their first goals of the year here.

MIN 3 - SJ 5 - Highlights

WW

===================================================

Two splits with two not great teams is not ideal, and this week will be a bit more of a test.  We're over 10% of the way through the season, and now the Wild get to play some more of the top end of the division.  Series splits with Colorado / Vegas will feel a lot better.

TEAM CORSI% FEN% xGF/60xGA/60Sh%Sv%
Wild51.852.22.41.87.5%92.6%

Overall stats look OK - CORSI and Fenwick are above 50%, so the Wild are carrying the play at 5 on 5 versus their opponents. Their shooting percentage is a little low, and their save percentage is high.

Special teams is going to be the thing, I think. If the power play starts going well and they keep this up at 5 on 5, they'll do very well.

The Kirill Kaprizov Corner

Is he more of a playmaker than a goal-scorer? That could be interesting.

Players not Named Kirill

  • Eriksson Ek and Greenway are having a really good start to the season paired together on the third line. I really hope both of them continue to be productive
  • Cam Talbot - great game against Anaheim (the 1-0 loss) and then an injury.
  • Kappo Kahkonen - Seen more minutes right away in the season, seems to be OK as far as I can tell. Metrics through 2+ games seem to say he's a tick above average, so ... that's something.
Shots AgainstGoals AgainstFenwick AgainstSV%FenwickSV%Reb per 100SV
Talbot1068140.925.9454.2
Expected8.5.921.9393.7
Kahkonen766114.921.9462.0
Expected5.4.921.9533.4
  • Fiala and Parise both scored goals last week - empty net goals totally count - and it's nice to see them get some points. The Wild will need both of them to score as the competition gets better.

Leaderboards

PlayerGPlayerAPlayerPts
Eriksson Ek3Kaprizov5Kaprizov6
Dumba2Suter5Suter5
Parise2Greenway4Eriksson Ek5
Fiala2Eriksson Ek2Greenway5
9 players tied1Pateryn2Parise / Dumba3

2003 Rewind: Game One Hundred Seventeen

MINNESOTA 4, DETROIT 3 IN DETROIT

Date:  Sunday, August 10.

Batting stars:  Shannon Stewart was 2-for-5 with a stolen base, his third.  Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-5.

Pitching stars:  Kenny Rogers struck out seven in seven innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk.  J. C. Romero pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a walk.  Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit.

Opposition stars:  Craig Monroe was 2-for-4 with a home run, his thirteenth.  Matt Walbeck was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer.  Nate Cornejo pitched a complete game, giving up four runs on nine hits and three walks and striking out three.  He threw 124 pitches.

The game:  The Twins got all of their runs in the first inning, and it was (barely) enough.  Stewart led off the game with a single, Denny Hocking walked, and Mientkiewicz had a bunt single, loading the bases with none out.  Corey Koskie then hit a two-run double.  The next two batters went out, but Dustan Mohr hit a two-run single to make it 4-0 Minnesota.

Rogers was in control for the first four innings, giving up just a few harmless singles.  But in the fifth Eric Munson singled and Walbeck hit a two-run homer, cutting the lead to 4-2.  Monroe homered in the sixth, making it 4-3.

But that was it.  The Tigers did not get a man past first after that, and the Twins held on for the victory.

WP:  Rogers (9-6).  LP:  Cornejo (5-11).  S:  Guardado (27).

Notes:  Chris Gomez was at second base in place of Luis Rivas.  Hocking was at short in place of Cristian Guzman.  Stewart was in left, Mohr in right, and Jacque Jones at DH.

Stewart was batting .319.  Jones was 0-for-4 and dropped to .305.  Koskie was 1-for-3 and was at .303.  A. J. Pierzynski was 0-for-3 and was batting .301.  Mientkiewicz raised his average back up to .300.

Rogers got his ERA back below five at 4.97.

I'd forgotten that the Twins had Jones at DH that much after trading for Stewart.

I wonder what the record is for most runs scored in the first inning in a game where you didn't score after the first inning.  I'm pretty sure it's more than four, but I wonder what it is.

This was one of two complete games Cornejo pitched in 2003.  Both were losses.  This was the only season he was a rotation starter for the full season.  He went 6-17, 4.67, 1.51 WHIP.  Both the ERA and the WHIP were the best he ever had in the major leagues.  For his career he was 12-29, 5.41, 1.66 WHIP in 313 innings.  He appeard in 56 games, all starts.

The Twins had won three in a row, giving hope that they had left the .500 mark behind for good.  Now, could they make up ground on the division leaders?

Record:  The Twins were 60-57, in third place in the American League Central, 2.5 games behind Kansas City.  They were two games behind second-place Chicago.

Happy Birthday–January 26

Francis Richter (1854)
Kaiser Wilhelm (1877)
Tubby Spencer (1884)
George Blaeholder (1904)
Charlie Gelbert (1906)
Bob Nieman (1927)
Ray Knoblauch (1928)
Bob Uecker (1934) 
Mike Pazik (1950)

Rick Schu (1962)
Jeff Branson (1967)
Esteban German (1978)
Andres Torres (1978) 
Ryan Rowland-Smith (1983)

Francis Richter was the editor of two  influential early baseball publications, the Sporting Life and the Reach Guide.

The father of Chuck Knoblauch, Ray Knoblauch pitched in the minors from 1948-1957, going 54-51.

We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to Daneeka's Ghost.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 26