Monthly Archives: January 2021

Keeping Track

Winter Wonderland: Games of January 18

GIGANTES

AGUILAS 7, GIGANTES 4 AT GIGANTES

The Aguilas scored five runs in the seventh to break a 2-2 tie.  Luis Juarez homered to break the tie and Jonathan Villar contributed a two-run double.  For the Gigantes, Abiatal Avelino was 2-for-2 with a triple and two walks, scoring twice.  Kelvin Gutierrez was 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs.  Jose Siri was 2-for-5 with a double.  Chris Ellis pitched six innings, giving up two runs on two hits and a walk and striking out two.

Record:  The Gigantes lose the Dominican League Championship series to the Aguilas, three games to four.

LARA

ARAGUA 6, LARA 4 AT ARAGUA

Aragua scored three in the first and three in the seventh to build a 6-1 lead.  Lara got the tying run to the plate in the ninth, but no more.  For Lara, Gorkys Hernandez was 2-for-4 and Ildemaro Vargas was 2-for-5 with a double.  Ex-Twin Rene Reyes was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer.  Henry Centeno started but pitched just 1.2 innings, allowing three runs on five hits and three walks and striking out two.

Record:  Lara leads the best-of-seven series three games to two.

Next game:  Lara hosts Aragua tonight.

MAYAGUEZ

MAYAGUEZ 20, MANATI 7 AT MANATI

After scoring thirty runs Sunday, Mayaguez slacked off to just twenty on Monday.  It was 3-2 after two and 9-7 after five, but Mayaguez then scored eight in the sixth and single runs in each of the last three innings.  Ex-Twin Kennys Vargas was 5-for-6 with a home run, a double, three runs, and five RBIs.  Emmanuel Rivera was 4-for-7 with two home runs and three runs.  Jeremy Rivera was 4-for-5 with a home run, a triple, two runs, and four RBIs.  David Vidal was 2-for-5 with a home run and three runs.  Christian Colon was 2-for-5 with two doubles, a walk, two runs, and three RBIs.  Xavier Fernandez was 2-for-5 with a walk and two runs.  Ivan De Jesus was 2-for-7 with a three-run homer and a double.  Luis Medina started and pitched 3.1 innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on eight hits and no walks and striking out two.  Yadier Molina, who was the DH for Manati, pitched the last inning for them.

Record:  Mayaguez leads the best-of-seven series 3-0.

Next game:  The schedule shows that Mayaguez and Manati will play a doubleheader today.  The second game, of course, is "if necessary".

MELBOURNE

No game scheduled.  Their next game is Thursday afternoon, when they host Brisbane.  Melbourne is 11-5, in first place in the Australian League, one game ahead of Adelaide.

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game One Hundred Ten

MINNESOTA 7, DETROIT 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Sunday, August 3.

Batting stars:  Luis Rivas was 3-for-5 with a triple and a stolen base, his eleventh.  Shannon Stewart was 2-for-4 with a home run (his tenth), a walk, and two runs.  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his thirteenth.  Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-5.

Pitching stars:  Johan Santana struck out seven in six innings, giving up two runs on five hits and three walks.  J. C. Romero struck out three in 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk.  Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Warren Morris was 2-for-3 with a walk.  Craig Monroe was 2-for-3 with a walk.  Bobby Higginson was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his seventh.

The game:  The Tigers put men on first and second with two out in the first but did not score.  In the bottom of the first Stewart walked, Rivas tripled, and Mientkiewicz singled, giving the Twins a 2-0 lead.  Stewart homered in the second to make it 3-0.  In the third Torii Hunter and A. J. Pierzynski singled and Michael Restovich walked, loading the bases with none out.  A double play scored one run and Guzman singled home another, increasing the lead to 5-0.

Detroit got a leadoff double from Ben Petrick in the fifth but could do nothing with it.  They finally got on the board in the sixth when Morris singled and Higginson hit a two-run homer.  But that was as good as it got for the Tigers.  The Twins got the two runs back in the seventh.  Mientkiewicz and Jacque Jones singled and Restovich walked, loading the bases with two out.  Chris Gomez then doubled home two runs to make the score 7-2.  Detroit got men to second and third with two out in the eighth, but the score remained 7-2.

WP:  Santana (5-3).  LP:  Matt Roney (1-7).  S:  None.

Notes:  Gomez was again at third in the absence of Corey Koskie.  Stewart was in left, Restovich in right, and Jones at DH.

Restovich was 0-for-1 with three walks and was batting .381.  Stewart was batting .319.  Jones was 1-for-3 and was batting .309.  Pierzynski was 1-for-4 and was batting .304.

LaTroy Hawkins pitched two-thirds of an inning and was not scored on, making his ERA 2.50.

Roney was the Tigers starter.  He lasted just two innings and allowed five runs on six hits and four walks and struck out three.  He would finish the year 1-9, 5.45, 1.49 WHIP.  He would make just three major league appearances after the 2003 season, and those were with Oakland in 2006.

The Twins once again got back to .500.  Could they finally get back over the hump?  They would make the attempt in Baltimore.

Record:  The Twins were 55-55, in third place in the American League Central, 4.5 games behind Kansas City.  They were 2.5 games behind second-place Chicago.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–January 19

Chick Gandil (1888)
Lee Head (1899)
Rip Radcliff (1906)
Chet Trail (1944)
Jon Matlack (1950)
Rich Gale (1954)
Brad Mills (1957)
Rick Adair (1958)
Chris Sabo (1962)
Jim Morris (1964)
Orlando Palmeiro (1969)
Jeff Juden (1971)
Phil Nevin (1971)
Chris Stynes (1973)
Amaury Telemaco (1974)
Byung-Hyun Kim (1979)
James Beresford (1989)
Nick Burdi (1993)

Lee Head played in the minors for twenty-one seasons.  He batted .304, but he was best known for his ability to avoid striking out.  In 1933 he struck out three times in 468 at-bats.  In 1935 he did even better, striking out once in 402 at-bats.

Chet Trail is the only player to have been on a World Series roster who never appeared in a major league game, regular season or post-season.  He is also the last man to make an out against Satchel Paige in an organized baseball game while playing in the Carolina League in 1966.  After baseball, he became a pastor and eventually a bishop in the Church of God in Christ.

Third baseman Brad Mills was drafted by Minnesota in the 16th round of the 1977 January draft, but did not sign.

Rick Adair was in baseball from 1979-2013.  Most recently, he was the pitching coach of the Baltimore Orioles.  He is the nephew of former Twins pitching coach Art Fowler.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 19 →

Keeping Track

Winter Wonderland: Games of January 16 and 17

GIGANTES

Saturday

AGUILAS 9, GIGANTES 3 AT GIGANTES (GAME 5)

The Aguilas scored five in the eighth to break a 3-3 tie.  They had four singles, two walks, and a hit batsman in the inning.  Ronald Guzman led the Gigantes, going 2-for-4 with a home run, a double, and two RBIs.  Moises Sierra was 2-for-4 with a double.  Kelvin Gutierrez was 1-for-4 with a home run.  Dustin Crenshaw started for the Gigantes, pitching five innings and giving up two runs on four hits and two walks and striking out one.

Sunday

AGUILAS 6, GIGANTES 5 AT AGUILAS (GAME 6)

The Aguilas built a 6-1 lead, then held on as the Gigantes scored four in the ninth.  Richard Urena was 2-for-2 with two walks for the Gigantes.  Abiatal Avelino was 2-for-4.  Jose Siri was 1-for-5 with a three-run homer.  Ronald Guzman was 1-for-4 with a home run.  Starter Scott Harkin lasted just 3.1 innings, allowing three runs on seven hits and no walks and striking out one.

Record:  The Dominican League Championship Series is tied 3-3.

Next game:  The Gigantes will host the championship-deciding game tonight.

LARA

Saturday

No game.

Sunday

LARA 8, ARAGUA 4 IN ARAGUA (GAME 4)

Lara scored three in the seventh to take a 4-2 lead and put it out of reach with three more in the ninth.  Gorkys Hernandez hit a three-run homer in the seventh to give Lara the lead.  Hernandez was 3-for-5 for the game.  Raul Rivero struck out eight in six innings, giving up six hits and two walks.

Record:  Lara leads the best-of-seven semi-final series 3-1.

Next game:  Lara is at Aragua tonight.

MAYAGUEZ

Saturday

No game.

Sunday

MAYAGUEZ 30, MANATI 8 AT MANATI

Mayaguez was finally cleared to play, and they apparently had a lot of runs stored up from the break.  It was 4-2 through four, but Mayaguez scored five in the fifth, nine in the sixth, nine in the eighth, and three in the ninth.  Emmanuel Rivera was 4-for-5 with two home runs, two doubles, three runs, and ten RBIs.  Jeremy Rivera was 4-for-6 with a home run, four runs, and three RBIs.  Ex-Twin Kennys Vargas was 4-for-7 with two home runs, a double, three runs, and five RBIs.  Ex-Twin Danny Ortiz was 4-for-7 with a double, three runs, and two RBIs.  Christian Colon was 3-for-7 with three runs.  Ivan De Jesus was 2-for-2 with six walks, five runs, and four RBIs.  Hector Hernandez pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on three hits and two walks and striking out one.

Record:  Mayaguez leads the best-of-seven semi-final series 2-0.

Next game:  Mayaguez hosts Manati tonight.

MELBOURNE

Saturday

No game.

Sunday

MELBOURNE 3, CANBERRA 1 IN MELBOURNE (7 1/2 INNINGS)

Ex-Twin Delmon Young's two-run single in the first gave Melbourne all the runs they would need.  Gift Ngoepe was 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs.  Damek Tomscha was 2-for-4.  It was a bullpen game--Daniel McGrath started and pitched 2.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and no walks and striking out none.

Record:  Melbourne is 11-5, in first place in the Australian League, 1.5 games ahead of Adelaide.

Next game:  Melbourne will host Brisbane Thursday afternoon.

Minnesota Wild, NHL

Weekly Wild Whangdoodle: Week 2

20 Comments

This week's schedule:

More California teams, and the home opener on Friday.  Home games against the probable bottom half of the division are ones where the Wild need to get points and here are the first two in that category this season.

So far this season, Anaheim has lost two games to Vegas (one in OT) while San Jose split with Arizona.

Last week's results:

MIN 4 - LA 3 (OT) - Highlights

MIN 4 - LA 3 (OT) - Highlights

The Wild schedule has them playing in the pacific time zone for a pretty significant portion of their schedule, so naturally they wait until the absolute latest hour to make things interesting. Two games in a row the Kings had a two-goal lead (the most dangerous lead in hockey!) going into the third period, and two games in a row the Wild came back to tie, and then win in overtime. Requiring dramatic comebacks to beat Los Angeles isn't the most heartening thing, but also, hey they're 2-0 and adding points to their standings total, and you have to take the good with the bad.

Looking at some of the advanced stats (from Evolving Hockey), the Wild played better than the Kings across the two games, pretty handily winning at 5-on-5.

TEAM CORSI% FEN% xGF
Wild53.651.33.9
Kings46.448.72.1

Special teams was a little bit worse.  The Kings scored two goals in 4 on 4 situations and added a power play tally.  The Wild scored all 6 of their regulation goals during 5-on-5 play (they went 0 for 11 on the power play). So perhaps it mostly came down the Wild being the better team that couldn't find the net on special teams.  That feels a little better, right?

The weirdest thing from the small sample size of two games is how much of the Wild's scoring has come from the defense. Suter, Brodin, and Dumba all scored goals, and the Wild have four defensemen with multiple points.  Greenway is the only forward with more than a single point so far.

...

Oh yeah, and Kaprizov, who has 4 points (1G, 3A).

The Kirill Kaprizov Corner

We do love our alliteration here at the WWW.

Kaprizov really didn't waste any time grabbing every Wild internet commenter's attention in his first NHL season. Three points in his debut, including the overtime winner, then after a shaky couple periods in game 2, he dazzled again in overtime and set up Johansson's game winning goal. He's the thing that everyone who is talking about the Wild is talking about after 2 games and it's kind of out of character to see Wild fans be incredibly positive about ... well, anything.

Players not Named Kirill

  • All that said, it might be Joel Eriksson Ek who actually had the best first couple games.  He was second on the Wild in individual expected goals, drew the most opponent penalties, and played the most minutes of any forward on the penalty kill. JEE started only 3% of his shifts in the offensive zone, which is par for the course for the Wild's third line, but he made a pretty outsized impact on the games from that position.  Plus he scored a goal! (Which I totally believed he was capable of doing. Ask anyone.)
  • Cam Talbot was unlucky but OK in the first two games I think.  A save percentage of 91% isn't too exciting in either direction, but it seems like he gave up a lot of rebound goals where he just didn't find the puck after the initial shot. His expected save percentage is pretty much right on his actual for those two games, so in that small sample, it's an improvement over what the Wild have had in the past.
Shots AgainstGoals AgainstFenwick AgainstSV%FenwickSV%Reb per 100SV
Talbot67687.910.9317.2
Expected5.9.911.9323.8
  • Fiala had no points in two games (but took 13 shots, most on the team).
  • Parise had one assist.
  • I don't believe that Victor Rask will stick as the center between Parise and Kaprizov.

Leaderboards

PlayerGPlayerAPlayerPts
8 players tied 1Kaprizov3Kaprizov4
Suter2Suter3
Greenway2Greenway2
Pateryn2Pateryn2
Brodin2
Dumba2
Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game One Hundred Nine

DETROIT 9, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Saturday, August 2.

Batting stars:  Michael Restovich was 2-for-4 with a double.  Denny Hocking was 2-for-4 with a double.

Pitching star:  Joe Mays pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Alex Sanchez was 2-for-3 with two stolen bases (his thirty-first and thirty-second) and a walk.  Craig Monroe was 2-for-4 with a three-run homer, a double, a walk, and two runs.  Ramon Santiago was 2-for-4 with a stolen base (his fifth) and two RBIs.  Warren Morris was 2-for-5 with a triple, a double, and three RBIs.  Mike Maroth pitched 5.1 innings, giving up one run on nine hits and three walks and striking out three.

The game:  The Twins loaded the bases in the first and had men on first and third in the second, but were turned aside each time.  It cost them, as the Tigers scored four in the third.  Morris doubled and scored on a Bobby Higginson single.  Kevin Witt singled and Monroe hit a three-run homer to make it 4-0 Detroit.

The Twins put two on in the third and again in the fourth but remained scoreless.  They finally broke through in the sixth when Restovich singled and scored from first on a Hocking double.  They got another run in the seventh when Doug Mientkiewicz walked and scored from first on an A. J. Pierzynski double, cutting the lead to 4-2.

That was as good as it got for the Twins, though.  The Tigers put it away in the eighth, scoring five times.  Carlos Pena hit a one-out triple.  A walk and a hit batsmen loaded the bases with two out.  Ramon Santiago scored two with a single, a walk re-loaded the bases, and Morris hit a three-run triple.  It was 9-2, and that's how it ended.

WP:  Maroth (6-15).  LP:  Rick Reed (5-10).  S:  None.

Notes:  Matthew LeCroy started behind the plate in place of Pierzynski.  Hocking was at third in the continuing absence of Corey Koskie.  Dustan Mohr was in left, Restovich in right, and Stewart at DH.

Pierzynski pinch-hit for LeCroy in the seventh and stayed in the game at catcher.  Jacque Jones pinch-hit for Mohr in the seventh and stayed in the game in left field.  Todd Sears repalced Mientkiewicz at first base in the ninth.  Alex Prieto pinch-hit for Luis Rivas in the ninth.

Restovich was batting .400.  Stewart was batting .317.  Jones was 0-for-1 and was batting .309.  Pierzynski was 1-for-2 and was batting .305.

Reed pitched seven innings, giving up four runs on eight hits and one walk and striking out five.

Mays lowered his ERA to 6.42.

As you can see above, the Twins missed lots of scoring chances in this game.  They stranded twelve and were 1-for-15 with men in scoring position.

I'd forgotten how hot Restovich was when he first came up.  He obviously didn't bat .400, but he had a fine season and one would've thought he'd be in line for more playing time in 2004.  Instead he started the season in Rochester.  He was up for about two months but got just 47 at-bats.  Granted that the Twins had Jones, Hunter, and Stewart, along with Lew Ford, to play the outfield.  Still, given that their most-used DH in 2004 was Jose Offerman, it seems like there should've been more at-bats available for Restovich.

Tiger players with a Twins connection include Warren Morris, Craig Monroe, Eric Munson, Matt Walbeck, and Maroth.

The Twins again missed a chance to go over .500.

Record:  The Twins were 54-55, in third place in the American League Central, 4.5 games behind Kansas City.  They were 3.5 games behind second-place Chicago.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–January 18

Eddie Moore (1899)
Danny Kaye (1913)
Mike Fornieles (1932)
Chuck Cottier (1936)
Satch Davidson (1936)
Curt Flood (1938)
Carl Morton (1944)
Billy Grabarkewitz (1946)
Sachio Kinugasa (1947)
Scott McGregor (1954)
Dave Geisel (1955)
Brady Anderson (1964)
Mike Lieberthal (1972)
Wandy Rodriguez (1979)
Michael Pineda (1989)

Entertainer Danny Kaye was one of the original owners of the Seattle Mariners.

Satch Davidson was a National League umpire from 1969-1984.

Sachio Kinusaga played in 2,215 games in Japan from 1970-1987.

Six players born on this day made their major league debuts in 2017:  Jaycob Brugman, Max Fried, Jarlin Garcia, Kyle Martin, Alex Mejia, and Gift Ngoepe.  I don't know, but I suspect this may be a record.

We would also like to wish a happy birthday to Scot's oldest son.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 18 →