DETROIT TIGERS 8, MINNESOTA TWINS 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Wednesday, July 22, 2005.

Batting star:  Luis Rivas was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Jesse Crain pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.  Juan Rincon struck out two in a perfect inning.  Joe Nathan struck out two and walked two in a scoreless inning.

Opposition stars:  Placido Polanco was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.  Craig Monroe was 2-for-4 with a double and two runs.  Nook Logan was 2-for-4 with a double.  Omar Infante was 2-for-5 with a home run (his fourth) and three RBIs.  Ivan Rodriguez was 2-for-5.  Nate Robertson pitched a complete game, giving up an unearned run on five hits and a walk and striking out six.

The game:  The Twins scored first, in the first inning.  Rivas reached third on a single-plus-error and scored on a Lew Ford single.  Detroit had a two-out rally in the second to tie it.  Monroe doubled, Chris Shelton walked, and Infante singled to make it 1-1.

From there it was all Tigers.  Polanco led off the third with a double.  With one out, Rondell White walked and a wild pitch put men on first and third.  RBI singles by Rodriguez and Monroe followed, making it 3-1.  Infante led off the fourth with a home run.  Logan walked and scored on a Brandon Inge double.  He was bunted to third and scored when White reached on an error, making it 6-1.  Another run scored in the fifth when White led off with a walk, went to second on a wild pitch, and scored on a pair of ground outs.  Detroit added one more in the seventh when Shelton scored, Logan reached on an error, Inge walked to load the bases, and Polanco singled home a run.

The Twins did nothing on offense after the first inning.  They only once got a man as far as second, and that was on an error.

WP:  Robertson (3-5).

LP:  Joe Mays (3-3).

S:  None.

Notes:  Mike Redmond was behind the plate in place of Joe Mauer.  Matthew LeCroy was at first base in place of Justin Morneau.  Rivas had lost the second base job at this point, but was playing in place of Nick Punto.  Baseball-reference lists Jason Bartlett as the regular shortstop, but Juan Castro actually played more games there, and played in this one.  With LeCroy at first base, Lew Ford was the DH.

The Twins did not have a .300 hitter in 2005, and no one was batting .300 after this game.

Crain had an ERA of 0.85.  He would finish at 2.71.  J. C. Romero had an ERA of 2.22.  He would finish at 3.47.  Rincon had an ERA of 2.87.  He would finish at 2.45.

Mays was in his last year with the Twins and his last year as a rotation starter.  He’d had an excellent season in 2001, and got a mutli-year contract, but had injury problems immediately thereafter and did not have a good season again.  He was easily the worst starter the Twins had in 2005, going 6-10, 5.65, 1.56 WHIP.  He would be replaced in the rotation in September by rookie Scott Baker.

Future Twins Rondell White and Craig Monroe started for the Tigers.  Monroe was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.  White was 0-for-4 with a walk.

The Random Twins have seen Nate Robertson twice.  He has won one and lost one.

Record:  Detroit was 35-33, in fourth place in the AL Central, 14.5 games behind Chicago.  They would finish 71-9-1, in fourth place, 28 games behind Chicago.

Minnesota was 48-31, in second place, 10 games behind Chicago.  They would finish 83-79, in third place, 16 games behind Chicago.

Random Record:  The Random Twins had their six-game winning streak snapped and are 7-4 (.636).

MINNESOTA TWINS 5, BOSTON RED SOX 2 IN BOSTON

Date:  Monday, June 13, 1994

Batting stars: Jeff Reboulet was 3-for-3 with two doubles and a walk.  Chip Hale was 3-for-3 with a hit-by-pitch.  Chuck Knoblauch was 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, and two RBIs.  Shane Mack was 2-for-5.

Pitching star:  Jim DeShaies struck out seven in six innings, giving up two runs on eight hits and a walk.  Rick Aguilera pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Wes Chamberlain was 3-for-4 with a double.  Carlos Rodriguez was 2-for-3 with a double.  Damon Berryhill was 2-for-4 with a double.  John Valentin was 2-for-5 with a triple and a double.

The game:  Boston scored first, and they did it in the first inning.  Valentin hit a one-out triple and scored on a single by Mo Vaughn.  The Twins tied it in the third.  With one out, singles by Matt Walbeck, Reboulet, and Knoblauch made it 1-1.

Boston missed a chance to get the lead back in the bottom of the third.  Otis Nixon singled, Valentin doubled, and Vaughn was hit by a pitch, loading the bases, but Andre Dawson hit into a double play.  The Red Sox took the lead in the fourth, although they missed a chance for more.  Lee Tinsley walked and scored on Chamberlain’s double.  Berryhill followed with a double, but Chamberlain could only advance to third.  They still had men on second and third with none out, but DeShaies came back to strikeout the next three batters–Scott Cooper, Greg Litton, and Nixon–to end the inning.

The Twins went ahead to stay in the fifth.  Reboulet walked and Nixon doubled, putting men on second and third, and RBI ground outs by Alex Cole and Kirby Puckett made it 3-2 Minnesota.  They got an insurance run in the sixth when Mack and Hale hit one-out singles and Reboulet delivered a two-out double.  They got one more in the eighth.  Hale singled and was forced at second.  Reboulet doubled, putting men on second and third, and Knoblauch’s run-scoring ground out made it 5-2.

Boston missed more chances to score.  In the fifth Rodriguez reached on an error and was balked to second with one out, but there he remained.  Rodriguez again reached second in the seventh, getting there with a two-out double, but again was stranded there.  In the eighth Chamberlain reached on an error and went to second on a Berryhill single with one out.  A ground out put men on second and third with two down, but another ground out ended the inning.  The Red Sox did not get the tying run up to bat again, and it ended 5-2.

WP:  DeShaies (3-6).

LP:  Roger Clemens (6-3).

S:  Aguilera (13).

Notes:  Reboulet was at shortstop in place of Pat Meares.  Hale was at third base in place of Scott Leius.  

Cole was batting .330.  He would finish at .296.  Puckett was batting .328.  He would finish at .317.  Knoblauch was batting .325.  He would finish at .312.  Reboulet was batting .309.  He would finish at .259.  Mack was batting .308.  He would finish at .333.

In addition to the “pitching stars”, the Twins used three pitchers for two-thirds of an inning each:  Larry Casian, Carl Willis, and Mark Guthrie.  

Neither team did much with men in scoring position:  The Twins were 2-for-12 and Boston was 2-for-13.  Each team stranded eleven men.

DeShaies was in his last year as a rotation starter, and it did not go well.  He ended up 6-12, 7.39, 1.72 WHIP.  Despite that, he made twenty-five starts, leading the league, and pitched 130.1 innings.  He also led the league in earned runs allowed and home runs allowed.  He would make two starts for Philadelphia in 1995, then his major league career would come to an end.

Wes Chamberlain had a six-year major league career, mostly with Philadelphia.  He was a decent part-time outfielder.  He finished fifth in Rookie of the Year voting in 1991.  His best year was 1993, when he batted .282 with an OPS of .813 in 284 at-bats.  1994 was his next-to-last year– he would bat just .119 in 42 at-bats in 1995, and then his major league career was over.

Otis Nixon, of course, would go on to play for the Twins in 1998.  He went 1-for-5 in this game.

We’ve already had three games from 1994.  That’s just how randomness works sometimes.

Record:  Boston was 32-28, in third place in the AL East, 4 games behind the Yankees.  They would finish 54-61, in fourth place, 17 games behind the Yankees.

Minnesota was 34-27, in third place, 1 games behind Cleveland and the White Sox.  They would finish 53-60, in fourth place, 14 games behind the White Sox.  After this game, the Twins would go 19-33, the worst record in baseball over that span.  That’s one of the things that happens when you give 25 starts to a guy with an ERA over seven.

Random Record:  The Random Twins have a six-game winning streak, and are 7-3 (.700).