CALIFORNIA ANGELS 5, MINNESOTA TWINS 2 IN CALIFORNIA

Date:  Saturday, May 4, 1996.

Batting star:  Greg Myers was 2-for-4 with a home run (his first), a double, and two runs.

Pitching stars:  None.

Opposition stars:  Chili Davis was 2-for-3 with a home run (his seventh), a double, a walk, and three runs.  Tim Wallach was 2-for-4 with two RBIs.  J. T. Snow hit a home run, his second.  Garret Anderson hit a home run, his third.  Jason Grimsley pitched a complete game, giving up two runs (one earned) on three hits and three walks and striking out five.

The game:  Neither team got a hit until the bottom of the second, when Davis led off with a double.  The next two batters went out, but Wallach singled to give California a 1-0 lead.  The Twins drew two walks in the third, but did not score.  The Angels drew two walks in the fourth and they did score, as Wallach again delivered a two-out RBI single.  That was the last hit by either team until the bottom of the sixth, when Snow and Anderson hit back-to-back solo homers to put the Angels up 4-0.

The Twins got on the board in the seventh when Myers got to third on a double-plus-error and scored on a ground out.  Rich Becker doubled in the eighth but did not get past third base.  

From there, the teams traded solo homers.  Davis hit one in the bottom of the eighth and Myers hit one in the bottom of the ninth, bringing the final score to 5-2.

WP:  Jason Grimsley (2-1).

LP:  Frankie Rodriguez (2-3).

S:  None.

Notes:  Denny Hocking was in right field.  The Twins didn’t really have a regular right fielder.  Matt Lawton had the most games there (60), followed by Roberto Kelly (54) and Hocking (33).

Marty Cordova was batting .346.  He would finish at .309.  Chuck Knoblauch was batting .345.  He would finish at .341.  Paul Molitor was also batting .345.  He would also finish at .341.  Pat Meares was batting .312.  He would finish at .267.  Greg Myers was batting .309.  He would finish at .286.

Dan Naulty pitched two innings, giving up one run.  He had an ERA of 1.27.  He would finish at 3.79.

Chili Davis, as you probably know, played for the Twins from 1991-1992.

We had hopes for Frankie Rodriguez, but those hopes were mostly based on the fact that he was young.  1996 was his only season as a rotation starter, and he went 13-14, 5.05, 1.43 WHIP and struck out only 110 in 206.2 innings.  He was only twenty-three, and we hoped he would improve, but he didn’t.  In seven major league seasons, he had one in which he posted an ERA below five (4.62 in 1997).  He hung around until 2001, then was out of baseball.

The Twins batted .288 as a team in 1996.  In addition to the players listed above, Roberto Kelly batted .323 and Ron Coomer batted .296.  They hit only 118 home runs, however, with Marty Cordova leading the team with 16.  They were second in baseball in batting average, but dead last in home runs, 

And, as you would guess if you didn’t know, their pitching was not good.  Brad Radke was the only pitcher with an ERA under five (4.46).  In addition to Rodriguez, their rotation was Rich Robertson (5.12), Scott Aldred (5.09) and Rick Aguilera (5.42).  Aguilera had wanted to start, and the Twins accommodated him, but it did not go well, and the next year he would be back in the closer role.  Other pitchers given starts, none of whom had an ERA below six, were Jose Parra, Pat Mahomes, Scott Klingenbeck, Travis Miller, LaTroy Hawkins, and Dan Serafini.  The pitcher who tried to replace Aguilera as closer was Dave Stevens, who posted a 4.66 ERA and a 1.43 WHIP.

This was Jason Grimsley’s last year as a starting pitcher.  He would spend two years in the minors before resurfacing as a reliever with the Yankees.  He would continue to be part of a major league bullpen through 2006.

Record:  California was 17-12, in second place in the AL West, 1.5 games behind Texas.  They would finish 70-91, in fourth (last) place, 19.5 games behind Texas.

The Twins were 14-14, in third place in the AL Central, 5 games behind Cleveland.  They would finish 78-84, in fourth place, 21.5 games behind Cleveland.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 22-18 (.550).