MINNESOTA TWINS 5, CLEVELAND INDIANS 3 IN CLEVELAND
Date: Sunday, June 23, 2013
Batting stars: Joe Mauer was 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, and three runs. Oswaldo Arcia was 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, and two RBIs. Ryan Doumit was 2-for-4 with a walk. Chris Parmelee was 2-for-4. Josh Willingham was 2-for-5 with two RBIs.
Pitching stars: Pedro Hernandez pitched five innings, giving up two runs on three hits and six walks and striking out two. Jared Burton pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk. Glen Perkins pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two hits.
Opposition stars: Jason Kipnis was 3-for-4 with two doubles and a walk. Michael Bourn was 3-for-5. Drew Stubbs hit a home run, his sixth.
The game: The Twins took the lead in the first inning. Mauer hit a one-out double, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a Willingham single. They threatened in the second, as Parmelee singled and Pedro Florimon walked to put men on first and second with one out, but a pair of ground outs ended the inning. Cleveland tied it in the second. Walks to Mark Reynolds, Carlos Santana, and Ryan Raburn loaded the bases with none out. All the Indians could do, however, was get a sacrifice fly by Yan Goes to tie it 1-1.
Cleveland took the lead in the third. Mike Aviles led off with a walk and scored on Kipnis’ double. Another walk to Reynolds put men on first and second with one out, but they did not score again in the inning.
The Twins got the lead back in the fifth. Clete Thomas singled and Mauer walked. The next two batters went out, but RBI singles by Arcia and Trevor Plouffe! gave the Twins a 3-2 lead. They increased their lead in the seventh. Singles by Mauer and Doumit put men on first and third with none out, and Willingham singled home a run. A line drive double play took them out of the inning, but the Twins were still on top 4-2.
Stubbs led off the bottom of the seventh with a home run, cutting the lead to 4-3. Each team missed a chance to score in the eighth. A single and a wild pitch put a man on second with two out for the Twins, but a ground out ended the inning. In the bottom of the inning, Michael Brantley singled, Yan Gomes walked, and a double steal put men on second and third with two out and Stubbs at bat. He grounded out, however, and the score remained 4-3.
In the ninth, Doumit singled and Arcia delivered a two-out double. The Indians twice got the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth. Bourn led off with a single but was erased on a double play. Kipnis then doubled, but Nick Swisher grounded out to end the game.
WP: Hernandez (3-1).
LP: Carlos Carrasco (0-3).
S: Perkins (19).
Notes: Doumit was behind the plate, with Mauer moving to DH. Parmelee, usually a right fielder, was at first base in place of Justin Morneau. Clete Thomas was in center in place of Aaron Hicks. Arcia was in right. The Twins didn’t have a regular DH–Doumit had the most appearances there, with 49.
Mauer was batting .330. He would finish at .324.
Perkins had an ERA of 2.20. He would finish at 2.30.
Future Twin Carlos Santana went 0-for-3 with a walk in this game.
Pedro Hernandez made twelve starts for the Twins in 2013. He was 3-3, 6.83, 1.82 WHIP. The Twins had eight pitchers who made at least ten starts, but only three of them had ERAs below five. The best was Samuel Deduno, who used his magical zoomball to post a 3.83 ERA. The other two below five were Andrew Albers (4.05) and Kevin Correia (4.18).
This was the only year Pedro Florimon got regular play in his career. Appearing in 134 games, he batted .221/.281/.330. It was the only season he got more than 150 at-bats. He was reputed to be an excellent fielder, but it's yet another example of how none of the other tools matter much if you can’t hit.
This was Oswaldo Arcia’s rookie year, and we thought he was really going to be a good player. Well, a good batter, anyway. He hit .251/.304/.430 as a 22-year-old, and he seemed to have a bright future. Instead, it was the best season he ever had. He was with the Twins organization through June of 2016, bounced around for a few years, went to a few other teams, and was done as a major league player at age twenty-five. He has, however, had a long playing career anyway. He played in Japan for a few years and is still playing in Mexico and in winter ball. It’s nice to see that his baseball story, while it may not have gone the way he hoped, is still having somewhat of a happy ending.
Record: Cleveland was 38-36, in second place in the AL Central, four games behind Detroit. They would finish 92-70, one game behind Detroit.
The Twins were 34-38, in fourth place in the AL Central, seven games behind Detroit. They would finish 66-96, in fourth place, twenty-seven games behind Detroit.
Random Record: The Random Twins are 12-8 (.600).