The Gigantes game against Estrellas was rained out. Rain has played havoc with the Dominican League schedule. There are teams who have played as many as eight games, and teams who have played as few as three. The Gigantes remain 2-2. They are in third place, a half game behind the Toros del Este and the Tigres del Licey. They were scheduled to play Licey tonight, but it appears that game has already been postponed. Their next game will be Friday, when they host the Toros.
Category Archives: Keeping Track
Mazatlan Recap: Game Twenty-six
MAZATLAN 7, HERMOSILLO 6 IN MAZATLAN
Batting stars: Isaac Paredes was 3-for-4 with a double and three runs. Anthony Giansanti was 2-for-4 with a double. Hector Mora was 2-for-4. Ricardo Valenzuela was 1-for-4 with a home run, his fifth.
Pitching stars: Marco Antonio Rivas pitched a perfect inning and struck out one. Jesus Pirela pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and striking out one.
Opposition stars: Norberto Obeso was 3-for-5. Yadiel Hernandez was 3-for-5. Jasson Atondo was 2-for-3 with a walk and two RBIs. Julian Leon was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer and a walk.
The game: Mazatlan scored in the first when Paredes singled, Oscar Munoz walked, and Giansanti delivered an RBI double. Hermosillo came back to take the lead in the second. Singles by Fernando Perez and Luis Alfonso Cruz were followed by a fielder's choice, loading the bases with two out. Atondo then hit a two-run single and Obeso had an RBI single, putting Hermosillo ahead 3-1.
Mazatlan had a three-run inning of their own in the third to get the lead back. Jose Augusto Figueroa singled, Maxwell Leon was hit by a pitch, and Paredes doubled home the first run. A sacrifice fly tied the score, a hit batsman put men on first and third, and an error brought home the go-ahead run.
In the fifth Paredes singled and scored on a Munoz double. A single and a ground out brought Munoz home to make it 6-3. Valenzuelan homered leading off the sixth and Mazatlan appeared to have a comfortable 7-3 advantage.
However, things are sometimes not as they appear to be. Atondo walked leading off the seventh, went to second on a ground out, and scored on Hernandez' single to make it 7-4. In the eighth, and error and Leon's two-run homer cut the lead to a single run at 7-6. Hermosillo went on to get a pair of two-out singles, but a popup ended the inning. They also got a leadoff single in the ninth but could not advance the runner past first base.
WP: Francisco Rios (3-1). LP: Luis Mendoza (0-2). S: Pirela (4).
Notes: Paredes is batting .424. Figueroa was 1-for-5 and is batting .388. Munoz was 1-for-1 and is batting .340. Giansanti is batting .314.
Rivas' ERA is 2.77. Roberto Espinosa gave up an earned run in two-thirds of an inning and has an ERA of 2.40. Juan Ramon Noriega retired the only batter he faced and has an ERA of zero.
Rios started and pitched five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk and striking out four.
Record: Mazatlan is 12-14, in seventh place, eight games behind Obregon. They are a half-game behind sixth place Jalisco.
Next game: Mazatlan again hosts Hermosillo tonight.
2003 Rewind: Game Fifty-five
SEATTLE 9, MINNESOTA 5 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Sunday, June 1.
Batting stars: Corey Koskie was 2-for-3 with a walk. A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer (his sixth) and a double. Jacque Jones was 1-for-5 with a home run, his sixth. Lew Ford was 1-for-1 with a home run.
Pitching stars: Tony Fiore pitched five innings of relief, giving up two runs on three hits and no walks and striking out three. J. C. Romero pitched a perfect inning and struck out one. Eddie Guardado struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.
Opposition stars: Edgar Martinez was 4-for-5 with a home run (his fourteenth), a double, three runs, and two RBIs. Greg Colbrunn was 2-for-3 with a triple and two RBIs. Bret Boone was 2-for-5 with a home run (his fifteenth), two runs, and two RBIs. Mike Cameron was 2-for-5.
The game: The Mariners scored six runs in the first inning before anyone was out. Oddly enough, Brad Radke was not the Twins' starting pitcher. They started the game with five singles: Randy Winn, Carlos Guillen, Boone, Martinez, and Cameron all singled. Colbrunn then hit a two-run triple and Jeff Cirillo singled, bringing the score to 6-0. Jones led off the bottom of the first with a home run, but Boone led off the second with a home run, making the score 7-1.
To the Twins' credit, they battled to try to make a game of it. In the second Doug Mientkiewicz doubled and Pierzynski hit a two-run homer, making it 7-3. In the third, singles by Cristian Guzman and Koskie and a walk to Torii Hunter brought the tying run to the plate with one out. All the Twins could manage was a sacrifice fly, though, and it was 7-4.
That was as good as it got for the Twins. Martinez homered it the fourth to make it 8-4. In the eighth Martinez doubled, went to third on a fly ball, and scored on a sacrifice fly to make it 9-4.
The Twins got one more in the ninth. With two out Ford pinch-hit for Luis Rivas and hit a home run, his first major league homer. That brought the score to 9-5, and that's where it stayed.
WP: Freddy Garcia (5-6). LP: Kenny Rogers (4-2). S: None.
Notes: With the home run, Ford was batting .500. Jones dropped his average to .327. Dustan Mohr was 0-for-3 and was batting .315.
Ford was the only lineup substitute.
Rogers lasted just 1.1 innings, allowing seven runs on ten hits and no walks. He struck out one. He had a game score of seven, which was by far his worst game of the season.
Garcia pitched seven innings for the Mariners, giving up four runs on seven hits and three walks and striking out seven. I remember him as being better than he was. Not that he was bad or anything, but he was average to slightly above average for most of his career. He started out really well, though, which may have skewed my memory. He finished second to Carlos Beltran in Rookie of the Year voting in 1999, going 17-8, 4.07, although with a 1.47 WHIP. He made the all-star team in 2001 and again in 2002. 2001 was his best year: he was 18-6, 3.05, 1.12 WHIP. He led the league in ERA, innings, and home runs per nine innings, the only times he ever led the league in anything except for 2005, when he led the league in wild pitches. He finished third in Cy Young voting that year to Roger Clemens and Mark Mulder, and while I can't say that the voters were wrong it looks like his season was every bit as good as theirs. For his career he was 156-108, 4.15, 1.30 WHIP and had a lifetime ERA+ of 107. He appeared in 376 games, 357 of them starts, and pitched 2264 innings. He was durable, pitching over 200 innings seven times. Not a Hall of Famer or anything, but certainly a respectable career.
As mentioned above this was Lewwwwww's first home run. He would hit 35 in his career, with a career high of 15 in 2004.
Ex-Twin Greg Colbrunn's triple was the last of his major league career. He hit 12 of them, with a career high of three in 1999.
After playing so well for almost the entire month of May, the Twins had now lost four in a row. They were swept at home, the first time that had happened since the Yankees series in April. Luckily, second-place Kansas City was struggling, too, and had slipped to an even .500.
Record: The Twins were 31-24, in first place in the American League Central, 3.5 games ahead of Kansas City.
Happy Birthday–November 25
Bert Cunningham (1865)
Jakie May (1895)
Charles Baron (1913)
Joe DiMaggio (1914)
Mike Ryan (1941)
Bucky Dent (1951)
Dave Baker (1956)
Chico Walker (1958)
Mark Whiten (1966)
Octavio Dotel (1973)
Nick Swisher (1980)
First baseman Charles Baron played in the minors from 1931-1951, batting .306 with 2,319 hits. He was a player-manager for the last five of those seasons.
2003 Rewind: Game Fifty-four
SEATTLE 5, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Saturday, May 31.
Batting stars: Dustan Mohr was 2-for-3 with a home run (his seventh) and two RBIs. Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-4.
Pitching stars: LaTroy Hawkins struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up two hits. Johan Santana pitched a perfect inning, striking out one.
Opposition stars: Ichiro Suzuki was 3-for-5 with a home run (his fifth), a triple, and two runs. John Olerud was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk. Bret Boone was 2-for-5. Edgar Martinez was 1-for-4 with a home run, his thirteenth. Ryan Franklin pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and a walk and striking out three.
The game: There was no score, or even a threat, until the fourth. Boone led off with a single and Olerud hit a one-out single. With two down, Randy Winn and Jeff Cirillo each hit an RBI single to make it 2-0 Mariners. It went to 4-0 in the fifth. Suzuki led off with a triple and scored on a ground out. Edgar Martinez followed with a home run.
The Twins got on the board in the fifth. Torii Hunter, Doug Mientkiewicz, and Mohr all singled to lead off the inning, bringing in a run and putting men on first and second. A bunt moved the runners to second and third with one out, but the Twins could not get either run across, leaving the score 4-1.
Suzuki homered in the top of the seventh to make it 5-1. Mohr homered in the bottom of the seventh to make it 5-2. And that was it. The Twins did not get a hit after Mohr's homer.
WP: Franklin (4-3). LP: Rick Reed (3-6). S: Kazuhiro Sasaki (9).
Notes: Tom Prince was behind the plate in place of A. J. Pierzynski. Chris Gomez was at second base in place of Luis Rivas. Bobby Kielty was the DH. There were no in-game lineup substitutions.
Jacque Jones was 0-for-4 and was batting .330. Mohr was batting .322.
Reed started and pitched seven innings, but allowed five runs on nine hits and a walk and striking out four.
Hawkins lowered his ERA to 1.46. Santana lowered his ERA to 2.68.
The first five Seattle batters were batting over .500. Suzuki was at .317, Carlos Guillen was at .321, Boone was at .308, Martinez was at .314, and Olerud was at .302.
Suzuki would set a career high, up to that point, in home runs in 2003 at 13. He would top that in 2005 with 15. For his career, he hit 117 home runs, which is more than I would have thought. He hit 118 in nine seasons in Japan, with a high of 25 in 1995.
This was the first time the Twins had lost three in a row since a six-game losing streak from April 18-24.
Record: The Twins were 31-23, in first place in the American League Central, 3.5 games ahead of Kansas City.
Happy Birthday–November 24
George Burns (1889)
Billy Rogell (1904)
Joe Medwick (1911)
Danny Ozark (1923)
Bob Friend (1930)
Jim Northrup (1939)
Steve Yeager (1948)
Randy Velarde (1962)
Cal Eldred (1967)
Ben McDonald (1967)
Al Martin (1967)
Dave Hansen (1968)
Chris Herrmann (1987)
Danny Ozark was the manager of Philadelphia from 1973-1979.
Gigantes Recaps
It appears the Gigantes were rained out of both games over the weekend. They remain 2-2, tied for third with the Toros del Este, but just a half game behind first-place Tigres del Licey. Their next game is tonight, when they are at the Estrellas Orientales.
Mazatlan Recaps: Games Twenty-four and Twenty-five
MAZATLAN 6, LOS MOCHIS 5 IN MAZATLAN
Batting stars: Hector Mora was 2-for-4 with two doubles and two runs. Carlos Munoz was 2-for-5 with a two-run homer, his second. Jose Augusto Figueroa was 2-for-5.
Pitching stars: Fernando Burgueno pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up two hits. Alejandro Soto pitched a perfectinning.
Opposition stars: Amilcar Gomez was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer, his second. Hector Villalobos pitched 4.1 innings, giving up two runs on six hits and three walks and striking out two.
The game: Los Mochis took the early lead with four in the second inning. Two walks and a ground out put men on second and third. Rodolfo Amador hit an RBI single and Gomez hit a two-out three-run homer to make it 4-0 Los Mochis.
Mazatlan chipped away at the lead. In the third Mora doubled and Maxwell Leon tripled to make it 4-1. In the fourth Anthony Giansanti walked, took second on a balk, and scored on a Ricardo Valenzuela double to make it 4-2.
Mazatlan took the lead in the seventh. Mora doubled and went to third on a balk. A hit batsman put runners on the corners. A sacrifice fly scored one and Munoz' two-run homer put Mazatlan up 5-4.
They did not hold the lead. In the eighth Josuan Hernandez singled, Esteban Quiroz walked, and Leandro Castro had a run-scoring single to tie it 5-5. But Mazatlan triumphed in the ninth. Isaac Paredes hit a two-out single and scored from first on a single-plus-error by Munoz to win the game.
WP: Soto (1-0). LP: Fabian Cota (1-2). S: None.
Notes: Figueroa is batting .439. Paredes was 1-for-3 and is batting .385. Munoz is batting .326. Giansanti was 1-for-3 and is batting .308.
Burgueno has an ERA of 1.80. Roberto Espinosa gave up a run in one inning and has an ERA of 1.88.
There were two balks in the game. Both led to runs.
MAZATLAN 5, LOS MOCHIS 1 IN MAZATLAN
Batting stars: Carlos Munoz was 2-for-4 with a home run (his third) and two runs. Maxwell Leon was 2-for-4 with a double.
Pitching stars: Edgar Torres pitched seven innings, giving up one run on four hits and a walk and striking out six. Jesus Pirela pitched a perfect inning and struck out one.
Opposition stars: Isaac Rodriguez Salazar was 1-for-3 with a walk.
The game: Each team scored once in the fourth. In the top of the inning Esteban Quiroz walked, went to third on a Leandro Castro single, and scored on a ground out. In the bottom of the inning Munoz homered, making the score 1-1.
Mazatlan took the lead in the sixth. With one out, Isaac Paredes walked, Munoz singled, and Anthony Giansanti hit a two-run triple, putting Mazatland up 3-1. They got a couple of insurance runs in the seventh. With two out Jose Augusto Figueroa walked, Leon singled, and Paredes hit a two-run double, increasing the lead to 5-1. Los Mochis threatened in the eighth, loading the bases with two out, but could not change the score.
WP: Torres (2-2). LP: Cristian Castillo (0-1). S: None.
Notes: Figueroa was 0-for-3 and is batting .409. Paredes was 1-for-3 and is batting .379. Munoz is batting .333. Giansanti was 1-for-4 and is batting .305.
Juan Ramon Noriega pitched two-thirds of an inning scorelessly and has an ERA of zero. Marco Antonio Rivas struck out the only man he faced and has an ERA of 3.00. Parela's ERA is 1.17.
Los Mochis was 0-for-5 with men in scoring position.
Record: Mazatlan is 11-14, tied for seventh place with Mexicali, eight games behind Obregon.
Next game: The next game for Mazatlan is Tuesday night, when they host Hermosillo (15-8).
2003 Rewind: Game Fifty-three
SEATTLE 6, MINNESOTA 0 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Friday, May 30.
Batting star: Cristian Guzman was 1-for-3 with a walk.
Pitching stars: Kyle Lohse pitched eight innings, giving up three runs on eight hits and one walk and striking out three.
Opposition stars: Joel Piniero struck out twelve in a complete game shutout, giving up four hits and two walks. Randy Winn was 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs. Ben Davis was 2-for-4. Carlos Guillen was 2-for-5. Mike Cameron was 1-for-1 with a two-run homer, his sixth.
The game: The Mariners opened the scoring in the second. Randy Winn walked, went to third on a Jeff Cirillo double, and scored on a Davis single, making it 1-0. They added two more in the fourth. Singles by Edgar Martinez, John Olerud, and Randy Winn plated one run and a sacrifice fly brought home another, increasing the lead to 3-0. They got three more in the ninth to put the game out of reach.
And that was it. The Twins threatened in the third when Lew Ford led off with a walk and went to second on Jacque Jones' one-out single. A fly out and a strikeout ended the inning. The threatened again in the ninth when Guzman and Corey Koskie singled with one out. The next two batters struck out to end the game.
WP: Piniero (5-4). LP: Lohse (4-4). S: None.
Notes: Ford was in center field in place of Torii Hunter. There were no in-game lineup substitutions.
Jacque Jones was 1-for-4 and was batting .337. Ford was 0-for-2 to drop his average to .333. Dustan Mohr was 1-for-3 and was batting .313. Matthew LeCroy was 0-for-4, dropping his average below .300 for the first time since May 10.
Lohse's ERA went to 3.09.
This was one of two shutouts for Piniero in 2003. The other would come on July 26 in Texas. His twelve strikeouts were easily a season high--his next highest total was eight, on September 10.
This was the first time the Twins had lost two games in a row since April 26-27.
Record: The Twins were 31-22, in first place in the American League Central, 3.5 games ahead of Kansas City.
Happy Birthday–November 23
This is a great day for names:
Chief Zimmer (1860)
Hi Church (1863)
Socks Seybold (1870)
George Stovall (1877)
Jimmy Sheckard (1878)
Runt Marr (1891)
Freddy Leach (1897)
Beans Reardon (1897)
Bubber Jonnard (1897)
Prince Hal Schumacher (1910)
Bill Gates (1918)
Charles Osgood (1926)
John Anderson (1929)
Jack McKeon (1930)
Luis Tiant (1940)
Tom Hall (1947)
Ken Schrom (1954)
Brook Jacoby (1959)
Dale Sveum (1963)
David McCarty (1969)
Adam Eaton (1977)
Jonathan Papelbon (1980)
Justin Turner (1984)
Lewis Thorpe (1995)
Runt Marr played in the minor leagues for nineteen years, managed in the minors for fifteen years, and was also a scout for many years.
Beans Reardon was a National League umpire from 1926-1949.
Bubber Jonnard was a long-time coach and scout.
Bill Gates was a minor league pitcher from 1938-1940 and 1946-1951.
Jack McKeon was a long-time manager and general manager, leading the Florida Marlins to a World Series victory in 2003. In 2011, he became the second-oldest manager in major league history at age 80. He also managed in the minor leagues for the Senators/Twins from 1957-64 and again in 1968, scouting for the Twins from 1965-67.