MINNESOTA TWINS 7, NEW YORK YANKEES 6 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, July 4, 1967.

Batting stars:  Ted Uhlaender was 3-for-4 with a home run (his second) and two runs.  Tony Oliva was 3-for-4 with a triple and two RBIs.  

Pitching stars:  Jim Perry pitched 5.2 innings, giving up four runs (one earned) on seven hits and four walks and striking out three.  Al Worthington pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and two walks and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Jake Gibbs was 4-for-4 with three RBIs.  Tom Tresh was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.  Thad Tillotson pitched three innings, giving up one run on two hits and striking out one.

The game: The Twins got on the board in the first inning, as Cesar Tovar walked and scored on a Harmon Killebrew double.  The Yankees responded with four in the second.  Tresh doubled and went to third on Joe Pepitone’s single.  A one-out walk to John Kennedy loaded the bases.  Pitcher Mel Stottlemyre then brought home to runs on a single-plus-error.  Dick Howser walked to re-load the bases, and two more runs scored on Gibbs’ sacrifice fly-plus-error.  It was 4-1 Yankees.

The Twins got two back in the second, as a pitcher once again brought home a couple of runs.  Russ Nixon walked, Uhlaender reached on a two-base error, and Perry singled them both home, cutting the lead to 4-3.  The Twins put men on first and second in both the third and the fourth, but did not score again until the fifth.  Killebrew walked and scored on an Oliva triple.  Bob Allison then delivered a sacrifice fly to give the Twins a 5-4 lead.  Uhlaender homered in the eighth to make it 6-4.

It was looking good for the Twins, but the Yankees wouldn’t go away.  In the ninth, Charley Smith singled, Howser doubled, and Gibbs hit a two-run single to tie it 6-6.  With two out, Gibbs stole second and went to third on a throwing error.  Walks to Tresh and Pepitone loaded the bases, but a force out ended the inning.

In the bottom of the ninth, however, Tovar led off with a single and Rod Carew bunted him to second.  Pinch-hitter Frank Kostro walked, and Oliva ended things with an RBI single.  Justice prevailed, the good guys won, and on this most American of holidays the evil empire was defeated.  Of course, in 1967, that was a little easier to do.

WP:  Al Worthington (3-4).

LP:  Steve Hamilton (2-2).

S:  None.

Notes:  Nixon was behind the plate in place of Jerry Zimmerman, who was the regular catcher due to an injury to Earl Battey.  Tovar was at third base in place of Rich Rollins.  

Carew was batting .313.  He would finish at .292.  Perry was batting .308.  He would finish at .190, still not bad for a pitcher.

Jerry Zimmerman was the epitome of the defense-first, light-hitting backup catcher.  In an eight-season career, the last seven with the Twins, he batted .204/.269/.239.  This was the only season in which he played a hundred games, again due to an injury to Earl Battey.  He was not up to it, batting .167/.243/.192.  His OPS of .436 was worse than three pitchers on the roster in 1967:  Perry, Jim Kaat, and Dave Boswell.  The Twins, of course, would miss out on the American League pennant by one game.  I have to think that even an average-hitting catcher would have made up that one game difference.

Tony Oliva hit 48 triples in his career.  He has already hit three for the Random Twins.

This was Thad Tillotson’s only full season in the majors.  Pitching mostly in relief, he went 3-9, 4.03, 1.40 WHIP, numbers which are worse than they may sound given the low-offense context of 1967.  He appeared in seven more games in 1968, then his major league career was over.  I couldn’t find out what happened to him after baseball, but I did find this tidbit from thisdayinbaseball.com:  “On June 21, 1967 In retaliation for Joe Foy getting struck in the helmet in the top of the frame, Red Sox starter Jim Lonborg promptly plunks opposing pitcher Thad Tillotson in the back, igniting a bench-clearing brawl in the second inning of the Yankees’ 8-1 loss to Boston at Yankee Stadium. The five-minute melee results in no ejections but doesn’t quite settle the matter when Reggie Smith is brushed back in the third, and Dick Howser leaves the game in the fifth after being hit the head with a pitch.”

Record:  The Yankees were 34-42, in eighth place in the AL, 11 games behind the White Sox.  They would finish 72-90, in ninth place, 20 games behind Boston.

The Twins were 42-34, in second place in the AL, 3 games behind the White Sox.  They would finish 91-71, tied for second with Detroit, one game behind Boston.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 14-10 (.583).

CLEVELAND INDIANS 10, MINNESOTA TWINS 4 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Monday, July 19, 2010.

Batting stars: Delmon Young was 3-for-5 with a double.  Orlando Hudson was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.  Jason Kubel was 2-for-5 with a double.  Jim Thome hit a home run, his eleventh.

Pitching star:  Jeff Manship pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Trevor Crowe was 4-for-5 with a double, two runs, and two RBIs.  Jayson Nix was 3-for-6 with a double.  Carlos Santana was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.  Shelly Duncan was 2-for-4 with a double and two runs.  Jason Donald was 2-for-5 with two runs and two RBIs.  Michael Brantley was 2-for-5 with a walk.  Travis Hafner was 2-for-5.  Matt LaPorta was 2-for-5.  Aaron Laffey pitched five innings, giving up an unearned run on five hits and four walks and striking out two.

The game:  Hafner led off the second with a single and Jhonny Peralta walked.  With one out, Crowe doubled and Donald hit an RBI ground out, making it 2-0 Cleveland.  There were several threats, but no more runs until the fourth, when the Twins got on the board.  Kubel led off with a double, Young singled, and Danny Valencia drew a one-out walk, loading the bases.  All the Twins could manage, though, was one run on a passed ball, so they still trailed 2-1.

It cost them, as the Indians took control in the fifth.  Santana doubled and Duncan singled.  With one out, Peralta hit a sacrifice fly.  Then the roof fell in.  Singles by LaPorta and Crowe made it 4-1 and chased starter Scott Baker from the game.  Alex Burnett came in and gave up RBI singles to Donald and Brantley.  Ron Mahay came in and gave up an RBI single to Nix.  It was 7-1 and the game was effectively over.

It wasn’t literally over, though, and the Twins did get a couple of runs in the sixth.  Thome led off with a home run.  With two out, Denard Span walked and scored on Hudson’s double to make it 7-3.

That was as close as the Twins would get.  In the eighth, consecutive doubles by Duncan and Hafner made it 8-3.  In the ninth, consecutive singles by Crowe, Donald, Brantley, and Nix produced a run, and a sacrifice fly made it 10-3.  The Twins got one last run in the ninth when Michael Cuddyer doubled and scored on a Young single.

WP:  Laffey (2-3).

LP:  Scott Baker (7-9).

S:  None.

Notes:  The Twins used their standard lineup for 2010.  The only substitute used was Jason Repko, who pinch-hit for Thome in the ninth.

Valencia was batting .314.  He would finish at .311.  Young was batting .313.  He would finish at .298.

Joe Mauer was batting .297 at this point.  He would finish at .327.

Manship had an ERA of 2.45.  This was his fifth game of the season, and he would go back to AAA after it.  He would come back for a September call-up but pitch poorly, finishing at 5.28.  Jose Mijares had an ERA of 2.75.  He would finish at 3.31.

Santana appears to be the only player with a Twins connection to play for Cleveland in this game.

A couple of guys played in this game for who we would have hopes, only to see them dashed.  Delmon Young had the best year of his career, batting .298/.333/.493.  He was twenty-four, and seemed to have figured things out.  His list of similar batters by age included Carl Yastrzemski and Al Oliver.  Instead, he went backward.  The Twins traded him to Detroit in August of 2011 and he would be out of the majors before he was thirty.  Danny Valencia batted .311 as a rookie.  He would lose his starting job by 2012, be traded to Baltimore, and bounce around the majors for several more years.  He would have a couple more good years, but would never fulfill the promise he seemed to have.

On the pitching side, Jose Mijares followed a good 2009 with a fine 2010.  He would be down in 2011, become a free agent, have a decent year in 2012 with Kansas City and San Francisco, but be out of the majors after 2013.

Record:  Cleveland was 39-54, in fifth place in the AL Central, 12.5 games behind Chicago.  They would finish 69-93, in fourth place, 25 games behind Minnesota.

The Twins were 49-44, in third place in the AL Central, 2.5 games behind Chicago.  They would finish 94-68, in first place, six games ahead of Chicago.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 12-10 (.545)

OAKLAND ATHLETICS 5, MINNESOTA TWINS 3 IN OAKLAND

Date:  Monday, September 19, 1988.

Batting star:  Jim Dwyer was 2-for-3.  John Moses was 2-for-5.

Pitching stars:  Roy Smith pitched 3.1 scoreless innings, giving up four hits and a walk.  Juan Berenguer pitched two shutout innings, walking three and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Luis Polonia was 2-for-3 with two walks.  Mike Gallego was 2-for-3 with a walk.  Jose Canseco was 2-for-4 with a walk.  Dave Parker was 2-for-5 with a two-run homer, his eleventh.  Dave Stewart pitched 6.1 innings, giving up three runs on eight hits and two walks and striking out six.  Dennis Eckersley pitched two perfect innings, striking out one.

The game:  Moses led off the game with a single, was balked to second, went to third on a fly out, and scored on a ground out, giving the Twins a 1-0 lead.  In the second, Carney Lansford walked and scored on Terry Steinbach’s single-plus-error to tie it.  Steinbach went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a Stan Javier infield single to give Oakland a 2-1 advantage.

The Twins went back in front in the third.  Singles by Greg Gagne and Tom Herr put men on first and second with one out.  RBI singles by Randy Bush and Kirby Puckett made it 3-2 Twins.  But the lead was short-lived, as Canseco led off the bottom of the third with a single and Parker followed with a two-run homer, putting the Athletics in front 4-3.  Later in the inning, singles by Lansford, Walt Weiss, and Gallego made it 5-3 Oakland.

And that was it for the scoring.  Each team had threat in the sixth.  For the Twins, Dwyer had a one-out single and Gene Larkin walked.  With two-out, Al Newman walked to load the bases, but a foul fly ended the inning.  For the Athletics, Polonia had a bunt single and stole second with two out.  Canseco was intentionally walked, but a ground out put an end to the inning.

Moses led off the seventh with a single, but he never moved past first.  The last nine Twins were retired, and the victory went to Oakland.

WP:  Stewart (19-12).

LP:  Fred Toliver (7-5).

S:  Eckersley (42).

Notes:  Larkin was at first base in place of Kent Hrbek.  Herr was acquired specifically to play second, but Steve Lombardozzi actually made the most appearances there in 1988.  Newman was at third in place of Gary Gaetti.  Moses was in left in place of Dan Gladden, although Gladden would pinch-hit and then go to left, with Moses moving to right.  Dwyer, who had been acquired at the August trade deadline, was the DH, where Larkin had made the most appearances.

Puckett was batting .346.  He would go 24-for-54 over the last twelve games to finish at .356.  Moses was batting .314.  He would finish at .316.  Gaetti was batting .300.  He would finish at .301.

Terry Steinbach would go on to play for the Twins at the end of his career.  He was 1-for-3 with a walk in this game.

This was Fred Toliver’s only year as a rotation starter.  He would make 19 starts and go 7-6, 4.24.  He might have been a good pitcher if he could’ve found the strike zone more often, although there are lots of pitchers of whom that could be said.  He walked 4.1 per nine in 1988 and 4.5 per nine for his career.  He made 37 starts in his career, so just over half of them came in 1988.

This was a September game and the Twins were out of the pennant race, so several substitutes were used.  This includes a couple of guys who had very brief Twins careers, Eric Bullock and Doug Baker.  Bullock appeared in 16 games with the Twins and in 131 games over seven seasons.  Baker appeared in 11 games with the Twins in 1988, 57 games total, and 136 games over seven seasons.

This was Eckersley’s first full season as a closer, and he made the most of it.  He had 45 saves and a WHIP of 0.87.  He would finish second in Cy Young voting to Frank Viola.  

Record:  Oakland was 96-55, in first place in the AL West, 12.5 games ahead of Minnesota.  They would finish 104-58, 13 games ahead of Minnesota.

The Twins were 83-67, in second place in the AL West, 12.5 games behind Oakland.  They would finish 91-71, in second place, 13 games behind Oakland.  The Twins finished six games better than they had in their 1987 championship season, but it wasn’t enough to hold off the Athletics.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 12-9 (.571).

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).