Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 2007, Game 89

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MINNESOTA TWINS 6, OAKLAND ATHLETICS 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Thursday, July 12, 2007.

Batting stars:  Michael Cuddyer was 4-for-4 with a triple and a double.  Garrett Jones was 2-for-4 with a double.

Pitching stars:  Scott Baker pitched six innings, giving up two runs on five hits and a walk and striking out three.  Matt Guerrier retired all four men he faced.  Joe Nathan struck out two in a perfect inning.

Opposition star:  Shannon Stewart was 2-for-4 with a double.

The game:  The Twins took advantage of wildness by Oakland starter Chad Gaudin to score two in the first inning.  Luis Castillo walked.  With one out, Joe Mauer walked and Cuddyer delivered an RBI single.  A passed ball put men on second and third, leading to an intentional walk to Justin Morneau.  An unintentional walk to Torii Hunter followed, and the Twins led 2-0.

The Twins added a couple more in the second.  Jones led off with a single and Nick Punto followed with a double.  A ground out scored one and a Jason Bartlett single plated another, making the score 4-0 Twins.

Oakland had only two hits through the first four innings, but came to life in the fifth.  Bobby Crosby hit a one-out double.  The Twins had him picked off, but an error on Baker moved Crosby to third.  Stewart drove him in with a double and scored on Mark Kotsay’s RBI single, cutting the lead to 4-2.

The Twins got one back in the fifth.  Mauer walked, Cuddyer hit an infield single, and Morneau singled in the run to make it 5-2.  The Twins had men on first and third with none out, but could do no more.  They got one more in the seventh, however, as Cuddyer tripled and scored on a Hunter single.

And that was it.  The Athletics had just five hits, and none after the fifth inning.

WP:  Scott Baker (4-3)..

LP:  Chad Gaudin (8-4).

S:  None.

Notes:  Garrett Jones was the DH in this game.  The Twins didn’t have a regular DH in 2007.  Jason Kubel had the most appearances there with 36.  He also had the most appearances in left field, with 84.

Mauer was batting .306.  He would finish at .293.  Castillo was batting .301.  He would finish at .304.  Hunter was also batting .301.  He would finish at .287.

Guerrier had an ERA of 1.66.  He would finish at 2.35.  Nathan had an ERA of 2.11.  He would finish at 1.88.

Shannon Stewart, of course, played for the Twins from 2003-2006.  This was his only year in Oakland and his last year as a regular.  He would play one more year, as a part-time player for Toronto.

It’s a long time since I thought about Garrett Jones.  This was his first year in the majors and his only year with the Twins.  The Twins would let him become a free agent after the 2008 season and he would sign with Pittsburgh.  He had a couple of very good years for the Pirates, finishing seventh in Rookie of the Year voting in 2009 and hitting 27 home runs in 2012.  For his eight-year career he batted .251/.312/.445 with 122 home runs.  Not exactly Hall of Fame numbers, but still a very respectable career.

Oakland used pitcher Kiko Calero in the seventh inning.  I have zero memory of him, but he was actually a pretty good reliever for four years.  From 2003-2006, with St. Louis and Oakland, he appeared in 195 games, pitched 197.1 innings, and went 11-5 with six saves, an ERA of 3.10 and a WHIP of 1.13.  He had a poor year in 2007, spent most of 2008 in the minors, but rebounded to have another excellent season with Florida in 2009, going 2-2, 1.95, 1.00 WHIP.  Oddly, that was his last season in the majors.  He became a free agent, signed with the Mets, was released in May, signed with the Dodgers in June, and was released in July.  He did not pitch well in AAA, leading one to wonder if he might have been injured.

Record:  Oakland was 44-45, in third place in the AL West, 9.5 games behind the Angels.  They would finish 76-86, in third place, 18 games behind the Angels.

Minnesota was 46-43, in third place in the AL Central, 7 games behind Detroit.  They would finish 79-83, in third place, 17 games behind Cleveland.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 13-10 (.565).

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–October 23

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William Hulbert (1832)
Mike Sullivan (1866)
Lena Blackburne (1886)
Rube Bressler (1894)
Felton Snow (1905)
Barney Brown (1907)
Billy Sullivan (1910)
Vern Stephens (1920)
Ewell Blackwell (1922)
Jim Bunning (1931)
Greg Thayer (1949)
John Castino (1954)
Dwight Lowry (1957)
Al Leiter (1965)
Todd Sears (1975)
David Riske (1976)
John Lackey (1978)
Bud Smith (1979)
Kyle Gibson (1987)

William Hulbert was one of the founders of the National League and was its president from 1877 until his death in 1882.

Infielder Lena Blackburne discovered and marketed the mud from the driver beds near the Delaware River in New Jersey that has been rubbed on every major league baseball used since the 1950s.

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Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 2010, Game 93

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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)

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–October 22

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Kid Carsey (1870)
Bill Carrigan (1883)
Johnny Morrison (1895)
Jumbo Elliott (1900)
Jimmie Foxx (1907)
Wilbur Wood (1941)
Jamie Quirk (1954)
Frank DiPino (1956)
Keith Osik (1968)
Hector Carrasco (1969)
Ichiro Suzuki (1973)
Michael Barrett (1976)
Brad Thomas (1977)
Eli Whiteside (1979)
Robinson Cano (1982)
Darren O'Day (1982)
Carlos Torres (1982)

We would also like to wish very happy anniversary to Daneeka's Ghost and Mrs. Ghost.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–October 22 →

Remodeled basement. Same half-baked taste.