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).

MINNESOTA TWINS 3, ST. LOUIS CARDINALS 2 IN ST. LOUIS

Date:  Tuesday, August 1, 2023.

Batting stars:  None.  Seven Twins had exactly one hit, and they did not hit a home run.

Pitching stars:  Pablo Lopez pitched six innings, giving up one run on four hits and striking out five.  Emilio Pagan pitched a scoreless inning, walking one and striking out one.  Griffin Jax pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two hits.

Opposition stars:  Taylor Motter was 2-for-3.  Lars Nootbaar was 2-for-4.  Tyler O’Neill hit a home run, his third.

The game:  Neither team got a man past first base until the fifth, when Ryan Jeffers hit a one-out double.  Michael A. Taylor then reached on an error with two out, scoring Jeffers and giving the Twins a 1-0 lead.  The lead held up until the sixth.  Motter led off with a single, Nootbaar singled with one out, and Nolan Arenado delivered a two-out single that tied it 1-1.  

The Twins got the lead right back in the seventh.  Jorge Polanco singled and Matt Wallner hit a ground-rule double, putting men on second and third with none out.  A strikeout followed, but then Donovan Solano hit a two-run single that put the Twins ahead 3-1.  

Each team threatened in the eighth.  Byron Buxton hit a two-out double for the Twins.  For St. Louis, Nootbaar and Paul Goldschmidt hit two-out singles.  Still, it remained 3-1 until the ninth.  With one out, O’Neill hit a home run to cut the lead to 3-2.  Jhoan Duran struck out the next two batters, however, and the victory was preserved.

WP:  Pablo Lopez (6-6).

LP:  Miles Mikolas (6-7).

S:  Duran (18).

Notes:  Christian Vazquez actually caught more games than Jeffers in 2023, although they split the time fairly evenly.  Joey Gallo started at first base, with Solano pinch-hitting for him in the seventh.  Jorge Polanco started at third base, moving to second when Kyle Farmer pinch-hit for Edouard Julien in the eighth.  Matt Wallner started in left, with Willi Castro replacing him for defense in the seventh.

No one who played in this game for the Twins was batting .300.  The closest was Julien at .293.

Jax had an ERA of 2.98.  He would finish at 3.86.  Duran had an ERA of 2.81.  He would finish at 2.45.

Taylor Motter had played for the Twins briefly in 2018.  He pretty much defines “futility infielder”.  In 480 at-bats over six seasons, he “hit” .188/.258/.294.  He could play all over the infield and also had forty games in the outfield, but he didn’t really help you at any of those positions.  I assume he’s a really nice guy.

This is the first interleague game for the Random Twins.

Record:  St. Louis was 47-61, in fifth place in the NL Central, 11.5 games behind Cincinnati.  They would finish 71-91, in fifth place, 21 games behind Milwaukee.

Minnesota was 55-53, in first place in the AL Central, two games ahead of Cleveland.  They would finish 87-75, in first place, nine games ahead of Detroit.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 11-8 (.579).