Tag Archives: Carl Willis

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Seventy-two

TORONTO 5, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Wednesday, June 26.

Batting stars:  Chili Davis was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer (his eighteenth) and a double.  Chuck Knoblauch was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Carl Willis pitched four innings of relief, giving up one run on four hits and no walks and striking out four.  Terry Leach pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  David Wells pitched eight innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and a walk and striking out two.  Joe Carter was 4-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs.  Glenallen Hill was 3-for-4 with a double.  Devon White was 3-for-5 with a triple, a double, a stolen base (his eighteenth) and two runs.  Roberto Alomar was 2-for-4 with a triple, a walk, and two RBIs.

The game:  This time it was the Blue Jays who jumped out to an early lead.  White started the game with a double and stole third.  Alomar then tripled and Carter doubled, putting Toronto up 2-0 after the first three batters of the game.  Twins starter Mark Guthrie then settled down, and there was no more scoring until the fourth.  With two out Hill singled, White tripled, and Carter singled to make the score 4-0.

The Twins got a man to second base in the first, fourth, and fifth, but could not score.  The Blue Jays added one more run in the sixth.  Manny Lee singled, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on an Alomar single, increasing the lead to 5-0.

The Twins again got a man to second in the seventh and did not score.  They finally got on the board in the eighth when Knoblauch singled and Davis hit a two-out two-run homer.  After that, however, all the Twins could do is a single by Shane Mack in the ninth.  The score remained 5-2.

WP:  Wells (9-4).  LP:  Guthrie (5-4).  S:  Tom Henke (13).

Notes:  Gene Larkin was again at first base in place of Kent Hrbek.  Al Newman pinch-hit for Scott Leius in the ninth.  Randy Bush pinch-hit for Greg Gagne in the ninth.  The pinch-hitters the Twins used had batting averages of .202 and .210, respectively.

Brian Harper was 0-for-4 and was batting .333.  Kirby Puckett was 0-for-3 with a walk and was batting .324.  Willis lowered his ERA to 3.03.  Leach's ERA went down to 3.26.

Guthrie allowed four runs in 3.2 innings on eight hits and two walks, striking out one.  His ERA was 5.66.

This was Guthrie's last start of the season.  He would be replaced in the rotation initially by Paul Abbott.  He would do much better out of the bullpen, going 2-1, 2.51, 1.37 WHIP with two saves in 43 innings (29 games).  He would make only two more starts in his major league career, both in 1994.  In his career as a starter, he was 13-18, 4.95, 1.52 WHIP.  As a reliever, he was 38-36, 3.75, 1.36 WHIP with 14 saves.

This was the second-longest stint of Willis' season to date, topped only by his 4.2 innings on April 23.  In August he would twice pitch five innings.  He would have a very good season, going 8-3, 2.63, 1.07 WHIP.  He would be about as good in 1992, going 7-3, 2.72, 1.06 WHIP.  He started to slip a little in 1993, although he was still pretty good.  After that he didn't get much accomplished, but from 1991-1993, he was a very effective relief pitcher.

This game is as good a place as any to declare the Twins' hot streak over.  It was a pretty good one, though.  From May 28 through June 25, the Twins won twenty-four out of twenty-seven.  They went from sixth place to first place.  They would not do that again, obviously, but they would continue to have winning months the rest of the season.

Record:  The Twins were 44-28, in first place in the American League West, 3.5 games ahead of California.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Sixty-five

MINNESOTA 9, BALTIMORE 2 IN BALTIMORE

Date:  Tuesday, June 18.

Batting stars:  Shane Mack was 2-for-3 with a home run (his sixth), two walks, and two runs.  Kent Hrbek was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-4.  Chuck Knoblauch was 2-for-5.  Junior Ortiz was 2-for-5.

Pitching star:  Scott Erickson pitched six shutout innings, giving up one hit and five walks and striking out three.

Opposition stars:  Bob Melvin was 2-for-4.  Paul Kilgus pitched 2.1 innings, giving up an unearned run on no hits and two walks and striking out one.

The game:  The Twins took the lead early, scoring two in the first inning.  With two out, Puckett singled and scored on Hrbek's double.  A wild pitch sent Hrbek to third and a balk scored him to make it 2-0.  In the third, Mack singled and scored on a Mike Pagliarulo double.  Ortiz followed with an RBI single to make it 4-0. With one out a walk and a single loaded the bases.  A force out scored one run and Hrbek singled in another to increase the lead to 6-0.

There were no more hits by either side until the sixth, when Ortiz singled.  He was caught stealing (!), but with two out Gladden singled, stole second, and scored on Knoblauch's single.  It went to 8-0 in the eighth when the Twins scored on an error, a walk, and a sacrifice fly.

The Orioles got on the board in the bottom of the eighth.  A pair of walks and a fly ball put men on first and third with one out.  A ground out scored one and Leo Gomez singled in another to make it 8-2.  A Mack home run in the ninth closed out the scoring.

WP:  Erickson (11-2).  LP:  Roy Smith (3-1).  S:  Carl Willis (1).

Notes:  With Erickson pitching, Ortiz was catching.  The Twins made some late-game changes with the big lead.  Pedro Munoz pinch-ran for Puckett in the sixth and went to right field, with Mack moving to center.  Scott Leius pinch-hit for Pagliarulo in the seventh and went to third base.  Gene Larkin pinch-hit for Hrbek in the eighth and went to first base.

Puckett was batting .329.  Erickson's ERA went down to 1.51.  Willis got a three-inning save, giving up two runs.  His ERA was 3.14.

Baltimore's starter was ex-Twin Roy Smith.  He pitched 5.2 innings, allowing seven runs on eleven hits and three walks and striking out one.

This was one of two saves for Willis in 1991, with the other coming August 4.  He had thirteen saves in his career, with a high of five in 1993.  The Twins had five pitchers with saves in 1991--Rick Aguilera (42), Steve Bedrosian (6).  Mark Guthrie (2), Willis (2), and Gary Wayne (1).

Despite the end of their winning streak yesterday, the Twins had won sixteen of seventeen and nineteen of twenty-one.  Could they start a new streak?

Record:  The Twins were 39-26, in first place in the American League West, 1.5 games ahead of Oakland.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Forty-three

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KANSAS CITY 5, MINNESOTA 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Sunday, May 26.

Batting stars:  Gene Larkin was 2-for-4.  Chili Davis was 2-for-4.  Chuck Knoblauch was 1-for-3 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  Carl Willis pitched three shutout innings, giving up one hit and striking out one.  Steve Bedrosian pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.  Rick Aguilera pitched a perfect inning and struck out one.

Opposition stars:  Bret Saberhagen pitched a complete game, giving up one run on eight hits and two walks and striking out two.  Brian McRae was 3-for-5 with a home run (his fourth), a stolen base (his fourth), two runs and two RBIs.  Brent Mayne was 2-for-4.  George Brett was 2-for-4.  Kirk Gibson was 2-for-5 with a double.

The game:  The Royals jumped on Twins starter Kevin Tapani for three runs in the first inning.  They got the first two of them before anyone was retired:  McRae singled, Gibson had an RBI double, Brett singled, and Danny Tartabull had an RBI single.  Following a pop up, Mayne singled home the third run of the inning.  Kansas City added another run in the second when McRae led off the inning with a homer to make the score 4-0.  They got their final run in the fourth when Terry Shumpert doubled and scored on McRae's single.

Meanwhile, the Twins were not doing much of anything off Saberhagen.  They got a man to second base in the third, when Knoblauch and Shane Mack drew two-out walks.  They did it again in the seventh when Davis reached on an error and Larkin had a two-out single.  They actually got two hits in the same inning in the eighth, when Knoblauch singled with one out and Kirby Puckett singled with two out.

The Twins did get on the board in the ninth, when they opened the inning with consecutive singles by Davis, Brian Harper, and Larkin.  Another hit would've brought the tying run to the plate, but instead a strikeout and a double play ended the game.

WP:  Saberhagen (5-3).  LP:  Tapani (2-5).  S:  None.

Notes:  With a day game, Mack was in left, replacing Dan Gladden.  He batted second, with Knoblauch moving up to the leadoff spot.  Larkin was in right field.  Al Newman was at short, replacing Greg Gagne.

Harper was 1-for-4 and was batting .368.  Puckett was 1-for-4 and was batting .326.  Davis raised his average to .313.

Tapani lasted just four innings, giving up five runs on nine hits and a walk and striking out one.  It was his first really bad game of the season, but he hadn't been pitching as well lately.  His ERA went up steadily from 2.10 on April 27 to now 3.79.

The Twins bullpen did really well.  Five shutout innings, giving up two hits and a walk.  Much of that was Willis, as set forth above.  His ERA was now 3.48.  Aguilera's ERA went to 1.69.

George Brett was off to a very slow start, and in fact would not have a particularly good year.  He had won the batting title in 1990, batting .329.  At this point in 1991, however, he was batting just .224.  He would end the season at .255 with an OPS of .729.  Well, he was thirty-eight.  He would play for two more seasons at about the same level of production, then retire at age forty.  He was mostly a DH at this point, with Bill Pecota having taken over at third base.  Pecota would bat .286 with an OPS of .756--I don't know how this compared to his PECOTA projection.

This was an odd-numbered year, so naturally Saberhagen was having a good season.  Actually, when you look at the stats, the odd-even thing is not nearly as pronounced as legend has made it out to be.  It shows up in his won-lost record more than anywhere else, indicating that it may have been a function of luck as much as anything.  It's true that, throughout most of his career, his ERA was lower in odd-numbered years than in even, but most of the time the difference is not all that great.  It made for a good story, though.

The Twins had now lost six of seven and eight of eleven.  One suspects people were saying "same old Twins".

Record:  The Twins were 20-23, sixth in the American League West, 6.5 games behind Texas.  They remained a half game behind fifth-place Chicago.  They were one game ahead of last-place Kansas City.