Tag Archives: Esteban Loaiza

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game One Hundred Fifty-one

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MINNESOTA 5, CHICAGO 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, September 16.

Batting stars:  Torii Hunter was 2-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base, his sixth.  Michael Ryan was 2-for-4.  Jacque Jones was 1-for-2 with two walks.

Pitching star:  Brad Radke pitched seven innings, giving up one run on eight hits and no walks and striking out three.

Opposition stars:  Carl Everett was 2-for-4 with a home run (his twenty-eighth) and two RBIs.  Carlos Lee was 2-for-4.  Roberto Alomar was 2-for-4.  Scott Schoeneweis struck out five in 3.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and two walks.

The game:  The Twins got on the board in the first inning on three walks and a Corey Koskie sacrifice fly.  In the second, two singles and a walk loaded the bases with one out.  An RBI ground out and a wild pitch followed.  The Twins had not scored a run on a hit, but still led 3-0 through two.  They made it 4-0 in the third on consecutive singles by Hunter, A. J. Pierzynski, and Ryan.

The White Sox had gotten a pair of singles in the first and again in the third, but did not score either time.  They broke through in the sixth, however, on singles by Lee, Frank Thomas, and Everett, cutting the lead to 4-1.  The Twins got the run back in the seventh.  Jones singled, pinch-runner Lew Ford stole second, and Hunter delivered an RBI single.

Chicago got only one hit after the sixth.  It was a home run by Everett with one out in the ninth, but the White Sox did not bring the tying run even to the on-deck circle.

WP:  Radke (13-10).  LP:  Esteban Loaiza (19-8).  S:  None.

Notes:  Denny Hocking was at second base in place of Luis Rivas.  Stewart was in left, Ryan in right, and Jones at DH.  The only lineup substitution was Ford for Jones as mentioned above.

Ryan raised his average to .389.  Stewart was 0-for-3 and was batting .310.  Pierzynski was 1-for-4 and was batting .305.  Jones raised his average to .304.  Doug Mientkiewicz was 0-for-2 and was batting .304.

Radke again came up big for the Twins.  He had struggled most of the season, but turned it around when he got to September.  In his last three starts he had given up just five earned runs in 23 innings, giving up 22 hits and zero walks.

LaTroy Hawkins gave up one run in two innings, raising his ERA to 1.95.

Loaiza had an excellent year in 2003, but he didn't get it done in this game.  Wildness did him in--he walked five in 2.1 innings, giving up four runs on four hits and striking out one.  He had made the all-star team in 2003 and finished second in Cy Young voting behind Roy Halladay, but the Twins beat him (or he beat himself) in a very important game.

The Twins had one the first of the three-game series, and assured that they could be no worse than a half-game out of first at the end of it.  The Royals won, trying to stay in the race.

Record:  The Twins were 82-69, in first place in the American League Central, 1.5 games ahead of Chicago.  They were 3.5 games ahead of third-place Kansas City.

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game Seventy-five

CHICAGO 2, MINNESOTA 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, June 24.

Batting stars:  Denny Hocking was 2-for-2 with a double and a walk.  Corey Koskie was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Rick Reed pitched seven innings, giving up two runs and six hits and two walks and striking out six.  J. C. Romero struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up a walk.  LaTroy Hawkins struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up two hits.

Opposition stars:  Esteban Loaiza pitched eight innings, giving up an unearned run on six hits and one walk and striking out six.  Carlos Lee was 2-for-4 with a double.

The game:  The White Sox put men on first and second with one out in the first, but a line drive double play took them out of the inning.  Brian Daubach led off the second with a double and scored on Lee's single to put Chicago ahead 1-0.

Neither team did much then until the sixth, when Miguel Olivo led off with a double.  He was still on second with two out, but Frank Thomas singled him home to make it 2-0 White Sox.

Loaiza pretty much stifled the Twins offense.  They did not put two men on in an inning until the eighth, when Bobby Kielty led off with a single and Hocking drew a one-out walk.  At that they might not have scored, but a forceout-plus-error brought Kielty home.  The Twins had the tying run on second with two out, but a ground out ended the inning.  They went down in order in the ninth.

WP:  Loaiza (11-2).  LP:  Reed (3-8).  S:  Billy Koch (11).

Notes:  Hocking was at second base in place of Luis Rivas.  Kielty was in right field, with Justin Morneau at DH.

Morneau was 0-for-4 and was batting .316.  Doug Mientkiewicz was 1-for-3 and was batting .306.  Koskie was batting .305.  Jacque Jones was 0-for-4 and dropped below .300 at .299.

Hocking had a five-game hitting streak over which he was 9-for-16.  He raised his average nearly a hundred points, from .167 to .265.

A. J. Pierzynski was on an 0-for-9 streak, dropping his average from .300 to .288.

Hawkins lowered his ERA to 1.96.

This was by far Loaiza's best season.  He went 21-9, 2.90, 1.11 WHIP and led the league in strikeouts.  He made the first of two all-star teams and finished second in Cy Young voting to Roy Halladay.  His next highest win total was 12, in 2005, and he only got his ERA below four one other time, also in 2012 (3.77).  I don't know what happened to him in 2003, or if it was just luck, but whatever it was, he couldn't do it again.

Record:  The Twins were 40-35, in second place in the American League Central, one percentage point behind Kansas City.

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game Twenty-four

CHICAGO 3, MINNESOTA 1 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Sunday, April 27.

Batting stars:  None.

Pitching stars:  Rick Reed pitched seven innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on three hits and one walk and striking out five.  Eddie Guardado pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Esteban Loiaza struck out eight in seven innings, giving up one run on six hits and no walks.  Damaso Marte struck out two in two perfect innings.  Jose Valentin was 1-for-3 with a home run, his sixth.

The game:  The Twins got a pair of singles in the first but did nothing with them.  Valentin homered with one out in the bottom of the first to give the White Sox a 1-0 lead.  They made it 2-0 in the second.  Brian Daubach walked, Carlos Lee reached on an error, and the two then pulled off a double steal of second and home.

The Twins got on the board in the fourth when Torii Hunter had a two-out double and scored on an A. J. Pierzynski single.  Chicago got the run right back in the bottom of the fourth.  Magglio Ordonez led off with a double and scored on a one-out single by Lee, putting the White Sox up 3-1.

And that was it.  The Twins had only two hits after that, both singles, and neither man got past first base.  Chicago didn't do any more on offense either, but they didn't need to, and the game ended with a 3-1 score.

WP:  Loaiza (5-0).  LP:  Reed (1-4).  S:  Marte (1).

Notes:  Michael Cuddyer was at first base in place of Doug Mientkiewicz.  Chris Gomez was at second base in place of Luis Rivas.  Bobby Kielty was at DH in place of Matthew LeCroy.

The Twins made no in-game lineup substitutions.

Kielty was 1-for-4 and was batting .339.  Gomez was 0-for-3 and fell to .310.  Jacque Jones was 1-for-4 and was batting .302.

Dustan Mohr was 0-for-3 and was batting .125.  Cuddyer was 0-for-3 and was batting .197.

By game scores, this was tied for the second-best game of the season for Reed, and was his best of the season so far.  It dropped his ERA to a still-high 6.26.  Guardado lowered his ERA to 1.04.

This was easily Loaiza's best season.  He went 21-9, 2.90, 1.11 WHIP.  He led the league in strikeouts and finished second in Cy Young voting to Roy Halladay.  It was the only season in which he had an ERA under three, and one of only two seasons in which he had an ERA under four.  I don't know what was different about 2003, but it is really an outlier in his career.  His career numbers are 126-114, 4.65, 1.41 WHIP.

The White Sox really didn't have a closer in 2003, with Tom Gordon (12 saves), Billy Koch (11), and Marte (11), sharing the job.  And it really does look like sharing the job--it doesn't appear that they went with one, then another, then another.

This was Cuddyer's first appearance at first base in 2003.  He would play just a few more games before being sent back to Rochester, not returning until September.

The Twins had now lost eight out of nine games.

Record:  The Twins were 10-14, in third place in the American League Central, eight games behind Kansas City.