Tag Archives: first-inning runs

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game Eighty

CALIFORNIA 2, MINNESOTA 1 IN CALIFORNIA

Date:  Friday, July 10.

Batting star:  Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-2 with a double and two walks.

Pitching stars:  Jim Kaat pitched six innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and two walks and striking out two.  Stan Williams struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up two hits.

Opposition stars:  Jim Fregosi was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer. his fifteenth.  Jarvis Tatum was 2-for-4.  Andy Messersmith struck out thirteen in a complete game, giving up one run on six hits and three walks.

The game:  All the scoring came in the first inning.  For the Twins, Jim Holt hit a one-out single and scored on Killebrew's two-out double.  For the Angels, Tatum hit a one-out single followed by Fregosi's two-run homer.

And that was it.  California opened the fourth with a pair of singles, but a fly out and a double play ended the inning.  In the fifth Cesar Tovar drew a one-out walk and went to second on a wild pitch, but there he stayed.  The Angels loaded the bases with one out in the sixth, but again a double play took them out of the inning.  They got two on in the seventh with one out but did not cash it in.  The Twins got a man on in the eighth and again in the ninth, but did not advance him past first base.

WP:  Messersmith (8-8).

LP:  Kaat (7-7).

S:  None.

Notes:  Holt was in left field in place of Brant Alyea.  Paul Ratliff was behind the plate in place of George Mitterwald.  Danny Thompson remained at second base in place of Rod Carew.  Herman HIll and Rick Renick were used as pinch-hitters for pitchers.

Oliva was 0-for-4 and was batting .326.  Killebrew was batting .321.  Tovar was 0-for-3 and was batting .311.  Williams had an ERA of 1.48.

Hill was 0-for-1 and was batting .111.

It's not exactly rare, but it is unusual to have a game in which all the runs are scored in the first inning.  I'm sure this is nowhere near the record for most runs scored in a game like that, but I do wonder what the record is.

Neither team got a hit with a man in scoring position.  The Twins were 0-for-3 and California was 0-for-6.

I don't remember Fregosi as a power hitter, but he hit double-digit home runs six times.  His high was 22, set in 1970.  He hit 151 homers in his career.

1970 was the one year Jarvis Tatum got some decent playing time.  He got 181 at-bats in 75 games, batting .238/.302/.276.  An outfielder, he started 44 of those 75 games.  He stole 99 bases in the minors, so he presumably had some speed and was considered a good defender.  He hit for a decent average in AAA and hit some home runs in the Pacific Coast League, but it didn't translate to major league success.  He is one of two major league players with the first name "Jarvis", the other being ex-Twin Jarvis Brown.

The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for the Twins.

Record:  The Twins were 53-27, in first place in the American League West, five games ahead of California.

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game One Hundred Seventeen

MINNESOTA 4, DETROIT 3 IN DETROIT

Date:  Sunday, August 10.

Batting stars:  Shannon Stewart was 2-for-5 with a stolen base, his third.  Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-5.

Pitching stars:  Kenny Rogers struck out seven in seven innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk.  J. C. Romero pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a walk.  Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit.

Opposition stars:  Craig Monroe was 2-for-4 with a home run, his thirteenth.  Matt Walbeck was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer.  Nate Cornejo pitched a complete game, giving up four runs on nine hits and three walks and striking out three.  He threw 124 pitches.

The game:  The Twins got all of their runs in the first inning, and it was (barely) enough.  Stewart led off the game with a single, Denny Hocking walked, and Mientkiewicz had a bunt single, loading the bases with none out.  Corey Koskie then hit a two-run double.  The next two batters went out, but Dustan Mohr hit a two-run single to make it 4-0 Minnesota.

Rogers was in control for the first four innings, giving up just a few harmless singles.  But in the fifth Eric Munson singled and Walbeck hit a two-run homer, cutting the lead to 4-2.  Monroe homered in the sixth, making it 4-3.

But that was it.  The Tigers did not get a man past first after that, and the Twins held on for the victory.

WP:  Rogers (9-6).  LP:  Cornejo (5-11).  S:  Guardado (27).

Notes:  Chris Gomez was at second base in place of Luis Rivas.  Hocking was at short in place of Cristian Guzman.  Stewart was in left, Mohr in right, and Jacque Jones at DH.

Stewart was batting .319.  Jones was 0-for-4 and dropped to .305.  Koskie was 1-for-3 and was at .303.  A. J. Pierzynski was 0-for-3 and was batting .301.  Mientkiewicz raised his average back up to .300.

Rogers got his ERA back below five at 4.97.

I'd forgotten that the Twins had Jones at DH that much after trading for Stewart.

I wonder what the record is for most runs scored in the first inning in a game where you didn't score after the first inning.  I'm pretty sure it's more than four, but I wonder what it is.

This was one of two complete games Cornejo pitched in 2003.  Both were losses.  This was the only season he was a rotation starter for the full season.  He went 6-17, 4.67, 1.51 WHIP.  Both the ERA and the WHIP were the best he ever had in the major leagues.  For his career he was 12-29, 5.41, 1.66 WHIP in 313 innings.  He appeard in 56 games, all starts.

The Twins had won three in a row, giving hope that they had left the .500 mark behind for good.  Now, could they make up ground on the division leaders?

Record:  The Twins were 60-57, in third place in the American League Central, 2.5 games behind Kansas City.  They were two games behind second-place Chicago.