Tag Archives: good batting averages

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 1973, Game One Hundred Twenty-eight

MILWAUKEE 3, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA

DateL  Sunday, August 26.

Batting star:  Jim Holt was 2-for-4 with a double.

Pitching stars:  Bert Blyleven struck out eleven in 7.2 innings, giving up three runs on nine hits and no walks.  Bill Hands retired all four men he faced, striking out two.

Opposition stars:  Jim Slaton pitched 8.2 innings, giving up two runs on six hits and a walk and striking out none.  Bob Coluccio was 2-for-4 with a double and a stolen base, his tenth.  Pedro Garcia was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer, his eleventh.

The game:  The Brewers put men on second and third with none out in the first, but Blyleven came back to strike out Johnny Briggs and George Scott before retiring Don Money on a liner to left.  In the second, however, Tim Johnson hit a two-out single and Garcia followed with a two-run homer, putting Milwaukee ahead 2-0.

Holt had a leadoff double in the third but did nothing came of it.  That was the only time either team got a man past first base until the sixth, when Coluccio doubled and Money delivered a two-out single to make it 3-0.

Brewers starter Slaton appeared to be in complete control.  In the ninth, however, Larry Hisle led off with a triple and Tony Oliva singled him home, making the score 3-1 and bringing the tying run up to bat.  Mike Adams came in to run for Oliva and got as far as second with two out.  Chris Short came in to face Steve Braun, but when Bobby Darwin pinch-hit he was intentionally walked.  That was the only man Short would face, as Carlos Velazquez came in to face pinch-hitter Eric Soderholm.  Soderholm delivered an RBI single, cutting the margin to 3-2 and putting the tying run on third.  Jerry Terrell fouled out to third, however, and the game was over.

WP:  Slaton (9-11).  LP:  Blyleven (15-14).  S:  Velazquez (2).

Notes:  Phil Roof caught in place of George Mitterwald, presumably because it was a day game after a night game.

Rich Reese was at first base, one of only four games he started for the Twins.  He was at the end of his career, having been released by Detroit a couple of weeks earlier, and was apparently brought back to the Twins out of sentiment.  Harmon Killebrew was still the primary first baseman, but he missed a couple of months due to injury.  Joe Lis played the most games at first in 1973, with 96.

Terrell shared the shortstop position with Danny Thompson.  Both were pretty much dead weight offensively.  Terrell was a little better, at .265/.297/.315.  Thompson batted .225/.259/.282.  Thompson played more games at short, 95 to 81.

Darwin was the regular right fielder, but was given the day off.  Holt, who played the most games in left (80), was in right, with Hisle in left.  Hisle also played quite a bit of center field, but Steve Brye played the most games there and was there in this game.

All the substitutions came in the ninth inning and are mentioned above.

Carew, not surprisingly, was leading the team in batting at .347.  He would finish at .350 and be the team's only .300 hitter.  The Twins would actually lead the league in batting at .270.  Carew was obviously a big part of that, but Holt batted .297, Oliva .291, and Braun .283.  Soderholm also batting .297 in 111 at-bats.

Darwin led the team in home runs with 18.  Mitterwald and Oliva each had 16, Hisle 15, and Holt 11.  The Twins were seventh in home runs with 120.

Blyleven, of course, was the ace of the pitching staff, going 20-17, 2.52.  Dick Woodson was 10-8, 3.95; Jim Kaat was 11-12, 4.41; Joe Decker was 10-10, 4.18.  Others to make double digit starts were Hands (7-10, 3.49) and Dave Goltz (6-4, 5.25).  Hands' record is deceiving.  In his fifteen starts he went 5-7, 4.55.  Moved to the bullpen, he was excellent, going 2-3, 1.34, 1.09 WHIP, and two saves in 47 relief innings.

The Twins didn't really have a closer.  Ken Sanders started the year as the closest thing to one, but he often was used for two or three innings.  He had eight saves, but also had an ERA of over six when he was waived in early August.  Ray Corbin took over the closer role and actually was fairly good, getting 14 saves.  The Twins preferred to have him in a longer role, so Bill Campbell was eventually made the closer near the season's end.

This was Bob Coluccio's rookie year.  He was a regular for Milwaukee for two seasons but couldn't get his batting average out of the .220s.  Presumably he was considered a fine fielder.

This was also Pedro Garcia's rookie year.  He batted .245/.296/.395, which was good enough to place him second in Rookie of the Year voting behind Al Bumbry.  That was as good as it would get for him, though.  He slumped to .199 the next year and was never a regular again.  His was a second baseman, and presumably was not all that good in the field, because while he spent a few seasons as a reserve he was never used at another position.

This was the end of a stretch in which the Twins lost eight out of nine.  They would win seven of the next nine.

Record:  The Twins were 60-68, in third place in the American League West, 16.5 games behind Oakland.  They would finish 81-81, in third place, 13 games behind Oakland.

The Brewers were 62-65, in fifth place in the American League East, 12.5 games behind Baltimore.  They would finish 74-88, in fifth place, 23 games behind Baltimore.

Random record:  The Twins are 38-35 in Random Rewind games.

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 1994, Game Thirty

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MINNESOTA 9, TEXAS 7 IN TEXAS

Date:  Saturday, May 7.

Batting stars:  David McCarty was 3-for-5 with a triple and a double.  Scott Leius was 2-for-3 with a double, two walks, a stolen base, and three runs.  Shane Mack was 2-for-4 with a home run, a double, a walk, two runs, and two RBIs.  Chuck Knoblauch was 2-for-5 with two doubles, a walk, and two runs.

Pitching star:  Pat Mahomes pitched six innings, giving up two runs on five hits and three walks and striking out four.

Opposition stars:  Bill Ripken was 4-for-5 with two doubles.  Will Clark was 2-for-4 with a home run (his fourth), a walk, and two runs.  Doug Strange was 2-for-4.  Manny Lee was 2-for-5 with a double and two RBIs.  Juan Gonzalez was 2-for-5.

The game:  Doubles by Knoblauch and Mack put the Twins ahead 1-0 in the first inning.  In the second Leius doubled, went to third on a McCarty single, and scored on a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.

The Rangers got on the board in the second when Clark walked, Gonzalez singled, a bunt moved them to second and third, and a ground out scored Clark.  Clark homered leading off the fourth to tie it, but Mack homered leading off the fifth to make it 3-2 Twins.  It went to 4-2 in the sixth when Leius walked, went to second on an error, and scored on McCarty's double.

The Twins appeared to take control in the seventh.  Alex Cole singled and Mack walked.  RBI singles by Pedro Munoz, Leius, and Matt Walbeck put the Twins up 7-2.  Texas scored in the bottom of the seventh on doubles by Ripken and Lee, but the Twins got the run back in the eighth when Knoblauch doubled, went to third on a bunt, and scored on a sacrifice fly.  The Rangers scored in the bottom of the eighth on singles by Gonzalez, Ripken, and Lee, but the Twins again got the run back in the ninth when Leius walked, stole second, and scored on an error.

The Twins had a comfortable 9-4 lead going to the bottom of the ninth.  Rick Aguilera came in, presumably just to get an inning of work.  it was work, all right.  Chris James opened the inning with a single-plus error and scored on a Jose Canseco single.  The next two batters were retired, but singles by Doug Strange, Junior Ortiz, and Ripken made the score 7-5 and brought the deciding run to the plate in Lee.  He grounded out to Aguilera, and the victory was finally preserved.

WP:  Mahomes (2-1).  LP:  Kenny Rogers (2-3).  S:  None.

Notes:  McCarty was at first base in place of Kent Hrbek, who was out due to injury.  Munoz was in right, with Kirby Puckett at DH and Dave Winfield out of the lineup.

Mack had missed the first month of the season, so this was only his fourth game.  He started with a bang, as he was batting .538 after this game.  He would finish at .333.  Cole was batting .340.  He would finish at .296.  Puckett was batting .331.  He would finish at .317.

Twins pitchers were not off to a particularly good start, or at least the ones used in this game were not.  After the game, Mahomes had an ERA of 6.12.  He would finish at 4.73.  Mark Guthrie was at 10.00.  He would finish at 6.14.  Carl Willis was at 7.40.  He would finish at 5.92.  Aguilera was at 6.94.  He would finish at 3.63.

Texas starter (and future Twin) Kenny Rogers pitched 6.1 innings, allowing six runs (five earned) on eight hits and four walks and striking out seven.

The Rangers had some thump in the middle of their lineup:  Canseco, Clark, and Gonzalez.  They also had Ivan Rodriguez, who wasn't exactly a banjo hitter.  Despite that, they were sixth in the league in home runs.  Clark hit just 13 homers that year, and Canseco just 19.  Canseco was the only one to hit more than twenty homers that season--he had thirty-one.

It should also be pointed out that this was a strike season.  The season ended on August 10, and there was no post-season.

This was the first game of a stretch in which the Twins won four in a row and eleven of twelve.

Record:  The Twins were 12-18, in fifth (last) place in the American League Central, five games behind Chicago.  They would finish 53-60, in fourth place, fourteen games behind Chicago.

The Rangers were 12-15, in first place (!) in the American League West, 1.5 games ahead of Seattle.  They would finish 52-62, in first place (!) in the American League West, one game ahead of Oakland.

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 2008, Game Sixty-five

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CLEVELAND 1, MINNESOTA 0 IN CLEVELAND

Date:  Tuesday, June 10.

Batting stars:  None.

Pitching stars:  Scott Baker pitched seven innings, giving up one run on eight hits and one walk and striking out one.  Matt Guerrier pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  C. C. Sabathia pitched a complete game shutout, giving up five hits and no walks and striking out five.  David Dellucci was 2-for-3.  Ryan Garko was 2-for-4.

The game:  The Twins opened the game with two singles, but the rally fizzled when Carlos Gomez was doubled off second base when a long fly by Justin Morneau was caught.  The Indians took advantage of it, scoring in the bottom of the first when Ben Francisco hit a one-out double and Garko delivered a two-out single.

And that was it for the scoring.  The Twins never really got a threat going after that.  They got three more singles, but no runner got past first base.  They had no extra-base hits and did not draw any walks.  It was 1-0 after one inning, and it was 1-0 at the end of the game.

WP:  Sabathia (4-8).  LP:  Baker (2-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  Michael Cuddyer was in right field.  Denard Span, who was a rookie that year, is listed as the regular right fielder, but he didn't really take over the job until Cuddyer was injured in late June.  The injury essentially ended Cuddyer's season, although he made a handful of appearances in September.

Mike Redmond was the DH in this game.  Craig Monroe started the season as the DH, but he was found wanting Jason Kubel became the more-or-less full time designated hitter.

Brendan Harris was at shortstop.  Adam Everett was supposed to be the regular shortstop, but he missed much of the season due to injuries.  Harris and Nick Punto pretty much shared the position after that.

Matt Macri was at third base.  This was another instance of a failed plan.  Mike Lamb was supposed to be the third baseman.  When that didn't work, Brian Buscher became the more-or-less regular at the position.

This was Macri's only season in the majors, and he got only thirty-four at bats.  He made the most of them, batting .324/.361/.441.  There's nothing in his record that suggests he could've sustained anything near that, but he still has a lifetime average of .324, and that's pretty good.

Other than Macri, Alexi Casilla was the leading batter on the team at .330.  He would finish at .281.  It was an empty .281, as his OPS was .707.  That was the second-highest OPS of his career--he was at .726 in 2010.

Joe Mauer was batting .327.  His average was sustainable, as he finished the season at .328 and led the league in batting.

Mike Redmond was batting .311.  He would finish at .287.

This was the year the Twins lost game 163 to Chicago.  When you look at the names listed above, it's remarkable that they came that close to winning the division, although it may be more due to the weakness of the division than anything else.  Still, it's rather frustrating to think that, if they'd just made one or two moves to acquire some good players, rather than shopping in the bargain basement, they probably could've won the division easily.

Record:  The Twins were 31-34, in second place in the American League Central, six games behind Chicago.  They would finish 88-75, in second place, one game behind Chicago.

The Indians were 30-35, in third place in the American League Central, seven games behind Chicago.  They would finish 81-81, in third place, 7.5 games behind Chicago.