Harry Rice (1901)
Dick Bartell (1907)
Lew Burdette (1926)
Wade Blasingame (1943)
Rich Chiles (1946)
Greg Luzinski (1950)
Lyman Bostock (1950)
Wayne Tolleson (1955)
Lee Guetterman (1958)
Mike Benjamin (1965)
Jay Payton (1972)
Ricky Ledee (1973)
Joe Nathan (1974)
Jonny Gomes (1980)
Yusmeiro Petit (1984)
Adam Ottovino (1985)
Drew Pomeranz (1988)
Griffin Jax (1994)
Mike Benjamin was drafted by Minnesota in the seventh round in January, 1985, but did not sign.
Based on yesterday's question:
Which Twins Player's Number Would You Retire, If Any? (vote as many as you'd like)
Total Voters: 15
Loading ...Harry Rice (1901)
Dick Bartell (1907)
Lew Burdette (1926)
Wade Blasingame (1943)
Rich Chiles (1946)
Greg Luzinski (1950)
Lyman Bostock (1950)
Wayne Tolleson (1955)
Lee Guetterman (1958)
Mike Benjamin (1965)
Jay Payton (1972)
Ricky Ledee (1973)
Joe Nathan (1974)
Jonny Gomes (1980)
Yusmeiro Petit (1984)
Adam Ottovino (1985)
Drew Pomeranz (1988)
Griffin Jax (1994)
Mike Benjamin was drafted by Minnesota in the seventh round in January, 1985, but did not sign.
Date: Wednesday, June 4.
Batting star: Torii Hunter was 2-for-3 with two doubles and a walk.
Pitching stars: Brad Radke pitched seven innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk and striking out two. LaTroy Hawkins pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one.
Opposition stars: Ray Durham was 2-for-3 with a double and two walks. Barry Bonds was 2-for-4 with a triple, a walk, and two RBIs. Jerome Williams pitched 6.2 innings, giving up three runs on five hits and three walks and striking out six.
The game: The Twins took the lead in the first on doubles by Jacque Jones and Hunter. They increased their lead in the third. With one out, Cristian Guzman doubled and scored on Corey Koskie's single. Hunter doubled to put men on second and third and a ground out scored one, making it 3-0 Twins.
The Giants got on the board in the fourth when Durham walked and scored on Bonds' triple. Each team put a man into scoring position in the sixth, but neither could take advantage of it, so it stayed 3-1 through seven.
In the eighth Jose Cruz singled and scored from first on a Marquis Grissom double. That knocked Radke out of the box and brought J. C. Romero into the game. Durham singled to put men on the corners and Hawkins came in. Rich Aurilia hit a ground-rule double, tying it 3-3. An intentional walk loaded the bases with none out, but Hawkins retired the next three men to leave the score tied.
Juan Rincon came in to pitch the ninth. Jose Cruz walked with one out and went to second on a wild pitch. With two out Durham was intentionally walked and Aurilia was accidentally walked, loading the bases. Walking someone to face Barry Bonds was not usually a good idea, and that proved to be true in this case. Bonds singled to end the game.
WP: Tim Worrell (2-2). LP: Rincon (1-2). S: None.
Notes: Matthew LeCroy pinch-hit for Luis Rivas in the ninth. Denny Hocking came in to play second base.
Everyone reading this knows about Radke's first-inning struggles, but it was not the case in this game. He only allowed one hit through three innings, a single by Marvin Benard with one out in the third. He got through seven innings allowing just one run on four hits before apparently tiring in the eighth. He threw 88 pitches. Still, his ERA was 5.53 after this game.
Hawkins lowered his ERA to 1.23. Rincon gave up a run in two-thirds of an inning to make his ERA 2.55.
There were seven doubles in the game. The Twins had four and the Giants three.
Some guy named Joe Nathan came in for San Francisco to retire the only batter he faced in the seventh. I'm not sure whatever happened to him after 2003.
Record: The Twins were 32-25, in first place in the American League Central, 3.5 games ahead of Kansas City.
Harry Rice (1901)
Dick Bartell (1907)
Lew Burdette (1926)
Wade Blasingame (1943)
Rich Chiles (1946)
Greg Luzinski (1950)
Lyman Bostock (1950)
Wayne Tolleson (1955)
Lee Guetterman (1958)
Mike Benjamin (1965)
Jay Payton (1972)
Ricky Ledee (1973)
Joe Nathan (1974)
Jonny Gomes (1980)
Yusmeiro Petit (1984)
Adam Ottovino (1985)
Drew Pomeranz (1988)
Mike Benjamin was drafted by Minnesota in the seventh round in January, 1985, but did not sign.
Date: Wednesday, April 14.
Batting stars: Henry Blanco was 4-for-4 with a home run (his third), two doubles, three runs, and three RBIs. Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-4 with a double. Nick Punto was 2-for-5. Corey Koskie was 1-for-5 with a home run, his second.
Pitching stars: Aaron Fultz pitched two perfect innings. J. C. Romero pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a walk and striking out one.
Opposition stars: Casey Blake was 2-for-4 with a walk and two runs. Matt Lawton was 2-for-5 with two RBIs. Omar Vizquel was 2-for-5. Victor Martinez was 1-for-4 with a home run, his second.
The game: The Indians got on the board first, scoring once in the second inning on singles by Blake, Travis Hafner, and Ben Broussard. The Twins came right back to take the lead in the third. Michael Ryan led off with a single and Blanco followed with a two-run homer. Cristian Guzman then tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly to give the Twins a 3-1 lead.
They added to the lead in the fifth. Blanco led off with a single. He was caught stealing (!), but an error allowed him to get to second anyway. Guzman then doubled him home and later scored on a fly out-plus-error, making the score 5-1.
Cleveland chipped away at the lead. In the bottom of the fifth Coco Crisp doubled and scored on Lawton's single. In the sixth Blake singled, Hafner walked, and a couple of productive outs brought home a run, cutting the margin to 5-3.
The Twins got one of the runs back in the seventh on doubles by Blanco and Shannon Stewart. They put the game out of reach in the eighth. Mientkiewicz doubled and Jose Offerman walked. RBI singles by Jacque Jones and Lew Ford followed, and a run-scoring double by Blanco gave the Twins a 9-3 advantage. Koskie homered in the ninth to make it 10-3.
It wasn't quite over, though. Martinez led off the ninth with a home run and Broussard walked. The next two batters went out, but RBI singles by Lawton and Omar Vizquel narrowed the Twins lead to 10-6 before Blake struck out to end the game.
WP: Carlos Silva (1-0). LP: Jeff D'Amico (1-1). S: Juan Rincon (1).
Notes: Punto was at second base in place of Luis Rivas. Stewart was in left, but injuries would limit him to just 71 games there--Ford actually played more in left, with 81 games. Ryan was in center field in place of Torii Hunter, who missed a few weeks in April. This was the year Joe Mauer missed most of the season, so Blanco was the regular catcher.
Offerman had the most games at DH, but the Twins really didn't have a regular DH. Offerman was there 39 times, Matthew LeCroy 30, Ford 26, Stewart 21, Justin Morneau 11, Hunter 10, Ryan 10, and 11 others had a single-digit number of games there.
Ford came in to play center field in the seventh inning, replacing Ryan.
This early in the season there are some extreme batting averages. Punto was batting .412--he would finish at .253. Mientkiewica was batting .317--he would finish at .246. Blanco was batting .364--he would finish at .206. Offerman was batting .333--he would finish at .256. Stewart was also batting .333--he would finish at .304.
On the other end, Koskie was batting .167--he would finish at .251. Ryan was batting .167--he would finish at .239.
This was Silva's second start of the season, and it was his first year as a starter. He pitched five innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and two walks and striking out one.
This was Joe Nathan's first year as the Twins' closer. He had pitched three scoreless innings coming into this game, but here he allowed three runs on three hits and two walks in two-third of an inning and was bailed out by Rincon. Nathan would not give up another run until June 6.
Cleveland had three runs advance due to defensive indifference in the ninth inning. I don't know if they keep records like that, but I would think that has to be fairly close to the record.
Record: The Twins were 4-4, tied for third place in the American League Central, 2 games behind Detroit. They would finish 92-70, in first place, 9 games ahead of Chicago.
The Indians were 3-6, in fifth (last)place in the American League Central, 3.5 games behind Detroit. They would finish 80-82, in third place, 12 games behind Minnesota.
Happy Joe Nathan Day!
Hopefully, the home team will honor its best ever reliever (seriously, his 2006 in particular was insane -- Rivera never matched Nathan's 39 FIP-) by giving up a few obligatory baserunners, then utterly destroying all remaining batters on their way to a scoreless game.
Attempting that feat will be Kyle Gibson, and you know what? Good Gibby could accomplish that. In his 10 wins, he's been holding the opposition to a .544 OPS, coupled with a 2.44 ERA.
In his losses.... it's a .982 and a 7.52. I don't know for sure, but that's got to be up there in terms of game outcome splits. I still think he's your third starter in a playoff rotation, but I'd have Odorizzi standing by from the first pitch on.
Gotta stick with Cruz for a boomstick tonight.
Go Twins!
Twins record: 44-49
Fangraphs
MLB Game Wrap
Truth be told, I spent most of this game busy drawing hearts around the name "Alex Morgan" which I had written in my notebook...but it looked pretty good on Gameday, especially the part that said "J. Thome homered to deep center, B. Revere and J. Mauer scored". So, three out of four from the Royals to kick off The Most Important Homestand Ever? So far, so good.
Hitter of the Week: I kind of want to pick Jim Thome for this every time he gets closer to 600 from now on.
Pitcher of the Week: I think I'll go with Joe Nathan here, I'm feeling nostalgic.
