Tag Archives: Jose Guzman

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 1985, Game One Hundred Fifty-three

TEXAS 2, MINNESOTA 0 IN TEXAS

Date:  Thursday, September 26.

Batting star:  Kent Hrbek was 3-for-4.

Pitching star:  Mike Smithson pitched an eight-inning complete game, giving up two runs on six hits and four walks and striking out four.

Opposition stars:  Jose Guzman pitched 8.2 scoreless innings, giving up six hits and a walk and striking out five.  Gary Ward was 3-for-3 with a stolen base, his twenty-second.  Pete O'Brien was 1-for-1 with a home run (his twenty-first) and three walks.  I guess they should've walked him the other time, too.

The game:  The Twins put man on second and third with two out in the first inning but did not score.  That was as close as the Twins would come to scoring all night.

The Rangers didn't get anything accomplished in the first three innings, either, but in the fourth O'Brien hit a one-out homer to give Texas a 1-0 lead.  They added a run in the seventh on singles by Ward and Bob Jones, a walk to Duane Walker, and an infield out.

The Twins put one more threat together in the ninth, when Kent Hrbek and Tom Brunansky singled with two out.  Dwayne Henry came in and struck out Mark Salas to end the game.

WP:  Guzman (2-2).  LP:  Smithson (14-13).  S:  Henry (2).

Notes:  Jeff Reed, who was a September call-up, started behind the plate in place of Salas.  Salas mostly platooned with Tim Laudner in 1985.

Roy Smalley was at shortstop in place of Greg Gagne.  Smalley was used at DH more than any other position, but he still played a significant number of games at short in 1985.  Salas was the DH in this game.

Dave Engle pinch-hit for Reed in the eighth and stayed in the game behind the plate.  Gagne replaced Smalley at shortstop in the eighth.  Smalley would miss the next couple of games--perhaps he tweaked something.  If not, it seems odd to make a defensive substitution in a game you're losing by two runs.

Salas was batting .301.  He would be the team's lone .300 hitter, at least of players with a significant number of at-bats, as he finished at exactly .300.

The team leader in home runs was Brunansky at 27.  Hrbek had 21 and Gary Gaetti 20.  Also in double figures were Smalley (12), Randy Bush (10), and Tim Teufel (10).

Smithson had eight complete games in 1985.  From 1983-1986 he had 36 complete games and led the league in starts in two of those seasons.  That may be why he was pretty much done after 1986.

This was the year Bert Blyleven came back to the Twins in early August.  He was easily the team's best starter the rest of the season.  Other starters were Smithson, Frank Viola, John Butcher, and Ken Schrom.  Viola was the best of the rest, going 18-14, 4.09, 1.32 WHIP.

Even though he shut them down in this game, the Twins did pretty well most of the time against Guzman.  He was 5-6, 4.25, 1.45 WHIP against them.  This was only the fourth start of his major league career, as he came up as a September call-up.

Texas really didn't have a closer in 1985.  Seven different pitchers had saves, with Greg Harris leading with eleven.  Henry was in his rookie year, coming up in mid-August.

Record:  The Twins were 70-83, in sixth place in the American League West, 16.5 games behind California and Kansas City.  They would finish 77-85, tied for fourth with Oakland, 14 games behind Kansas City.

The Rangers were 58-94, in seventh (last) place in the American League West, 28 games behind California and Kansas City.  They would finish 62-99, in seventh place, 28.5 games behind Kansas City.

Random record:  The Twins are 29-27 in Random Rewind games.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Forty-five

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MINNESOTA 3, TEXAS 0 IN TEXAS

Date:  Tuesday, May 28.

Batting stars:  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-3 with two RBIs.  Greg Gagne was 2-for-4.  Dan Gladden was 1-for-4 with a home run (his third) and two runs.

Pitching stars:  Scott Erickson pitched eight shutout innings, giving up seven hits and three walks and striking out seven.  He threw 119 pitches.  Rick Aguilera pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Jose Guzman pitched 7.2 innings, giving up three runs on nine hits and a walk and striking out three.  Geno Petralli was 2-for-3 with a walk.  Ruben Sierra was 2-for-4.

The game:  Gladden led off the game with a home run to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  The Rangers got a pair of one-out singles in the bottom of the first, but a pop up and a strikeout ended the inning.  The Twins scored again in the third when Gagne singled, was bunted to second, and scored on Puckett's two-out single.

Texas threatened again in the fourth with a pair of two-out singles, but Denny Walling flied out to end the inning.  The Twins added a run in the fifth on singles by Gagne and Chuck Knoblauch and a Puckett sacrifice fly, making the score 3-0.

The Rangers had two more threats come to nothing.  Two singles in the fifth went for naught when Julio Franco hit into a force out.  A walk and an error put men on first and second with none out in the seventh, but two ground outs and a strike out put that threat away.  That was it, as Texas did not get a hit after the fifth.

WP:  Erickson (7-2).  LP:  Jose Guzman (0-1).  S:  Aguilera (9).

Notes:  With Erickson pitching, Junior Ortiz was again behind the plate.  Gene Larkin was in right field and Kent Hrbek was at first base at the start of the game, but Hrbek came out after batting in the first inning.  Shane Mack went to right and Larkin went to first.  Hrbek would start the next game, so whatever was wrong must not have been too serious.

Scott Leius pinch-hit for Mike Pagliarulo in the ninth inning and remained in the game at third base.

Puckett raised his average to .344.  Chili Davis was 1-for-4 and was batting .308.  Gagne raised his average to .303.  Erickson's ERA was 1.63.  Aguilera went down to 1.61.

Leius was 0-for-1 and was batting .175.

The Rangers stranded nine and were 0-for-7 with men in scoring position.

I tended to get Jose Guzman confused with Juan Guzman in the nineties, and sometimes I still do.  Jose had been a solid starter for the Rangers from 1987-1988, then missed all of 1989 due to injury and was able to make only ten minor league appearances in 1990.  He came back strong in 1991, though, going 13-7, 3.08 in 25 starts.  He had another good year for the Rangers in 1992, then became a free agent and signed with the Cubs.  He got hurt almost immediately and was able to make only four starts for the Cubs.  He kept pitching, when he could, in the minors through 1996.  He made a comeback, sort of, in 2001-2002, pitching in independent ball with the Fort Worth Cats.  His career numbers are 80-74, 4.05, 1,37 WHIP.  Nothing special, but not bad, either.  And for a few seasons, he was a pitcher anyone would've been happy to have in their rotation.

Record:  The Twins were 21-24, sixth in the American League West, a mere two percentage points ahead of seventh-place Kansas City.  They trailed first-place Texas by 6.5 games.