Tag Archives: Kevin Tapani

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game One Hundred Seven

MINNESOTA 7, CALIFORNIA 4 IN CALIFORNIA

Date:  Monday, August 5.

Batting stars:  Dan Gladden was 3-for-5 with a stolen base (his eighth) and two runs.  Randy Bush was 2-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs.

Pitching stars:  Kevin Tapani pitched 8.2 innings, giving up four runs on eight hits and no walks and striking out six.  He threw 125 pitches.

Opposition stars:  Dave Winfield was 2-for-4 with a home run (his twenty-first) and a stolen base, his third.  Gary Gaetti was 1-for-4 with a home run, his thirteenth.  Chris Beasley pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit and striking out two.

The game:  One could say the Twins got off to a good start.  Gladden led off with a single.  Chuck Knoblauch walked.  Kent Hrbek had an RBI single.  Chili Davis walked, loading the bases.  Brian Harper hit a two-run double.  Bush hit a two-run double.  Six batters in, the Twins led 5-0 and there were no outs.  That was all the runs the Twins would need.

It wasn't the end of the game, of course.  The Angels got a run in the first on two singles and a double play.  Gaetti homered leading off the second to make it 5-2.  It stayed 5-2 until the sixth, when Winfield homered to cut the margin to 5-3.

The Twins had done very little of offense since the first.  In the seventh, however, Greg Gagne reached on an error, stole second, and scored on Gladden's single.  Gladden then stole second and scored on a two-out double by Davis to put the Twins' lead back up to four runs at 7-3.

California did not give up.  Dave Parker hit a one-out double in the ninth.  With two out Lance Parris doubled to make it 7-4.  Rick Aguilera then came in to retire Dave Gallagher on a line out to end the game.

WP:  Tapani (9-7).  LP:  Joe Grahe (1-2).  S:  Aguilera (29).

Notes:  Kirby Puckett got a rare day off.  Shane Mack was in center, with Bush in right.

Harper was 1-for-4 and was batting .314.  Tapani's ERA went to 3.03.  Aguilera dropped his ERA to 2.63.

This was the highest number of pitches (125) that Tapani would throw in a game all year.  He went over 100 pitches in 19 of his 34 starts, including his first five starts of the season and his last six starts of the season.  In eight of those starts he went over 110 pitches.  This was the only time he went over 120.  1991 was his career high for innings as well, with 244.

On the other hand, Aguilera threw one pitch.

Grahe, the Angels' starter, pitched seven innings.  He allowed seven runs (five earned) on eight hits and two walks and struck out one.  It should be noted that he pitched very well after the first inning.  He had done very little up to this point in his career, but he would go on to have two pretty good years (1992-1993) pitching out of the California bullpen.  He had 21 saves for the Angels in 1992, when he was filling in for Bryan Harvey.  He battled injuries starting in 1994 and was out of baseball for three years.  He came back to pitch in thirteen games for Philadelphia in 1998 before ending his career.

The White Sox were idle, so the Twins gained a half game.

Record:  The Twins were 64-43, in first place in the American League West, 3.5 games ahead of Chicago.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Ninety-three

MINNESOTA 14, BOSTON 1 IN BOSTON

Date:  Sunday, July 21.

Batting stars:  Shane Mack was 3-for-4 with two doubles, a walk, and two runs.  Chili Davis was 3-for-5 with a double and a stolen base, his third.  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-4 with three RBIs.  Scott Leius was 2-for-5 with a double, a walk, and three runs.  Brian Harper was 2-for-6 with two runs.  Chuck Knoblauch was 1-for-3 with three walks and three runs.

Pitching stars:  Kevin Tapani pitched six innings, giving up an unearned run on three hits and no walks and striking out none.  Paul Abbott struck out three in two shutout innings, giving up two hits.  Allan Anderson pitched a perfect inning and struck out one.

Opposition star:  Steve Lyons was 2-for-3 with a double.

The game:  Leius led off the game with a single, followed by singles by Knoblauch and Puckett to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  An RBI ground out made it 2-0.  In the third Knoblauch walked and went to third on Davis' two-out single.  Davis then stole second.  A passed ball scored one run, a Harper single scored another, and a Mack double made it 5-0.  in the fourth, Greg Gagne hit a one-out double, walks to Leius and Knoblauch filled the bases, and Puckett's two-run single made it 7-0.

The Red Sox got on the board in the bottom of the seventh.  Jody Reed reached on an error and scored on a Jack Clark double.  That was the end of their good news, though.  The Twins scored five in the sixth and two more in the seventh to get the 14-1 victory.

WP:  Tapani (6-7).  LP:  Tom Bolton (7-7).  S:  None.

Notes:  Mack was again in left field in the absence of Dan Gladden.  Gene Larkin was in right.  Leius was the leadoff batter.

Jarvis Brown pinch-ran for Puckett in the fifth and stayed in the game in center field.  Al Newman went into the game at shortstop in the fifth, replacing Gagne.  Randy Bush went into the game in the sixth inning at first base, replacing Kent Hrbek.  Davis went to left field in the eighth inning, with Abbott entering the lineup in Mack's spot.

Puckett raised his average to .328.  Harper went up to .325.  Tapani lowered his ERA to 3.03.  Abbott went down to 3.31.

Tapani hadn't gotten much run support up to this point in the season, but that turned around in this game.  Including this game, he won five starts in a row and went 9-0 over ten starts.  In those games, the Twins scored 71 runs.  Tapani was still pitching well--he did not give up more than four runs in any of those starts, and six times gave up fewer than three.

This was Davis' first appearance in the field all season.  He would make just one more, about a month later.  He would, of course, play one game in the field in the World Series.  He had been a regular outfielder from 1982-1989 and had played a substantial number of games in the outfield in 1990, but would make only token appearances there after that and none from 1995-1999, when his career ended.

Boston starter Bolton pitched just 2.2 innings, allowing five runs (four earned) on five hits and three walks and striking out one.  He had pitched five innings of relief just three days earlier.  He really couldn't be expected to pitch well after that, and he didn't.

Tapani pitched six innings and neither struck out nor walked anyone.  I don't know how rare that is, but it is at least unusual.  I suspect it might have been more common years ago than it is now, but I don't think it was all that common in the old days, either.

The White Sox lost and Texas won, so the Twins gained a game in the standings while the Rangers tied Chicago for second place.  The Twins had won four in a row, five of six, and eight of ten.

Record:  The Twins were 55-38, in first place in the American League West, 5.5 games ahead of Texas and Chicago.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Seventy-three

TORONTO 1, MINNESOTA 0 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Thursday, June 27.

Batting stars:  None.  The Twins had three hits, all singles, and no Twin had more than one.

Pitching star:  Kevin Tapani pitched a complete game, giving up one unearned run on four hits and no walks and striking out seven.

Opposition stars:  Juan Guzman pitched 7.2 scoreless innings, giving up three hits and two walks and striking out six.  Tom Henke struck out two in a perfect inning.

The game:  Neither team got a men past first base until the fourth.  Roberto Alomar led off with a single.  A forceout meant the runner on first was Kelly Gruber with two out.  Rance Mulliniks then hit a line drive to left on which Shane Mack was charged with an error, allowing Gruber to score.

That was the only run of the game.  The only time the Twins got a man past first was in the eighth, when Chuck Knoblauch walked and stole second.  Duane Ward came in and got Mack on a ground out to end the inning.

WP:  Guzman (2-2).  LP:  Tapani (5-7).  S:  Henke (14).

Notes:  In a day game, Mack was in left field, with Dan Gladden on the bench.  Mack batted second, with Knoblauch moving up to the leadoff spot.  Randy Bush was at first base in place of Kent Hrbek.  Pedro Munoz was in right field.  Junior Ortiz was behind the plate in place of Brian Harper.  Al Newman was at shortstop in place of Greg Gagne.

Kirby Puckett was 0-for-4 and dropped to .319.  Tapani's ERA fell to 3.06.

Bush went 0-for-4 and dropped to .197.  Newman was 0-for-3 and fell to .196.

It remains amazing to me how much Newman was playing when he wasn't hitting.  This was the fifty-fifth game he had appeared in.  He had started twenty-five of them.  His OBP at this point was .281 and his slugging average was .215, giving him a robust OPS of .496.  I know he was popular, and I know he could play a lot of positions.  But that's a lot of playing time for a guy who has a sub-.500 OPS.

By game scores, this was the best game Tapani pitched in 1991.  The next best was his first game of the season, a complete game shutout on April 12.  He would not lose another game for over two months, as his next loss would come on September 11.  He really didn't pitch all that much better--his ERA over his winning streak fell only from 3.06 to 2.82.  The Twins just started scoring some runs for him.

This was Juan Guzman's rookie year, and he was very good.  He did not come up until June--this was his fourth start--but he ended up 10-3, 2.99, 1.18 WHIP.  He finished second in Rookie of the Year voting to--spoiler alert--Chuck Knoblauch.  He was even better in 1992, when he made his only all-star team.  His ERA went up by over a run in 1993, to 3.99, but he went 14-3 and so got the only Cy Young support of his career.  He then had two very poor years--I suspect he had injuries, but I don't remember and couldn't quickly find out.  But he came back in 1996 to lead the league in ERA, WHIP, and hits per nine innings.  That was his last really good year.  He continued to pitch in the majors through 2000 and was not terrible, but was pretty average.  He did pitch well for Cincinnati in twelve starts in 1999 after being traded at the July deadline.  For his career, he was 91-79, 4.08, 1.37 WHIP in 240 games, all starts.  For a few years, though, he was one of the top pitchers in the league.

Record:  The Twins were 44-29, in first place in the American League West, three games ahead of California.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Forty-three

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KANSAS CITY 5, MINNESOTA 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Sunday, May 26.

Batting stars:  Gene Larkin was 2-for-4.  Chili Davis was 2-for-4.  Chuck Knoblauch was 1-for-3 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  Carl Willis pitched three shutout innings, giving up one hit and striking out one.  Steve Bedrosian pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.  Rick Aguilera pitched a perfect inning and struck out one.

Opposition stars:  Bret Saberhagen pitched a complete game, giving up one run on eight hits and two walks and striking out two.  Brian McRae was 3-for-5 with a home run (his fourth), a stolen base (his fourth), two runs and two RBIs.  Brent Mayne was 2-for-4.  George Brett was 2-for-4.  Kirk Gibson was 2-for-5 with a double.

The game:  The Royals jumped on Twins starter Kevin Tapani for three runs in the first inning.  They got the first two of them before anyone was retired:  McRae singled, Gibson had an RBI double, Brett singled, and Danny Tartabull had an RBI single.  Following a pop up, Mayne singled home the third run of the inning.  Kansas City added another run in the second when McRae led off the inning with a homer to make the score 4-0.  They got their final run in the fourth when Terry Shumpert doubled and scored on McRae's single.

Meanwhile, the Twins were not doing much of anything off Saberhagen.  They got a man to second base in the third, when Knoblauch and Shane Mack drew two-out walks.  They did it again in the seventh when Davis reached on an error and Larkin had a two-out single.  They actually got two hits in the same inning in the eighth, when Knoblauch singled with one out and Kirby Puckett singled with two out.

The Twins did get on the board in the ninth, when they opened the inning with consecutive singles by Davis, Brian Harper, and Larkin.  Another hit would've brought the tying run to the plate, but instead a strikeout and a double play ended the game.

WP:  Saberhagen (5-3).  LP:  Tapani (2-5).  S:  None.

Notes:  With a day game, Mack was in left, replacing Dan Gladden.  He batted second, with Knoblauch moving up to the leadoff spot.  Larkin was in right field.  Al Newman was at short, replacing Greg Gagne.

Harper was 1-for-4 and was batting .368.  Puckett was 1-for-4 and was batting .326.  Davis raised his average to .313.

Tapani lasted just four innings, giving up five runs on nine hits and a walk and striking out one.  It was his first really bad game of the season, but he hadn't been pitching as well lately.  His ERA went up steadily from 2.10 on April 27 to now 3.79.

The Twins bullpen did really well.  Five shutout innings, giving up two hits and a walk.  Much of that was Willis, as set forth above.  His ERA was now 3.48.  Aguilera's ERA went to 1.69.

George Brett was off to a very slow start, and in fact would not have a particularly good year.  He had won the batting title in 1990, batting .329.  At this point in 1991, however, he was batting just .224.  He would end the season at .255 with an OPS of .729.  Well, he was thirty-eight.  He would play for two more seasons at about the same level of production, then retire at age forty.  He was mostly a DH at this point, with Bill Pecota having taken over at third base.  Pecota would bat .286 with an OPS of .756--I don't know how this compared to his PECOTA projection.

This was an odd-numbered year, so naturally Saberhagen was having a good season.  Actually, when you look at the stats, the odd-even thing is not nearly as pronounced as legend has made it out to be.  It shows up in his won-lost record more than anywhere else, indicating that it may have been a function of luck as much as anything.  It's true that, throughout most of his career, his ERA was lower in odd-numbered years than in even, but most of the time the difference is not all that great.  It made for a good story, though.

The Twins had now lost six of seven and eight of eleven.  One suspects people were saying "same old Twins".

Record:  The Twins were 20-23, sixth in the American League West, 6.5 games behind Texas.  They remained a half game behind fifth-place Chicago.  They were one game ahead of last-place Kansas City.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Thirty-eight

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TEXAS 6,  MINNESOTA 5 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, May 21.

Batting stars:  Kirby Puckett was 1-for-4 with a home run (his fifth) and three RBIs.  Kent Hrbek was 1-for-2 with two walks.

Pitching star:  Terry Leach pitched a perfect inning and struck out one.

Opposition stars:  Rafael Palmeiro was 2-for-3 with two doubles and two walks.  Steve Buechele was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer (his sixth), two runs, and two RBIs.  Julio Franco was 2-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base, his fifth.

The game:  In the first inning, Dan Gladden got an infield single, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on Puckett's sacrifice fly to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  The Rangers tied it in the third on doubles by Jeff Huson and Palmeiro.  The Twins went back up 3-1 in the third when Chuck Knoblauch singled and Puckett followed with a two-run homer, but Texas tied it again in the fourth when Kevin Reimer singled and Buechele followed with a two-out two-run homer.

The Rangers went into the lead to stay in the fifth.  Palmerio hit a one-out double and scored on Franco's two-out single.  They added a couple of runs in the eighth.  Singles by Gino Petralli and Buechele and a walk to Huson loaded the bases with one out.  Jack Daugherty hit a sacrifice fly to make the score 5-3 and put men on first and third, Huson then stole second, Brian Harper threw the ball into center field, and Buechele scored to make it 6-3.

The Twins came back in the bottom of the eighth.  Hrbek singled and Chili Davis doubled to put men on second and third with none out.  With one down, Harper hit a two-run double to cut the margin to 6-5.  The tying run was in scoring position, but Randy Bush and Al Newman each grounded out to end the inning.  The Twins went down in order in the ninth.

WP:  Bobby Witt (2-3).  LP:  Kevin Tapani (2-4).  S:  Jeff Russell (9).

Notes:  Bush was the right fielder in this game.  Gene Larkin pinch-hit for Mike Pagliarulo in the eighth, with Scott Leius coming in to play third.  Shane Mack pinch-ran for Harper in the eighth and remained in the game in right field, with Junior Ortiz coming in to catch.

Harper was 1-for-4 and was batting .367.  Knoblauch was 1-for-4 and was batting .311.  Puckett's average went to .308.  Tapani had an ERA of 3.28.  Steve Bedrosian gave up two runs (one earned) in one inning and raised his ERA to 3.09.  Leach went down to 2.51.

Bush went 0-for-3 with a walk and was batting .184.

It was the fourth loss in a row for Tapani.  Over that span he had pitched to an ERA of 4.55 and his season ERA went from 2.10 to 3.28.  The Twins had scored a total of eight runs in those four games, with five of them obviously coming in this game.

Memory had told me that Bobby Witt always pitched well against the Twins.  Memory was right.  He was 17-7, 3.63, 1.36 WHIP against them.  That's the most wins he had against any team.  The only American League team against whom he had a better ERA was Boston (3.26).  This was the only start he would make against the Twins in 1991.  For his career, Witt was 142-157, 4.83, 1.57 WHIP.  Looking at that career, he wasn't nearly as good as I remembered him being, so I suppose his success against the Twins skewed my memory.

Record:  The Twins were 19-19, fifth in the American League West, four games behind Seattle.  They were a half game behind fourth-place California.

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game Four

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MINNESOTA 6, CALIFORNIA 0 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Friday, April 12.

Batting stars:  Kirby Puckett was 3-for-4 with a double and two runs.  Scott Leius was 2-for-4 with a triple.  Chili Davis was 2-for-4.

PItching star:  Kevin Tapani struck out nine in a complete game shutout, giving up seven hits and no walks.  He threw 113 pitches.

Opposition stars:  Luis Sojo was 2-for-4.  Floyd Bannister pitched two perfect innings of relief.

The game:  The Twins took the lead in the first inning.  With one out, Chuck Knoblauch walked, Puckett doubled, and Davis had an RBI infield single, putting the Twins up 1-0.  In the second, back-to-back triples by Leius and Greg Gagne made it 2-0.

The Angels put me on first and third with one out in the third, but Sojo lined to second and Wally Joyner struck out.  The Twins opened the bottom of the third with singles by Puckett and Davis, who went to second on an error.  Brian Harper hit a sacrifice fly which also advanced Davis to third, and a ground out made the score 4-0.  The Twins added two more in the fifth.  Knoblauch and Puckett singled, a one-out intentional walk to Harper loaded the bases, and with two out Kent Hrbek delivered a two-run single, increasing the Twins lead to 6-0.  California never threatened to get back into the game.

WP:  Tapani (1-0).  LP:  Jim Abbott (0-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  Shane Mack remained in center with Puckett in right.

Leius was batting .400.  Davis was batting .385.  Gagne was 1-for-3 and was batting .375.  Puckett was batting .333.

On the other end of the scale  Dan Gladden and Mack were both batting zero.  Harper was at .125.  Hrbek was at .143.

Floyd Bannister was near the end of a pretty good career.  He broke in with Houston in 1977 and finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting (behind Andre Dawson, Steve Henderson, and Gene Richards).  He was traded to Seattle after the 1978 season, and in four seasons there he went 40-50, 3.75, 1.29 WHIP.  He made the all-star team in 1982, when he led the league in strikeouts with 209.  He became a free agent after that season and signed with Chicago, where he played for five seasons.  He was 66-60, 4.05, 1.29 WHIP in those seasons.  The 1983 season was probably his best:  16-10, 3.35, 1.21 WHIP.  He had another good year in 1987, but was traded to Kansas City after that season.  He had a poor season in 1988, missed more than half of 1989 due to injury, pitched in Japan in 1990, then came back to pitch for the Angels.  He again missed time with injuries, although he did okay when he was able to pitch.  He had a poor year with Texas in 1992, then was done.  For his career, he was 134-143, 4.06, 1.33 WHIP in 2388 innings (431 games, 363 starts).  His son, Brian, was a major league pitcher from 2006-2010.  At last report, Floyd Bannister was managing Brian's professional photography studio in Phoenix.  He was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008, a Hall of Fame class that also included ex-Twin Eddie Bane.

Record:  The Twins were 2-2, in fifth place in the American League West, 1.5 games behind the White Sox.