Tag Archives: long game

Keeping Track

Mazatlan Recap: Game Twenty-seven

MAZATLAN 3, HERMOSILLO 0 IN MAZATLAN

Batting star:  Maxwell Leon was 2-for-3 with a home run and two RBIs.

Pitching stars:  Matt Gage struck out six in six shutout innings, giving up one hit and one walk.  Roberto Espinosa pitched a perfect inning.  Jesus Pirela pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Jorge Castillo pitched 4.2 innings, giving up two runs on three hits and four walks and striking out none.  Alan Rangel pitched two perfect innings.

The game:  It was scoreless until the third.  Ricardo Valenzuela doubled and Jose Augusto Figueroa drew a one-out walk.  Leon singled home a run and Isaac Paredes doubled home another, making it 2-0 Mazatlan.  It stayed 2-0 until the eighth, when Leon homered.

That's pretty much it.  Hermosillo did not get a baserunner until the fourth, when a leadoff single and a one-out walk put men on first and second.  They also put men on first and second with one out in the seventh.

WP:  Gage (1-0).  LP:  Castillo (1-2).  S:  Pirela (5).

Notes:  Paredes was 1-for-4 and is batting .405.  Figueroa was 0-for-2 and is batting .373.  Carlos Munoz was 0-for-4 and is batting .327.  Anthony Giansanti was 0-for-1 and is batting .310.  Giansanti came out of the game after being hit by a pitch in the sixth inning.

Marco Antonio Rivas struck out the only man he faced and has an ERA of 2.70.  Espinosa's ERA is 2.25.  Pirela's ERA is 0.93.

Despite the fact that it was a 3-0 game and there were only eight hits, the game took 3 hours and 6 minutes to play.

Record:  Mazatlan is 13-14, in seventh place, eight games behind the Yaquis de Obregon.  They are a half game behind sixth-place Jalisco.

Next game:  Mazatlan again hosts Hermosillo tonight.

Keeping Track

Mazatlan Recap: Game Twenty-two

MAZATLAN 9, JALISCO 7 IN JALISCO

Batting stars:  Italo Mota was 3-for-5 with a triple.  Ramon Rios was 3-for-6 with a home run, a triple, a double, three RBIs, and two runs.  Anthony Giansanti was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.  Ricardo Valenzuela was 1-for-4 with a home run (his fourth), a walk, and two runs.

Pitching stars:  Gabino Avalos pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up two walks and striking out two.  Marco Antonio Rivas pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.  Juan Ramon Noriega pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two walks.  Ramon Espinosa pitched a perfect inning, striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Henry Urrutia was 2-for-3 with a double and two walks.  Japhet Amador was 2-for-5 with a home run (his fourth), a double, three RBIs, and two runs.  Manny Rodriguez was 2-for-5 with a double and two runs.  Amadeo Zazueta was 2-for-5 with a double.

The game:  Jalisco scored in the first inning when Rodriguez singled and scored from first on Amador's double.  Mazatlan came back with four in the second.  Giansanti led off the inning with a single and Valenzuela walked.  They both scored on a single-plus-error by Edson Garcia.  Mota singled to put men on first and third, a double play scored a run, and Rios homered to make it 4-1 Mazatlan.

Jalisco came back with five in the third.  With one out Carlos Figueroa and Zazueta singled, Rodriguez doubled home a run, an error made it 4-3, Urrutia had an RBI double to tie it, and Dariel Alvarez delivered a two-run single to make it 6-4 Jalisco.

The scoring continued in the fourth.  Garcia reached on an error, but the next two men grounded out, leaving him on third with two down.  But Rios tripled and Isaac Paredes doubled, tying the score 6-6.  In the fifth, Valenzuela homered to put Mazatlan up 7-6.  Garcia walked and Mota singled, putting men on first and third.  Figueroa then singled and Rios doubled, making it 9-6 Mazatlan.

Jalisco got two walks in the seventh, but did not score again until Amador homered in the ninth.  They got the tying run on base, putting two on with two out, but a ground out ended the game.

WP:  Avalos (1-0).  LP:  Dario Gardea (0-2).  S:  Jesus Pirela (2).

Notes:  Figueroa was 1-for-5 and is batting .455.  Mota is batting .421.  Paredes was 1-for-3 with two walks and is batting .381.  Carlos Munoz was 1-for-4 and is batting .321.

Despite his batting average, this is the first time Mota has started all year.  I don't know why.

Matt Gage started for Mazatlan.  He pitched 2.2 innings, giving up six runs (five earned) on eight hits and no walks and striking out two.

Jose Oyervides started for Jalisco.  He pitched 3.2 innings, giving up six runs (three earned) on eight hits and two walks and striking out one.

The game took four hours and three minutes to play.

Record:  Mazatlan is 8-14, tied for eighth place, 8.5 games behind Obregon.

Next game:  Mazatlan hosts Los Mochis tonight.

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game Forty

KANSAS CITY 9, MINNESOTA 5 IN MINNESOTA (14 INNINGS)

Date:  Thursday, May 15.

Batting stars:  Cristian Guzman was 4-for-7 with a triple.  Luis Rivas was 2-for-5 with two runs.  Corey Koskie was 2-for-5 with two walks.  A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-6 with a triple.

Pitching stars:  Juan Rincon pitched a perfect inning.  LaTroy Hawkins pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a walk and striking out one.  Eddie Guardado pitched a perfect inning and struck out one.  Tony Fiore pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two hits.

Opposition stars:  Mike Defelice was 2-for-3 with a triple and a double.  Raul Ibanez was 2-for-7 with two runs.  Desi Relaford was 2-for-7 with a stolen base, his sixth.  Angel Berroa was 2-for-7.  Carlos Beltran was 1-for-4 with a home run (his fifth) and three walks.

The game:  Michael Tucker led off the game with a double and Beltran hit a one-out home run, putting the Royals up 2-0.  The Twins played catch-up the rest of the day.

They got on the board in the third on two-out walks to Doug Mientkiewicz and Koskie and an RBI single by Todd Sears.  Kansas City got the run back in the fourth when Ibanez singled, went to third on Ken Harvey's double, and scored on a sacrifice fly.  The Twins cut the margin to 3-2 in the fifth on singles by Rivas and Guzman and a sacrifice fly.  The tied it in the sixth when Torii Hunter singled and scored on Guzman's triple.

The Royals went back in front in the seventh.  Relaford led off with a single and scored on Defelice's triple.  A pair of walks loaded the bases with one out and a balk brought home a run to make it 5-3 Kansas City.  The Twins got out of the inning with no further damage and got one of the runs back in the bottom of the seventh when Guzman tripled and scored on a ground out.  With two out in the eighth Rivas and Guzman singled, Mientkiewicz walked to load the bases, and Koskie walked to bring in the tying run.  Denny Hocking struck out to leave the bases loaded. Neither team scored in the ninth, so we went to extra innings.

This was back when men were men, and we didn't have any ridiculous "start the inning with a man on second" nonsense.  The Royals put together a couple of threats.  A hit batsman and a walk put two on with two out in the ninth.  Defelice hit a one-out double in the eleventh.  The Twins had men on first and third with one out in the twelfth, but a double play ended the inning.  Kansas City had men on first and second with one out in the thirteenth.

The dam finally broke in the fourteenth.  Joe Randa led off with a double and Beltran walked.  Mike Sweeney singled to load the bases.  Raul Ibanez then singled home a run.  A sacrifice fly brought home a second, and RBI singles by Relaford and Berroa made it 9-5.  The Twins could not rally in the bottom of the inning.

WP:  D. J. Carrasco (3-1).  LP:  Johan Santana (2-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  Sears was again at first base and Mientkiewicz in right field.  Dustan Mohr was again in left in place of Jacque Jones.  Bobby Kielty was the DH.  It seems odd to me that Kielty, an outfielder, would be the DH while Mientkiewicz, a first baseman, was in right field.  It's hard to second-guess a decision like that when we're this far removed from it, though, and Gardy may have had a good reason for doing it this way.

Denny Hocking pinch-ran for Sears in the seventh and stayed in the game in right field, with Mientkiewicz going to first base.  Jones pinch-hit for Rivas in the twelfth.  Chris Gomez came in to play second base in the thirteenth.

Jones was 0-for-1 and was batting .338.  Hocking was 0-for-2 and was batting .087.

Kenny Rogers started for the Twins and pitched 6.1 innings, giving up five runs (four earned) on seven hits and a walk and striking out six.  J. C. Romero did not give up a run in two-thirds of an inning to make his ERA 3.38.  Rincon's ERA was 1.37.  Hawkins' ERA was 1.53.  Guardado's ERA was 1.72.  Johan Santana was charged with all four fourteenth-inning runs in his third inning of work, making his ERA 2.56.  Fiore lowered his ERA to 6.16.

Miguel Ascencio started for the Royals.  He pitched 5.1 innings, giving up three runs on five hits and three walks and striking out five.

Both starting catchers hit a triple in this game.  I don't know how often that's happened, but it certainly seems unusual.  Pierzynski had three triples in 2003 and twenty-four for his career.  It was Defelice's only triple of the season and one of nine he had in his career.

I had remembered Joe Randa as something of a Twins-killer, but he really wasn't.  His career numbers against them are .275/.315/.404, not terrible but nothing special, either.  Those are actually below his overall career numbers of .284/.339/.426.

The battle of the top two teams in the division was evenly split, so the Twins remained where they had been before the series.

Record:  The Twins were 22-18, in second place in the American League Central, 2.5 games behind Kansas City.

Keeping Track

Mazatlan Recap: Game Nine

CULIACAN 6, MAZATLAN 5 IN CULIACAN (12 INNINGS)

Batting stars:  Edson Garcia was 3-for-5 with a walk.  Anthony Giansanti was 3-for-6.  Ricardo Valenzuela was 2-for-5 with a double, a walk, and three RBIs.  Ramon Rios was 2-for-6.

Pitching stars:  Irwin Delgado pitched 5.2 innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on five hits and one walk and striking out one.  Ivan Zavala pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.  Alejandro Soto struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.  Ryan Newell pitched a 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Joey Meneses was 3-for-5 with two RBis.  Jose Guadalupe Chavez was 2-for-4.  Efren Navarro was 2-for-6 with a two-run homer (his second) and a double.  Jesus Adrian Castillo struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up two hits.  Gonzalo Sanudo pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, striking out one.  Gerardo Sanchez pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, striking out one.  Evan Miller pitched a scoreless inning, striking out one.  Alberto Baldonado pitched two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk.

The game:  Culiacan started the scoring in the first inning.  Johnny Davis singled, Ramiro Pena walked, and they pulled off a double steal to put men on second and third.  A pair of sacrifice flies made it 2-0.  In the second Chavez singled, an error put men on first and third, and another sacrifice fly made it 3-0 Culiacan.

Mazatlan came back in the third.  Diego Madera led off with a single and Garcia hit a one-out single.  Ramon Rios followed with another single to drive in a run and Carlos Munoz walked, loading the bases.  Ricky Alvarez was hit by a pitch to force home a run and Valenzuela walked to bring home another, tying the score 3-3.

It stayed 3-3 until the twelfth inning.  Apparently, in the Mexican League, the twelfth is when the "start with a man at second base" rule kicks in.  For Mazatlan, there was still a man on second with two out, but Randy Romero singled and Valenzuela hit a two-run double, putting Mazatlan up 5-3.  In the bottom of the twelfth, however, Meneses singled home a run and Navarro followed with a walkoff two-run homer, winning the game for Culiacan 6-5.

WP:  David Gutierrez (1-0).  LP:  Marco Antonio Rivas (0-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  Valenzuela is batting .348.  Italo Mota is batting .333.  Carlos Munoz was 0-for-3 is batting .300.

Delgado has an ERA of 3.00.  Roberto Espinoza pitched two-thirds of an inning without giving up a run and also has an ERA of 3.00.  Newell has an ERA of 0.00.

Andres Ivan Meza started for Culiacan.  He pitched 2.2 innings, giving up three runs on five hits and two walks and striking out one.

Culiacan had three sacrifice flies.  They were 1-for-12 with men in scoring position and stranded 11.  Mazatlan was 3-for-11 with men in scoring position and stranded 12.

The game took five hours and four minutes to play.

Record:  Mazatlan is 4-5, in sixth place, four games behind Obregon.

Next game:  Mazatlan is again at Culiacan tonight.

Keeping Track

2019 Recap: Game Seventy-two

MINNESOTA 4, BOSTON 3 IN MINNESOTA (17 INNINGS)

Date:  Tuesday, June 18.

Batting stars:  Eddie Rosario was 4-for-8 with three doubles.  Max Kepler was 3-for-5 with a home run (his eighteenth) and three RBIs.  C. J. Cron was 2-for-5 with two walks and a hit-by-pitch.  Jonathan Schoop was 2-for-7.

Pitching stars:  Michael Pineda pitched six innings, giving up one run on five hits and one walk and striking out five.  Trevor May pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and striking out one.  Taylor Rogers struck out two in a perfect inning.  Tyler Duffey struck out three in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.  Blake Parker pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two hits and striking out one.  Matt Magill struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up three hits and a walk.  Zack Littell struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up two hits.

Opposition stars:  Brock Holt was 3-for-7 with a double.  Rafael Devers was 3-for-8 with a home run (his twelfth) and two RBIs.  Andrew Benintendi was 3-for-8 with a stolen base, his eighth.  Jackie Bradley was 2-for-5 with a hit-by-pitch.  Christian Vazquez was 2-for-7.  Xander Bogaerts was 2-for-8 with a double.  David Price pitched five innings, giving up one run on four hits and no walks and striking out two.  Josh Taylor struck out four in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.  Hector Velazquez pitched four innings, giving up one run on three hits and no walks and striking out three.

The game:  The Red Sox got on the board in the fourth inning when Mookie Betts walked, stole second, and scored on a two-out single by Devers.  The Twins got the run back in the bottom of the fourth when Rosario hit a two-out double and scored on a Cron single.

The Twins should have taken the lead in the sixth.  Mitch Garver led off with a double and Nelson Cruz singled him to third with none out.  But Garver was picked off third by the catcher and Rosario fouled out.  The Twins still had a chance, as Cron was hit by a pitch and Kepler walked to load the bases, but Miguel Sano fanned to end the inning.  The Red Sox immediately made them pay, as Devers led off the seventh with a home run to give Boston a 2-1 lead.

The Twins tied it up in the eighth.  Walks to Garver and Cron put men on first and second with two out and Kepler delivered an RBI single to make the score 2-2.  It stayed there for a while.  Boston threatened in the tenth and twelfth and the Twins also threatened in the twelfth, but there was no more scoring until the thirteenth, when Betts led off with a home run.  But Kepler led off with a home run in the bottom of the thirteenth to once again tie the score, and the teams played on.

The Red Sox again threatened in the fourteenth, getting leadoff singles from Holt and MIchael Chavis.  A bunt (!) moved them to second and third, but nothing came of it.  In the fifteenth Rosario led off with a double but was doubled off second on Cron's liner.  In the top of the seventeenth, Benintendi singled and got to third on a stolen base-plus-error with none out, but a strikeout and two ground outs ended the inning without a score.

Finally came the bottom of the seventeenth.  Luis Arraez had a one-out single and went to third on Rosario's double.  Cron was intentionally walked, and Kepler again came through with an RBI single to win the game for the Twins.

WP:  Littell (1-0).  LP:  Brian Johnson (1-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  Marwin Gonzalez was again in right field, with Kepler starting the game on the bench.  Jake Cave was in center field.

Arraez entered the game as a pinch-runner in the twelfth and went 1-for-2.  He is batting .385.  Jorge Polanco was 1-for-8 and is batting .326.  Garver was 1-for-7 and is batting .301.

Ryne Harper gave up a run in an inning and has an ERA of 2.17.  Rogers has an ERA of 2.03.  Duffey has an ERA of 2.08.  Mike Morin gave up a run in an inning and has an ERA of 1.65.

Garver was rightly criticized for getting picked off in the sixth.  I also wonder why he did not dive back into the base, rather than going in standing up.  But additionally, I wonder what the third base coach was doing.  With a shift on and the third baseman playing well off the bag, this was obviously a planned play.  It seems like the third base coach should be watching for that and make sure the runner is aware of it.  Instead, it appeared that he became a spectator.

Watching part of the game last night, it seems to me that several Twins batters (not just Sano) have gotten a little homer-happy.  Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against home runs and I'm not calling for a return of the piranhas.  But I saw several batters trying to jerk every pitch out of the park in situations where a single would've served us quite admirably.  This may be something that the batting coach needs to address.

Lost in the long game is the fact that Pineda had his second good start in a row.  Over those starts, he has pitched 11.2 innings and given up two runs on seven hits and three walks while striking out nine.  He only threw eighty pitches last night, so it seems like he could've gone a seventh inning.  Perhaps the Twins are still trying to be careful with him.  But he hasn't had a really bad game in a month and a half and his ERA has fallen steadily from a peak of 6.21 to 4.76.  I'm not nominating him for the Cy Young Award, but he's kept us in the game for eight starts in a row, and has done more than that in his last two.

The much maligned (and properly so) Twins bullpen pitched eleven innings and gave up just two runs.  Further, both the runs came on solo homers, and we all know those don't hurt you.  I won't be surprised if we bring up a "fresh arm for the bullpen", but only three of the eight relievers used threw more than eighteen pitches, so I assume most of them could pitch again tonight if needed.

Each team completely emptied its bullpen, using eight relief pitchers.  Presumably, once the last guy came in he was in for the duration, unless the game had gone twenty-four innings or something.  At that point, the teams would've had to decide whether to use a starting pitcher in relief or use a position player.  That would've been interesting, but I'm fine with winning in the seventeenth instead.

It should be noted, as I'm sure it was numerous times during the game, that the Twins still have not lost three games in a row this season.

Record:  The Twins are 48-24, first in the American League Central, ten games ahead of Cleveland.

Projected record:  We're still on track for 138-24!