Tag Archives: Matt Kinney

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–December 16

Sammy Strang (1876)
Tony Kaufmann (1900)
Neil Chrisley (1931)
Adolfo Phillips (1941)
Mike Flanagan (1951)
Rick Sofield (1956)
Tom Gorman (1957)
Billy Ripken (1964)
Jeff Granger (1971)
Charles Gipson (1972)
Matt Kinney (1976)
Alcides Escobar (1986)
Hector Santiago (1987)
Tyler Chatwood (1989)

The reason Neil Chrisley is listed is because his given name is Barbra O’Neil Chrisley. No explanation for this name could be found, but it seems reasonable to assume that he’s the only man to play major league baseball whose given first name was Barbra.  So far.

Jeff Granger was drafted by Minnesota in the fourteenth round in 1990, but did not sign.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–December 16 →

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–December 16

Sammy Strang (1876)
Tony Kaufmann (1900)
Neil Chrisley (1931)
Adolfo Phillips (1941)
Mike Flanagan (1951)
Rick Sofield (1956)
Tom Gorman (1957)
Billy Ripken (1964)
Jeff Granger (1971)
Charles Gipson (1972)
Matt Kinney (1976)
Alcides Escobar (1986)
Hector Santiago (1987)
Tyler Chatwood (1989)

The reason Neil Chrisley is listed is because his given name is Barbra O’Neil Chrisley. No explanation for this name could be found, but it seems reasonable to assume that he’s the only man to play major league baseball whose given first name was Barbra.  So far.

Jeff Granger was drafted by Minnesota in the fourteenth round in 1990, but did not sign.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–December 16 →

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–December 16

Sammy Strang (1876)
Tony Kaufmann (1900)
Neil Chrisley (1931)
Adolfo Phillips (1941)
Mike Flanagan (1951)
Rick Sofield (1956)
Tom Gorman (1957)
Billy Ripken (1964)
Jeff Granger (1971)
Charles Gipson (1972)
Matt Kinney (1976)
Alcides Escobar (1986)
Hector Santiago (1987)
Tyler Chatwood (1989)

The reason Neil Chrisley is listed is because his given name is Barbra O’Neil Chrisley. No explanation for this name could be found, but it seems reasonable to assume that he’s the only man to play major league baseball whose first name was Barbra.

Jeff Granger was drafted by Minnesota in the fourteenth round in 1990, but did not sign.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–December 16 →

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game Seventy-eight

MILWAUKEE 13, MINNESOTA 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Friday, June 27.

Batting stars:  Jacque Jones was 2-for-3.  Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  None.

Opposition stars:  Matt Kinney pitched a complete game, giving up one run on eight hits and one walk and striking out four.  Royce Clayton was 3-for-4 with a double and two runs.  Richie Sexson was 3-for-5 with a home run (his twenty-second), two runs, and five RBIs.  Scott Podsednik was 3-for-5 with two doubles, a walk, two runs, and two RBIs.  John Vander Wal was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer (his eighth), a double, a walk, two runs, and two RBIs.  Eddie Perez was 2-for-5 with a home run (his eighth) and two runs.  Brooks Kieschnick was 2-for-5 with a home run (his fourth) and two RBIs.  Eric Young was 2-for-5.

The game:  The Brewers didn't have one big inning, but scored two runs five times and three runs once.  It was scoreless until the rhid, when Podsednik hit a two-run double.  Kieschnick's two-run single-plus-error made it 4-0 in the fourth.  Vander Wal hit a two-run homer in the fifth to make it 6-0.

The Twins got on the board in the sixth when Corey Koskie and Torii Hunter doubled.  But Sexson hit a three-run homer in the seventh to bring the score to 9-1.  Sexson struck again in the eighth, with a two-run single that increased the lead to 11-1.  Kieschnick and Perez hit back-to-back homers in the ninth to make it 13-1.

WP:  Kinney (6-6).  LP:  Kyle Lohse (6-6).  S:  None.

Notes:  Denny Hocking was at second base in place of Luis Rivas.  Morneau was the DH.

With a blowout, the Twins made several substitutions.  Tom Prince replaced A. J. Pierzynski behind the plate in the eighth.  Lew Ford replaced Hunter in center field in the eighth.  Bobby Kielty pinch-hit for Jones in the eighth and remained in the game in right field, with Dustan Mohr moving to left.  Matthew LeCroy pinch-hit for Koskie in the eighth and went to first base, with Mientkiewicz moving to third.

Ford was 0-for-1 and was batting .364.  Koskie was 1-for-3 and was batting .311.  Mientkiewicz was batting .303.  Jones was batting .302.

Johan Santana allowed three runs in 1.1 innings to raise his ERA to 2.51.

Lohse pitched five innings, allowing six runs (five earned) on eight hits and a walk and striking out four.

Kinney, of course, is an ex-Twin.  This was the only time he had a full year as a member of a starting rotation.  He was 10-13, 5.19, 1.47 WHIP.  He was too much for the Twins on this day, though.  As with Mark Buehrle yesterday, the Twins had beaten him up the last time they faced him (6.1 innings, 6 runs), but they couldn't do it a second time.  They would not face him again this season.

Record:  The Twins were 41-37, in second place in the American League Central, two games behind Kansas City.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–December 16

Sammy Strang (1876)
Tony Kaufmann (1900)
Neil Chrisley (1931)
Adolfo Phillips (1941)
Mike Flanagan (1951)
Rick Sofield (1956)
Tom Gorman (1957)
Billy Ripken (1964)
Jeff Granger (1971)
Charles Gipson (1972)
Matt Kinney (1976)
Alcides Escobar (1986)
Hector Santiago (1987)

The reason Neil Chrisley is listed is because his given name is Barbra O’Neil Chrisley. No explanation for this name could be found, but it seems reasonable to assume that he’s the only man to play major league baseball whose first name was Barbra.

Jeff Granger was drafted by Minnesota in the fourteenth round in 1990, but did not sign.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–December 16 →

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 2002, Game Sixty-two

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MINNESOTA 5, FLORIDA 3 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Saturday, June 8.

Batting stars:  Dustan Mohr was 2-for-4 with two doubles.  Jacque Jones was 2-for-4 with a walk and a double.  Torii Hunter was 2-for-4 with a double.

Pitching stars:  Tony Fiore pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk while striking out one.  Mike Jackson pitched a perfect inning while striking out one.  Eddie Guardado pitched a perfect inning while striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Cliff Floyd was 2-for-4 with a home run (his fourteenth), a double, and a walk.  Mike Lowell was 1-for-3 with a home run (his ninth) and a walk.  Andy Fox was 1-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base, his tenth.

The game:  The Marlins scored in the top of the first, as Luis Castillo led off with a single and scored on Floyd's double.  The Twins tied it in the second when Corey Koskie walked, went to third on a stolen base-plus-error, and scored on a Mohr double.  Hunter's two-run double in the third put the Twins ahead 3-1, but Florida come right back in the top of the fourth, getting back-to-back homers by Floyd and Lowell to tie it 3-3.

Mohr led off the bottom of the fourth with a double and scored on Jones' single to give the Twins a 4-3 advantage.  The Marlins led off the sixth with two walks, but Fiore came in to retire the next three batters to get out of the inning.  In the bottom of the sixth, back-to-back doubles by Luis Rivas and Jones made the score 5-3.

Florida put men on first and third with two out in the seventh, but J. C. Romero came on to retire Cliff Floyd on a ground out and the Marlins did not get a baserunner after that.

WP:  Matt Kinney (2-5).  LP:  Kevin Olsen (0-4).  S:  Guardado (18).

Notes:  Jones raised his average to .316.  Hunter went up to .314.  Mohr was batting .336.  A. J. Pierzynski was 1-for-4 to make his average .331.  Romero's ERA fell to 0.79.  Jackson now had an ERA of 1.07.

This was Luis Rivas' seventh game of the season.  He was batting .400 (10-for-25).  He would end the season at .256.

Koskie had stolen twenty-seven bases in 2001, more than double what he did in any other year.  He would steal ten in 2002 and eleven in 2003, the only years when he reached double digit stolen bases.  He had seventy-one for his career.

Kinney struck out six in five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and two walks.  Florida starter Kevin Olsen pitched 4.1 innings, giving up four runs on seven hits and three walks and striking out four.

This was one of only ten starts Olsen made in his major league career.  Florida drafted him in the twenty-sixth round in 1998.  He got a September call-up from AA in 2001 and pitched quite well, throwing seven shutout innings against Montreal on October 3.  He appears to have been the fifth starter for Florida at the start of the 2002 season, pitching out of the bullpen when a fifth starter was not needed due to off-days or rainouts.  He did okay in nine relief appearances, but was not very good in eight starts and was sent down in early July.  He was pitching really well in AAA Albuquerque in 2003 and came up to the majors in June.  He made on good appearance and three really bad ones.  In the last one, on June 27, he was hit in the head by a Todd Walker line drive, landing him on the disabled list.  He came back in September and had one really bad outing and two good ones.  He apparently was still dealing with injury in 2004, as he made just ten starts for Albuquerque.  He signed with Pittsburgh for 2005 but never threw a pitch for them all year and was released after the season.  He started 2006 in independent ball and finished it in AA for Oakland, doing very well in thirteen starts.  He made just two bad starts in AAA in 2007, however, before being released.  A quick Google search did not reveal whether the later injuries had to do with concussion symptoms or if they were independent of that.  He might not have done much in the majors anyway, but it's too bad that he couldn't stay healthy so he could find out for sure.

Record:  The Twins were 36-26, in first place in the American League Central, six games ahead of Chicago.  The Twins would end at 94-67 and would win the division by 13.5 games.

Florida was 30-31, in fourth place in the National League East, 5.5 games behind Atlanta.  The Marlins would finish 79-83 and would stay in fourth place. twenty-three games behind the Braves.