Lou Bierbauer (1865)
Wilbur Good (1885)
Jack Fournier (1889)
Whitey Witt (1895)
Al Evans (1916)
Dick Gernert (1928)
Grant Jackson (1942)
Pete Filson (1958)
Jerry Layne (1958)
Todd Worrell (1959)
Ed Vosberg (1961)
Charlie Kerfeld (1963)
Matt Vasgersian (1967)
Mike DeJean (1970)
Ryan Zimmerman (1984)
Eddie Rosario (1991)
Jerry Layne has been a major league umpire since 1989.
Matt Vasgersian has been a major league baseball broadcaster since 1997.
It got late early.
How about that?
One of the oldest cliches about baseball is that it's a game of inches. Like many cliches, it's a cliche because there's a lot of truth in it. We got some examples last night,
Consensus after the game seemed to be that:
a) Molitor made some curious moves re: pinch-running and defensive substitutions which came back to bite him (see socal's comments in the Game Log),
b) The Twins offense had numerous chances to put this thing away, but simply couldn't get it done (3-13 w/ RISP),
c) Jepsen was bound to blow a save with the Twins at some point - unfortunately, it came in game that was both very winnable and very important,
d) Hicks still has some work to do on keeping his head in games: he was doubled off 2nd in the 6th and didn't hit the cut-off man in the 9th, allowing the eventual tying runner to advance to 2nd.
e) Duensing sucks,
f) It's all Mauer's fault, all the time.*
And the positive:
With his solo homer off Norris in the third, Eddie Rosario became the 17th rookie to record 10 homers, 10 triples, 10 doubles and 10 stolen bases in a season. He was the first do it since Hanley Ramirez in 2006. He's also just the sixth rookie to reach those marks with at least 10 outfield assists.
-Jason Beck
They're still only 1.5 games behind Houston for the 2nd Wild Card spot, with seventeen games left and a fairly favorable list of opponents. Channeling JeffA, I'd say they're ready to start their seventeen game winning streak tonight against LAAAAA.
*even though he's reached base safely in 36-straight-games, a career high.
Just a reminder--I need someone to take the recaps for the next two days.
There's no business like Sano business.
Continue reading Game 139 Recap: Twins 3, Royals 2 (12 Innings)
Can we take a mulligan?
Abner Dalrymple (1857)
Frank Chance (1876)
Dots Miller (1886)
Doc Johnston (1887)
Frankie Frisch (1898)
Waite Hoyt (1899)
Hugh Mulcahy (1913)
Jay Ward (1938)
Paul Roof (1942)
Jerry Mumphrey (1952)
Tom Foley (1959)
Alvin Davis (1960)
Jim Corsi (1961)
Todd Zeile (1965)
Joey Hamilton (1970)
Dan Miceli (1970)
Mike Hampton (1972)
Edwin Jackson (1983)
Alex Romero (1983)
Kyle Davies (1983)
Michael Bowden (1986)
Dots Miller’s given name was John. He got the nickname “Dots” because when he first came up, a sportswriter asked teammate Honus Wagner who the new guy was. Wagner, in his thick German accent, said, “Dot’s Miller.”
Hugh Mulcahy has one of the worst nicknames in the history of baseball. In four seasons as a starting pitcher for the Phillies, he twice led the league in losses. He went 45-89 for his career, leading to the nickname “Losing Pitcher Mulcahy”.
The brother of Phil Roof, Paul Roof was a pitcher for four seasons in the Braves’ system, never going higher than Class A.
The Twins scored first in the 1st with a homerun by Aaron Hicks, his 10th of the season. KC came back to tie it at one in the home-half of the 1st, and didn't score another run until the 7th. Between those two runs, the Twins added five more, with Eduardo Escobar notching 3 hits, 3 RBI's, a 2B and a walk. Since taking over as the primary SS at the end of July, Escobar is slashing .313/.375/.565 with 19 extra base hits, 18 RBI and a 1.548 WPA. Nice.
Also kinda fun - with his homerun yesterday, Hicks is the 5th Twins player with double-digit homeruns this year, and Rosario (9), Escobar (9) and Mauer (8) are all within striking distance.
Also showing up to play was pitcher Tommy Milone who went 7 innings, allowing only 2 runs on 6 hits while striking out 4. After a rather average August (1-1, averaging only 5.1 innings per start and 2.6 ER's per start) Tommy has now put together back-to-back 7 inning starts in September, earning his 7th & 8th wins of the season and dropping his ERA to a career best 3.54.
Minnesota is 6-4 over their past 10 games, 1.5 behind Texas for the 2nd Wild Card spot (and 2 games ahead of the Angels).
