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Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game One Hundred Forty-seven

CLEVELAND 4, MINNESOTA 3 IN CLEVELAND

Date:  Friday, September 12.

Batting stars:  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-3 with a double.  Shannon Stewart was 2-for-5 with a double.  Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-5.  Torii Hunter was 1-for-2 with a two-run homer (his twenty-fourth) and two walks.

Pitching stars:  Juan Rincon pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and striking out one.  J. C. Romero pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  C. C. Sabathia pitched 6.2 innings, giving up two runs on six hits and four walks and striking out six.  Travis Hafner was 2-for-3.  Alex Escobar was 2-for-4 with a stolen base.  Coco Crisp was 2-for-4.  Jhonny Peralta was 1-for-2 with a three-run homer (his fourth) and a hit-by-pitch.

The game:  Stewart led off the game with a double, but never moved off second base.  Well, he went to the outfield when the half-inning was over, but you know what I mean.  The Indians put men on second and third with one out in the third, but did not score, so it remained scoreless through three.

The Twins started the scoring in the fourth when Matthew LeCroy walked and Hunter hit a two-run homer.  It stayed 2-0 until the fifth, when Victor Martinez walked, Halfner singled, and Peralta hit a three-run homer to make it 3-2 Cleveland.  It went to 4-2 in the sixth when Escobar singled, stole second, and scored on a Martinez single.

The Twins put two on with two out in the seventh but stranded them.  In the ninth Michael Ryan led off with a pinch-hit single, went to second on a passed ball, and scored on Stewart's single.  They tying run was on base with none out, but a double play and a fly out ended the game.

WP:  Sabathia (13-8).  LP:  Kenny Rogers (11-8).  S:  David Riske (7).

Notes:  Stewart was in left with Dustan Mohr in right and Jacque Jones on the bench.  Lew Ford pinch-hit for Luis Rivas in the seventh, with Denny Hocking going to second base.  Jones pinch-hit for Mohr in the eighth and stayed in the game in right field.  Ryan pinch-hit for Cristian Guzman in the ninth.

Ryan was 1-for-1 and was batting .400.  Ford walked in his plate appearance and was batting .333.  Stewart was batting .313.  Mientkiewicz was batting .306.  A. J. Pierzynski was 0-for-4 and was batting .303.  Jones was 0-for-1 and was batting .302.

Rogers pitched well other than the three-run homer, but his line was 5.2 innings, four runs, six hits, one walk, three strikeouts.

Jesse Orosco relieved Rogers in the sixth and threw one pitch.  He hit Hafner with it and came out of the game.  His ERA remained 7.47.

Danys Baez was the Cleveland closer most of the season, but he lost the job to Riske in mid-August.

This was Sabathia's third season.  He made his first all-star team and had his first ERA under four.  He would have better seasons, but he was a good pitcher at this point, and it's certainly no disgrace to lose to him.  The trouble, of course, is that there were only about two weeks left in the season, and every game was important in the pennant race.

The White Sox and Royals both lost, so while the Twins missed a chance to gain ground they didn't lose any, either.  And as important as the games are this late in the season, you still can't win them all.

Record:  The Twins were 78-69, tied for first with Chicago in the American League Central.  They were 3.5 games ahead of third-place Kansas City.

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.