Tag Archives: really good bullpen

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game Thirty-seven

MINNESOTA 5, CALIFORNIA 4 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Saturday, May 23.

Batting stars:  Leo Cardenas was 3-for-4.  Jim Holt was 2-for-4 with two doubles.  Tony Oliva was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Bill Zepp retired all seven batters he faced.  Stan Williams struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.  Ron Perranoski pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Ken McMullen was 2-for-4 with a triple.  Andy Messersmith pitched seven innings, giving up four runs (one earned) on eight hits and one walk and striking out five.

The game:  Each team scored two in the second.  For the Angels, Alex Johnson doubled and scored on McMullen's single.  Two walks loaded the bases with one out and a ground out made it 2-0.  For the Twins, Harmon Killebrew walked.  With two out, Cardenas hit a single-plus-error to score a run and Paul Ratliff followed with an RBI double, tying it 2-2.

California went right back into the lead in the third.  An error and a Jim Fregosi single put men on first and third with none out.  A sacrifice fly put the Angels ahead and McMullen followed with an RBI triple to make it 4-2 California.

The Twins had men on second and third with one out in the third, and the Angels had men on first and third with two out in the fourth, but it remained 4-2 until the fifth.  Zepp reached on an error and was bunted to second.  A ground out moved him to third and Oliva's infield single brought him home.  Killebrew then doubled, with Oliva scoring from first to tie the score 4-4.

The Twins had men on first and third with none out in the sixth but did not score.  With two out in the eighth, Holt doubled and Cardenas followed with an RBI single to give the Twins their first lead at 5-4.  Jim Spencer led off the California ninth with a single, but he was erased on a double play and a line out ended the game.

WP:  Williams (4-0).

LP:  Ken Tatum (2-1).

S:  Perranoski (11).

Notes:  Holt was in left in place of Brant Alyea.  Ratliff was behind the plate in place of George Mitterwald.

Charlie Manuel pinch-hit for Zepp in the sixth.  Mitterwald went behind the plate in the ninth and Frank Quilici went to third in place of Killebrew.

Rod Carew was 0-for-4 and was batting .402.  Oliva was batting .329.  Killebrew was 1-for-3 and was batting .315.  Tovar was 1-for-2 and was batting .301.  Zepp had an ERA of 1.69.  Williams had an ERA of 1.50.  Perranoski had an ERA of 1.42.

Jim Kaat started and pitched 3.2 innings, giving up four runs (one earned) on six hits and two walks and striking out two.

Carew was on an 0-for-8 streak.

The Twins had three relievers with ERAs below two.

Six of the game's nine runs were unearned.

The plate umpire was Jake O'Donnell.  That's the same Jake O'Donnell who was an NBA referee from 1967-1995.  He umpired in the American League from 1968-1971.  He's the only person to officiate a major league baseball all-star game and an NBA all-star game.  He also umpired the 1971 ALCS.  The seasons didn't overlap as much back then, but it's still pretty remarkable that he was able to do both.

Record:  The Twins were 26-11, in first place in the American League West, 1.5 games ahead of California.

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 1992, Game One Hundred Twenty-five

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DETROIT 6, MINNESOTA 2 IN DETROIT

Date:  Monday, August 24.

Batting stars:  Kent Hrbek was 2-for-4 with a home run, his fourteenth.  Shane Mack was 2-for-4.  Randy Bush was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Mike Trombley struck out four in three innings of relief, giving up one run on three hits.  Rick Aguilera pitched a perfect inning, striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Eric King pitched seven innings, giving up one run on four hits and one walk and striking out five.  Skeeter Barnes was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his third.  Mark Carreon was 2-for-4.  Tony Phillips was 2-for-5 with a double and two RBIs.  Dan Gladden was 1-for-5 with a two-run homer, his sixth.  Cecil Fielder was 1-for-4 with a home run, his twenty-eighth.

The game:  Neither team did much for the first two innings, but the Tigers opened the third with consecutive singles by Carreon, Barnes, and Gary Pettis to take a 1-0 lead.  They did no more damage, however, and when Hrbek homered with two out in the fourth, the scored was tied 1-1.

But then Detroit took over in the fifth.  Barnes led off with a single and went to third on a stolen base-plus-error.  Pettis walked, Phillips hit a two-run double, and Gladden followed with a two-run homer.  The Tigers had a 5-1 lead.

The Twins put men on second and third with two out in the bottom of the fifth, but nothing came of it.  Fielder homered leading off the seventh to make it 6-1.  The Twins got one in the eighth on singles by Chuck Knoblauch and Mack and an infield out by Kirby Puckett, but that was all they could do.

WP:  King (4-4).  LP:  Bill Krueger (10-5).  S:  None.

Notes:  The only variation from the standard 1992 lineup is that Bush was in right field rather than Pedro Munoz, who was apparently just given the day off.

The Twins used their bench in the ninth, although it didn't help any.  Jeff Reboulet pinch-ran for Bush.  Gene Larkin pinch-hit for Scott Leius.  Mike Pagliarulo pinch-hit for Greg Gagne.

Puckett was batting .329.  He would finish at .329, which led the team.  Mack was batting .325.  He would finish at .315.  Brian Harper was batting .305.  He would finish at .307.  As a team the Twins batted a league-leading .277, well ahead of second-place Milwaukee at .268.

The 1992 team was not a homerun-hitting team.  Puckett led the squad with 19.  Mack was second at 16, followed by Hrbek with 15 and Munoz and Chili Davis with 12 each.  The Twins hit 104 home runs, which was tenth in the league.

Krueger lasted five innings and allowed five runs on seven hits and a walk, striking out six.  He had a decent-enough year, going 10-6, 4.30, 1.31 WHIP, not bad for a fourth starter.  The staff ace was John Smiley, who was 16-9, 3.21, 1.12 WHIP.  At the time Smiley was considered somewhat of a disappointment, but that's unfair.  The Twins were coming off a World Series win, and Smiley was supposed to be the guy to lead them back there again.  When they didn't get there, he got some of the blame, but he more than did his part.  The main reason the Twins didn't get back to the World Series is that Oakland improved by twelve games.  The Twins had a good team.  The Athletics just had a better team.

Anyway, the rest of the rotation was Kevin Tapani (16-11, 3.97, 1.25) and Scott Erickson (13-12, 3.40, 1.32).  Another reason the Twins couldn't overtake Oakland is that they couldn't find a fifth starter.  Pat Mahomes started and ended the season as the fifth starter, but in the middle it was Willie Banks.  Neither of them got the job done.   Mahomes was 3-4, 5.04, 1.58 WHIP.  Banks was 4-4, 5.70, 1.65 WHIP.

The bullpen was extremely good, with five relievers with ERAs below three.  Rick Aguilera was 2-6, 2.84, 1.16.  Carl Willis was 7-3, 2.72, 1.06.  Tom Edens was 6-3, 2.83, 1.32.  Mark Guthrie was 2-3, 2.88, 1.09.  Gary Wayne was 3-3, 2.63, 1.35.  That's a reliable bullpen.

The Twins were third in ERA at 3.70.  Milwaukee led at 3.43.  The Twins were second in WHIP at 1.29.  Milwaukee led there, too, at 1.22.

By game scores, this was the best game of the season for Eric King.  He was a solid pitcher from 1988-1990, but was not any more by 1992.  This was his last year, and he went 4-6, 5.22, 1.49.  But he was too much for the Twins on this day.  That's baseball.

August was the worst month of the season for the Twins, as they went 12-17.  One could argue that this poor month cost the Twins the pennant, too.

Record:  The Twins were 69-56, in second place in the American League West, 7 games behind Oakland.  They would finish 90-72, in second place, 6 games behind Oakland.

The Tigers were 60-66, in fourth place in the American League East, 11.5 games behind Toronto.  They would finish 75-87, in sixth place, 21 games behind Toronto.

Random Record:  The Twins are 43-43 in Random Rewind games.

 

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 2005, Game Ninety-eight

DETROIT 5, MINNESOTA 2 IN DETROIT

Date:  Sunday, July 24.

Batting stars:  Shannon Stewart was 2-for-4.  Joe Mauer was 1-for-4 with a home run, his seventh.

Pitching star:  Matt Guerrier pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up two hits and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Jeremy Bonderman pitched eight innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and two walks and striking out six.  Magglio Ordonez was 3-for-4 with two doubles and a walk.  Chris Shelton was 3-for-5 with two doubles.  Curtis Granderson was 2-for-3 with a home run (his second), a triple, a walk, and two RBIs.  Ivan Rodriguez was 2-for-4.  Carlos Guillen was 2-for-5 with a home run, his third.

The game:  With two out in the first, Shelton singled and scored from first on Ordonez' double, giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead.  The Twins tied it in the third when Michael Cuddyer tripled and scored on a Stewart single.

Detroit went back in the front in the fourth when Rodriguez singled and Granderson delivered a two-out RBI triple.  The Tigers extended their lead in the fifth.  Guillen led off the inning with a home run, Shelton followed with a double, and Ordonez had a run-scoring single, making the score 4-1.  Granderson homered leading off the sixth, increasing the lead to 5-1.

The Twins did very little offensively from the fourth through the seventh.  They put two men on with one out in the eighth, but a pair of strikeouts ended the threat.  Mauer led off the ninth with a home run.  Torii Hunter then singled and Jacque Jones walked, bringing the tying run to the plate.  But Matthew LeCroy hit into a double play and Justin Morneau grounded out, and the game was over.

WP:  Bonderman (13-6).  LP:  Kyle Lohse (7-9).  S:  Kyle Farnsworth (5).

Notes:  Bret Boone was at second base in one of the fourteen games he played for the Twins.  Luis Rivas started the season at second, but the Twins had lost patience with him by this point and he lost the job.  Nick Punto played the most games at second, with 73.  Rivas had 53, Luis Rodriguez 40, Brent Abernathy 17, Boone 14, and Michael Cuddyer 11.

Juan Castro was at shortstop.  He was the regular there for the first half of the season, but at this point he was just about to lose the job to Jason Bartlett.  Castro played a few more games at short, 73 to 68.  Punto played 34 games there and Rodriguez 10.  One of those ten is this game, as will be seen below.

Lew Ford pinch-hit for Castro in the eighth.  Rodriguez then entered the game at shorstop.

Mauer was batting .311.  He would finish at .294.  The Twins did not have a .300 hitter unless you count players with fewer than 150 at-bats.  The Twins batted .259, which was next-to-last in the league.  Boston led at .281.

Jones led in home runs with 23, with Morneau right behind at 22.  LeCory hit 17, Hunter 14, Cuddyer 12, and Stewart 10.  The Twins were 12th in the league in home runs with 134.  Texas led with 260.

Lohse pitched 5.2 innings and allowed five runs (four earned) on eleven hits and three walks.  He struck out two.  Johan Santana was clearly the staff ace, going 16-7, 2.87, 0.97 WHIP.  Along with Brad Radke (9-12, 4.04, 1.18) and Carlos Silva (9-8, 3.34, 1.17), the Twins had three pretty good starters.  Lohse wasn't awful as a fourth, going 9-13, 4.18, 1.43.  Joe Mays was the fifth starter pretty much all season even though he was awful, going 6-10, 5.65, 1.56 WHIP.  There were only three other pitchers who started games for the Twins, Scott Baker with nine, Francisco Liriano with four, and Dave Gassner with two.  The Twins were fifth in the league in ERA at 3.71; Cleveland led at 3.61.  They were second in WHIP at 1.23; Cleveland led at 1.22.

The Twins had a very good bullpen, with three relievers with ERAs under three, Joe Nathan, Jesse Crain, and Juan Rincon.  Two more were under four, Guerrier and J. C. Romero.  I know ERA isn't all that in evaluating relivers, but still, that's pretty good.

Chris Shelton had a couple of pretty good years as a part-time first baseman, batting .299/.360/.510 in 388 at-bats in 2005 and .273/.340/.466 in 373 at-bats in 2006.  Despite that, the Tigers chose to go with Sean Casey (.296/.353/.393) at first base in 2007.  Shelton spent the entire 2007 season in Toledo and never did get another real chance in the majors.

This game started a stretch in which the Twins would lose eight of nine.

Record:  The Twins were 53-45, in second place in the American League Central, 11.5 games behind Chicago.  They would finish 83-79, in third place, 16 games behind Chicago.

The Tigers were 49-49, in fourth place in the American League Central, 15.5 games behind Chicago.  They would finish 71-91, in fourth place, 28 games behind Chicago.

Rewind Record:  The Twins are 39-39 in Random Rewind games.