Tag Archives: sacrifice flies

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game One Hundred Forty

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MINNESOTA 10, TEXAS 7 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Friday, September 5.

Batting stars:  A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-3 with two runs.  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4 with a triple and four RBIs.  Jacque Jones was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his thirteenth.  Matthew LeCroy was 1-for-4 with a home run, his sixteenth.

Pitching stars:  Juan Rincon pitched three perfect innings, striking out two.  LaTroy Hawkins pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.  Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Michael Young was 3-for-4 with a grand slam, his thirteenth homer.  Jason Jones was 2-for-4 with a double.  Alex Rodriguez was 2-for-4 with a home run, his forty-first.  Shane Spencer was 2-for-5.

The game:  The Twins led all the way, but there were some uneasy moments.  Shannon Stewart led off the bottom of the first with a double, was bunted to third, and scored on a sacrifice fly to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  In the second Jones singled, Corey Koskie walked, Pierzynski and Guzman had RBI singles, and a sacrifice fly made it 4-0 Twins.

The Rangers got on the board in the third.  Three singles loaded the bases, a ground out scored one, and a wild pitch scored another, cutting the lead to 4-2.  But the Twins came roaring back in the bottom of the third.  Jones singled, Koskie walked, Pierzynski singled to load the bases, and Guzman brought them all home on a four-run triple-plus-error, putting the Twins up 8-2.  With Johan Santana on the mound, it looked like an easy win for the Twins.

But Texas had something to say about that.  In the fourth a double and two walks loaded the bases with one out.  Young then hit a grand slam.  Later in the inning Rodriguez homered, and the lead was suddenly down to 8-7.

But as happened so many times in this season, the Twins bullpen came in and shut down the opposition.  The Rangers could come up with only two singles after that, one in the eighth and one in the ninth, and neither man got past first base.  The Twins got some insurance in the sixth.  Rivas tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly, and LeCroy homered later in the inning.

WP:  Rincon (4-6).  LP:  Mickey Callaway (1-6).  S:  None.

Notes:  Stewart was in left with Jones in right.  Doug Mientkiewicz returned to the lineup at first base.

Stewart was 1-for-3 and was batting .312.  Jones was batting .306.   Pierzynski was at .304.

Santana's string of excellent performances came crashing to a halt.  He struck out six in four innings, but allowed seven runs on eight hits and two walks.

Hawkins lowered his ERA to 2.00.

The Twins scored three runs on sacrifice flies.  I have no idea what the record is--I'm sure it's more than three--but three by one team in one game is at least somewhat unusual.

This was the one season of Jason Jones' major league career.  He played in forty games and batted .215/.298/.355.  He had hit all through the minors, and continued to hit in AAA in 2004.  His total minor league numbers were .286/.375/.458, and those numbers are not skewed by huge numbers in the low minors or anything.  The Rangers didn't have a super outfield in 2003--yes, they had Juan Gonzalez, but they also had Shane Spencer and Ryan Christenson.  In 2004 their outfield was David Dellucci, Laynce Nix, and Kevin Mench.  He was a corner outfielder, which limited him some, but still.  There was obviously something the Rangers didn't like about him, and apparently other teams saw it, too.  He retired after spending 2004 in AAA at age twenty-seven.  It seems like he should've gotten more of a chance, but as we've observed before, no one ever promised that baseball or life would be fair.

It was the third straight win for the Twins.  Chicago and Kansas City both won, too, so the Twins did not gain any ground.

Record:  The Twins were 74-66, tied for first with Chicago in the American League Central, 1.5 games ahead of third-place 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

1991 Rewind: World Series Game Two

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MINNESOTA 3, ATLANTA 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Sunday, October 20.

Batting stars:  Chili Davis was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer.  Scott Leius was 1-for-3 with a home run.

Pitching stars:  Kevin Tapani pitched eight innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and no walks and striking out three.  Rick Aguilera struck out three in a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Tom Glavine pitched an eight-inning complete game, giving up three runs (one earned) on four hits and three walks and striking out six.  Terry Pendleton was 2-for-4.

The game:  In the first Dan Gladden reached on an error and Chuck Knoblauch walked.  Kirby Puckett hit into a double play, but Davis picked him up with a two-run homer, putting the Twins ahead 2-0.  The Braves came right back in the second.  David Justice led off with a single and Sid Bream followed with a double, putting men on second and third with none out.  Brian Hunter hit a sacrifice fly, getting Atlanta on the board, but a ground out and a strikeout kept the Twins ahead 2-1.

Neither team got a hit in the third or fourth.  In the fifth, Greg Olson led off with a double, went to third on a ground out, and scored on Rafael Belliard's sacrifice fly to tie it 2-2.

In the eighth, Belliard led off with a bunt single, was sacrificed to second, and went to third on a Pendleton infield single.  A foul out and a fly out kept them off the board, though, and it cost them.  The Twins entered the inning having gotten only one hit since the first, but Leius led off with a home run, putting them up 3-2.  Hunter got a one-out single in the ninth but did not advance past first base, and the Twins came away with their second win of the series.

WP:  Tapani (1-1).  LP:  Glavine (0-3).  S:  Aguilera (5).

Notes:  The Twins went with a standard lineup and did not make any substitutions.

The Twins had just four hits in the game, but two of them went over the fence.  The home runs accounted for all the Twins runs.

The Braves were 1-for-6 with men in scoring position.  Both of their runs scored on sacrifice flies.

The Twins did not steal any bases in the game.

Leius was another unlikely home run hero, having hit just five during the season.  His career high was fourteen in 1994.  That was the only season in which he hit more than five home runs.

This was the game with the famous play where Ron Gant overran first base and was tagged out by Hrbek.  It happened in the third inning.  Lonnie Smith was on first with two out.  Gant singled to left, and Smith went to third.  Gladden's throw went past third base and was fielded by Tapani.  Tapani threw to first and Gant, trying to get back to first after rounding it, went past the base.  Atlanta complained that Hrbek had pulled Gant off first base, but we all know that was just sour grapes on the part of the Braves.

The Twins were looking good through two games.  Atlanta would have to take at least two at home to send the series back to Minnesota.

Record:  The Twins led the best-of-seven series 2-0.