Tag Archives: saves

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game One Hundred Sixty-two

2 Comments

MINNESOTA 4, KANSAS CITY 0 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Thursday, October 1.

Batting stars:  Tony Oliva was 2-for-3 with a triple and a double.  Jim Kaat was 1-for-2 with a two-run homer.

Pitching stars:  Kaat struck out seven in seven shutout innings, giving up three hits and a walk.  Stan Williams retired all five men he faced.

Opposition star:  Bob Johnson struck out ten in an eight-inning complete game, giving up four runs on nine hits and no walks.

The game:  The Twins got on the board in the first inning when Cesar Tovar led off with a single and scored from first on an Oliva double.  With two out in the second Danny Thompson doubled and Kaat followed with a two-run homer, making it 3-0 Twins.  They added one more run in the sixth when Oliva tripled and Cotton Nash followed with an RBI single.

The Royals had only three hits in the game, all singles.  The closest they came to scoring was the seventh.  With one out, Lou Piniella and Bob Oliver hit consecutive singles.  Jim Campanis then grounded into a double play to end the inning.

WP:  Kaat (14-10).

LP:  Johnson (8-13).

S:  Ron Perranoski (34).

Notes:  Oliva ended the season batting .325.  Tovar was 1-for-2 and ended at .300.  Williams ended the season with an ERA of 1.99.  Perranoski ended the season with an ERA of 2.43.

Herman Hill was 0-for-1 and ended batting .091.  Charlie Manuel was 0-for-3 and ended batting .188.

This was the last game of Nash's major league career.

This was Kaat's only home run of the season.  He hit sixteen for his career, with a high of three in 1964.

Perranoski came in to record the last out and get the save.  There was no apparent reason to remove Williams and bring him in.  Perhaps the Twins wanted him to get into a game before the playoffs.  He would have been the league saves leader regardless.  Not a big deal, obviously, just a curiosity some fifty-two years later.

In the east, the Baltimore Orioles won the division by fifteen games over the second-place Yankees.  Thus, for the second consecutive season, the Twins would play the Orioles in the American League Championship Series.

Record:  The Twins were 98-64, in first place in the American League West, nine games ahead of Oakland.

Keeping Track

1970 Rewind: Game Sixty-seven

2 Comments

MINNESOTA 9, CHICAGO 1 IN CHICAGO (GAME 1 OF DOUBLEHEADER)

Date:  Sunday, June 28.

Batting stars:  Jim Holt was 3-for-4.  Leo Cardenas was 3-for-5.  Cesar Tovar was 3-for-5.  Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-4 with two home runs (his nineteenth and twentieth) and three RBIs.  Tony Oliva was 2-for-5 with a home run (his tenth), two home runs, and two RBIs.

Pitching stars:  Tom Hall struck out seven in 6.2 innings, giving up one run on seven hits and two walks.  Bill Zepp pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up two hits.

Opposition stars:  Luis Aparicio was 2-for-4 with a double.  Walt Williams was 2-for-5.  Jim Magnuson pitched two perfect innings, striking out one.

The game:  Consecutive singles by Paul Ratliff, Holt, and Danny Thompson put the Twins on the board in the second.  In the third Oliva hit a two-out single and Killebrew followed with a two-run homer, making it 3-0.

The Twins continued to build the lead.  In the fourth Holt singled, went to second on a ground out, and scored on a Hall single.  Singles by Tovar and Cardenas followed, making it 5-0 Twins.  Oliva homered leading off the sixth to make it 6-0.

The White Sox had two singles leading off the first and had a single and a walk in the fifth, but otherwise did not threaten through six innings.  Finally in the seventh, Ken Berry hit a one-out single.  With two down Williams singled and Aparicio followed with an RBI double, getting Chicago on the board at 6-1.

That was all the White Sox did, though.  In the eighth Killebrew homered.  Later in the inning Ratliff walked, went to third on a Holt single, and scored on a sacrifice fly.  In the ninth Tovar singled, took third on a Cardenas single, and scored on a fielder's choice to bring the total to 9-1.

WP:  Hall (3-2).

LP:  Joel Horlen (6-9).

S:  Zepp (1).

Notes:  Ratliff was at catcher in place of George Mitterwald.  Holt was once again in left in place of Brant Alyea.  Thompson was again at second in place of Rod Carew.  Frank Quilici came in for defense in the eighth, going to second with Thompson moving to third and Killebrew coming out of the game.  Herman Hill pinch-ran for Oliva in the ninth and remained in the game in right field.

Oliva was batting .322.  Killebrew was batting .306.  Hall had an ERA of 2.23.  Zepp had an ERA of 2.55.

Quilici was 0-for-1 and was batting .169.

This was the first start of the season for Hall.  They clearly weren't worried about stretching him out, as he pitched 6.2 innings.  He had pitched multiple innings in relief several times, pitching more than three innings five times, with a high of five innings.  He had pitched 3.2 innings as recently as June 25.  He was not taking anyone's place in the rotation at this point, but instead was making a spot start due to a doubleheader.

This was the first career save for Zepp.  He would end up with four, two in 1970 and two in 1971.  The save rule was clearly different then, as he entered the game with two out in the seventh with the Twins leading 6-1.

Horlen pitched five innings, allowing six runs on twelve hits and no walks and striking out one.  Horlen was having the worst year of his career.  He would not win a game the rest of the season, finishing 6-16, 4.86, 1.39 WHIP.  The weak Chicago offense didn't help him--in his next six starts, the White Sox would score a total of eight runs, with a high of two.  He missed all of August, leading one to believe he may have been pitching with an injury much of the season.  He had pitched over two hundred innings in six consecutive seasons prior to 1970, when he pitched 172.  He was a fine pitcher from 1963-1969, and also had a good year out of the bullpen for Oakland in 1972, his last season.

After scoring nine runs over their previous four games, the Twins scored eighteen in their next two.  That's baseball.

Record:  The Twins were 43-24, in first place in the American League West, three and a half games ahead of California.

2012 Twins Game Recaps

Game 5 Recap: Dewey Wins! Puppies!

8 Comments

Twins 6, Laaaaaaaaaaaaa 5

WP: Gray* (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
LP: Takahashi (0-1, 10.80 ERA)
SAVE(!) Shortening (1)
Fangraphs loves baseball. I do too.
Mlb Recap

FireworksWow. Where to start with this one? The Twins had a lot of firsts tonight including the biggest first of them all, Matt Capps converted the Twins save of the season. Without Matt the local nine wouldn't have had their first win, and for that we thank him. Carl pitched perfect through three, but then he started looking a little shaky. He gave up a leadoff hit to start the fourth, turned a double play into a single play, and then a stolen base lead to a run off poo-holes's bat. Poo-holes forced himself out by trying to take an extra base, and Carl worked himself out of the fourth. JC Superstar stepped to the plate and stroked a double, Joe Mau Mau pussied a single to tie the game, the Mountie struck out, and Josh Willingham absolutely crushed a home run to take the lead. Carl was determined not to give the lead back, but accidentally left one up and Bourjos punished him. Actually, Bourjos punished everyone except LAAA fans. Carl pitched a scoreless 6th, but coughed up another run on a two out hit in the 7th. I was about to give up on the game when Doumit and Sweet Danny V hit back to back singles. Parmelee came to the plate and stroked a double that ii face planted into a triple to tie the game at five. Casilla and Span both went down without making much noise. I began to worry that we were being set up for heartbreak, but JC Superstar assuaged my doubt by singling in Parmelee to take the lead. Glenn Perkins took the ball for the 8th and destroyed the heart of the Angels order. The sequence of pitches to poo-holes was nothing short of magnificent. Capps was called on to close the game out, and other than padding ii's stats he was best there ever was. Perfect.

*Sworn enemy of DPWY

Culture Club: I've done this recap thingy for a couple of seasons and I usually follow up the post with a review of art or a cultural institution. I'm choosing to focus on printmaking workshops this year as a way to feature a large number of artists creating diverse images though a wide range of techniques. I'm also interested in promoting the collecting of original art, and fine art prints offer an inexpensive way to own works by famous, infamous, and unknown (me!) artists. I know that I've already featured them here several times, but, what the hell, Highpoint Center for Printmaking is one of the premier professional printmaking centers in the United States. Cole Rogers, a Tamarind Master Printer, and Carla McGrath have created a professional and community workshop, gallery, and educational outreach programs that are unmatched. From their professional shop they print original works from local, national, and internationally known artists such as Willie Cole, David Rathman, Julie Mehretu, and Todd Norsten to name a few. Their gallery is friendly and features a diverse catalog of work hat can accommodate every level of art patron. Stop by, or better yet take a class at the workshop, and visit Highpoint, and tell them I sent you down.

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game # Something: Twins 83 LTE (and counting) Royals 0 LTE

17 Comments

Twins win, right?! Right? Oh, Letters to the Editor don't count towards the final score of the actual game. I'm sorry. Yes, indeed, the Twins lost.

Twins 3, Royals 7

LP: Hendriks (0-2) WP: Hoe-shaver (11-11)

Save? no. I'm not counting the Greg Holland effort as a save even if the box score on MLB.com says he earned one. No way. Not going to count. I'm not even going to look at the King of the Savers  leader board because I'm enraged that the official scored actually believed the Twins could possibly rally to threaten the Royals lead in the ninth. Puh-lease. How dare the powers that be issue a sacred save in such a decidedly un-save like situation. boo.

 

Okay, yeah, now that I'm over my save-rage induced fit I'll commence with the recapage. Liam Hendriks started his second ball game today and lost. He went five innings giving up eight hits, five earned runs while striking out only 2 batters. The good news? He walked zero, zilch, nada batters today. Bert must be pleased with his performance, that is, of course, unless he left the ball up in the zone. Truth be told, I don't know if there were many balls left up in the zone, I was busy finishing a print that's due on Friday, but I'll assume that because the Royals didn't hit any home runs off of him that Hendriks didn't leave any balls up. Waldrop pitched two thirds of an inning and gave up two runs. The rest of the bullpen gave up 3 hits and no runs, Hoey included. Wierd, right? The Twins offense offered up eight hits and three runs. Mauer went oh-fer with three walks. I'd ask for my money back, but I live out of state. The "defense" offered up three errors, and Plouffe (!) records  of them. Some puss threw the ball away on some play that I didn't see to give the Twins another error on the field today. Frankly, I don't know how to read what happened in during the bottom half of the fourth inning, and being that the Twins couldn't scrape together enough hits / runs to win this garbage I don't care to decipher what actually happened.

 

Culture Club: Kansas City is chalk full of fine art. No joak. There is so much happening in KC that I don't know where to start, but the Nelson-Atkins is definitely worth the price of admission. They have world class exhibitions (most of which are FREE (hint, hint, DG...), a fantastic facility, and a beautiful sculpture grounds. Through the 15th of November they have an exhibition of night sky and cosmos photography, and coming in October they'll be showing Romare Beardon's prints. I highly recommend a stop by the Nelson-Atkins Museum if you're going to be in KC to see the Twins lose.

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game 136 Recap: Twins Win!

17 Comments

Twins 7, Sux 6
WP: Diamonds are a girls best friend LP: Peavy
SAVE! Joe Nathan
Twins record 57-79, 18 games out of first, 1.5 games ahead of the cellar

I'd look at the king of the savers race, but I really don't care.

The Twins scored a whopping 7 runs in this game. Whopping. One of the runs scored was driven in by Joe Mauer which brings his career total to 500 rsbi. If he'd play like a man he'd have more than a mazillionty by now, but he's really a puss. Not. The only other thing to know about this game is that SBG fired the Tweet heard round the strib. Rational folks cheered.

Culture Club: I've always enjoyed touring Chicago's art venues, and when in town I always make a trip to the Museum of Contemporary Art. There is always something happening at the MCA including great installations, weird contemporary art, performances, theater, working artist projects, and a good gift shop to boot. Heads up, hj, Tuesday admission is FREE for IL residents.

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game 97 Recap: Indians at Twins

15 Comments

Twins 7, Indian 5
WP: Matt Capps (wait, what?) LP: Sipp
SAVE! Joe "that's right bitches" Nathan
Fangraphs is confused about Capps winning, too.
MLB recap, spoiler ---> the local nine win this one.

Ah, everyone's favorite feature comes roaring back to life with a Joe Nathan save on a Wednesday. Let's look at the progress of the king of the savers race, shall we? Craig Kimbrel and The Beard are tied for the lead with 29 saves. The Beard gets extra credit for style and blowing up fewer games. The ninth guy on the list plays in the AL, for De-toilet to boot, and has 25 saves on the season. There's a lot of baseball to be played, and a lot of saves to be racked up. Stay tuned saves fans!

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. The last two games have been some of the most exciting baseball that I've watched all season. How awesome was it to bloop and dink our way to walk off on Tuesday night, and then to double down on Wednesday and split the series with the Tribe to stay alive in the central. Blackie pitched a hell of a ballgame getting tagged with only 1 earned run, but the defense behind (and in front) of him allowed 3 unearned runs to score. Joe Mauer flashed the leather a couple of times because he's the best evah. The bullpen made things very interesting, but pulled through to keep the score knotted at 4. Laddie led off the eighth with a ground rule double, Mauer pussied a single, Cuddy looked vintage, and Thome drew a walk. If Orlando Ballgame had been just a little bit taller, if had had been a baller, he would have robbed Danny V of the go ahead single, but he wasn't and he didn't. Del was Del. Nishi cracked the game open with a two run single. Drew was Drew. Joe Nathan allowed the obligatory closer's donger (thankfully it was of the solo kind), and the Twins win. I don't care if the Twins come back to make the postseason this year, but I love the way they drag me back in just when I think I'm out.

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game 79 Recap: How about them dodgers?

13 Comments

Twins 1, Dodgers ZERO
WP: Light Rail
LP: De La Rosa
SAVE! Matt "I'll Busta" Capps (13)
Twins record: 34-45, 8.5 games out of first NOT LAST IN THE AL CENTRAL!!ONEOENEOENEOQN!O!NIW

Fangraphs knows scottie baker wasn't looking at the bullpen.

Well, well, well, a save on a wednesday? My goodness gracious, let's take a look at the king of the savers race. The Beard is racking up saves like nobody's business. He currently owns the top spot with 24 saves. We would have to drop six spots on the leader board to find someone in the league that counts but I really don't care that much.

Player A .281 / .304 / .303 / .607 ops+69
Player B .296 / .320 / .336 / .655 ops+79

Just looking at their rookie seasons I'd think these dudes are brothers from another mother. In other news, Scott Baker tossed an absolute gem today. So did De La Rosa for that matter. If you tuned into this one late you missed the scoring action. Sweet Ben hit a lead off triple and was driven in by Nishioka's swinging bunt. That was it. I never doubted the Twins for a second on this one, matt capps excepted. When the camera flashed on Joe Nathan during the ninth I found myself longing for the good old days, and wondering if we'll see Joe back in the closer role before the end of the season.

Go see some art on paper at the walker. 50/50, up 'til July 17, half curated by the unwashed masses, half by experts:

Featuring some 200 works hung salon-style, 50/50 is at once an experiment in crowd curation and an exploration of the Walker’s collection, with each of the two sections filling half the gallery space. This shared exchange sparks a range of questions about the dynamics between “audience” and “expert,” or between curatorial practice and so-called “mass taste.” It also touches on a broader contrast between the act of making aesthetic judgments in an online context and the experience of looking at and thinking about art up close, without time constraints.

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game 61 Recap: Twins at Natives

7 Comments

Twins 3, Tribe 2 (10)
WP: Matt Capps. Wait, what?
LP: Perez
Blown Save: Matt Capps. Yeah, that seems about right.
Save: Phil Dumatrait. Wait, who?
Twins Record: 23-38, 11.5 games out of first, 2.5 games out of not in the cellar.
Fangraphs loves a winner.
MLB recap.

Who has two thumbs and loves to close games? This guy.

Holy cows. Over the last one game the Twins have won one, in extras to boot. Hot Carl Pavano had a solid outing, allowing seven hits and one earned run over seven innings, striking out three, and walking one. Jose "My Neck Isn't Fat, It's Big Boned" Mijares came on for the eighth and retired all three batters he faced. Then Shortening come on to close out the game. He cruised through the first two batters and then decided to serve up a meatball to Jack Hannahan who promptly deposited the ball into the bleachers. Crisco had trouble with the next batter, Lou Marson, before getting Milton Bradley Michael Brantley to pop up to the glove of Butters in foul territory. This marks the 5th blown save in 13 attempts this season for Capps. At the dish the Twins relied on Ben Revere, who warned Texas that the Twins are coming. Sweet Ben went 3-5, driving in two runs, and scored the only other Twins run of the day off a Morneau double in the 6th. According the Dick, the Key "Hit" in that inning was Cuddy's ground out to the first baseman. Yeah, Dick, that hit really tied the inning together for the pitcher*.

Art, and culture. Cleveland is home to many fine art institutions, including the Cleveland Institute Of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and some sort of hall of fame. If you happen into Cleveland this summer I would recommend a stop by any of these fine institutions, and after you can refresh your palette here.

*edited for clarity