Tony, the Killer, and Carew

3 years ago…
8/1/2004: Johan Santana struck out 12 and earned his 10th win of the season in a 4-3 Twins’ victory over the Boston Red Sox at the Metrodome. He did it at the expense of Pedro Martinez, who was the starting pitcher for Boston. The Twins scored two in the bottom of the eighth when a Justin Morneau sacrifice fly and a fielding error by the Red Sox made the difference.

7 years ago…
8/1/2000: Ron Coomer’s single in the seventh inning proves to be the Twins’ only hit off of regular Twins killer Mike Mussina. The Orioles win the game in Baltimore 10-0 with help from Albert Belle who had a home run and five RBI in the game.

21 years ago…
8/1/1986: It’s milestones galore for Metrodome fans as the Twins see Bert Blyleven record his 3,000 career strikeout and Kirby Puckett hit for the cycle in the same game. Both came as part of a 10-1 victory over Oakland. Blyleven allowed just two hits over the course of the game, but true to his form in 1986, one of them was a solo home run. Puckett’s cycle was the first for the organization since Gary Ward did it in 1980.

30 years ago…
8/1/1977: Lyman Bostock had a home run and four RBI in a Twins 9-5 victory over Kansas City at Met Stadium. George Brett went 0-for-5 in the game.

37 years ago…
8/1/1970: The Twins and the Tigers went into extra innings with the score tied at four, but the Twins pulled out the victory at Tigers Stadium with an eight-run 10th inning. Three Twins were intentionally walked in the inning, and all of them eventually came in to score. The win put the Twins seven games ahead of the closest competition in the AL West.

This is the eighth post in a series detailing the 20 best pitching performances in Twins history based on Bill James’ game scores. The games are posted in chronological order.

Wednesday June 19, 1968
Metropolitan Stadium
Bloomington, MN

1968 was a famously extreme pitcher’s season, and two Twins made the list from that year, bringing the grand total of 91+ games from the 60’s to nine (out of twenty total in Twins history).

Dean Chance was already a very well established pitcher by 1968, and had several dominant games in his career (including a 91 against the Twins in 1962 and a 14-inning shutout against the Yankees in 1964). Due to the run-scoring environment in 1968 (if it can be called that in a season when the AL averaged just 3.4 runs per game), Chance had a very good looking 2.69 ERA coming into the mid-June game against Washington, but carried with it an unimpressive 5-8 record.

On the mound opposite Chance was Joe Coleman, who also had a very strong-looking ERA (2.47) accompanied by a mediocre record (4-6). Washington’s offense, of course, fit right into the era, scoring only 205 runs through 61 games, or about league average.

Chance got off to a quick start against the Senators, as he started the game by retiring the first three men he saw, including two by strikeout. Coleman got into a little more trouble, allowing a walk and a single in the first, but he also escaped without allowing a run.

The first four innings pretty much went that way, with Chance dominating the Seantors while Coleman squeaked out scoreless innings. The only base runner Chance, allowed, a second inning single, was quickly erased by a double play. Coleman, on the other hand, stranded six Twins runners over the first four frames.

After Chance once again retired the side in the fifth, the Twins were finally able to cash in on a base runner when Harmon Killebrew singled home Ted Uhlaender who had doubled off of Coleman earlier in the inning. Washington did nothing with a single in the top of the sixth, and Coleman was able to strand two more Twins runners in the bottom of the sixth.

The Twins scored three in the seventh, however. After Uhlaender led off with a home run, short stop Jackie Hernandez got that seemingly elusive hit with runners on when he knocked in two with a single. Coleman’s night was done after the seventh; and though he allowed a lot of base runners (15 total; 12 hits, 2 walks, and an error), he managed to hold the Twins to just four runs.

The Senators put together their best threat against Chance in the seventh innings, when at one point they had runners at first and second with one out (thanks in part to a Hernandez error). From that point on, Chance did not allow another base runner, and he retired the final eight Senators to earn the shut out victory.

Minnesota Twins       IP   H  R  ER  BB  SO  HR    ERA   
D Chance, W (6-8)      9   3  0   0   0  10   0   2.49

                      BF  Pit-Str   GB-FB  GmSc  IR-IS
                      30     -       8-7     91    - 

Box and play-by-play

This is the seventh post in a series detailing the 20 best pitching performances in Twins history based on Bill James’ game scores. The games are posted in chronological order.

Monday September 18, 1967
Municipal Stadium
Kansas City, MO

By 1967 Jim Kaat was already a 28-year-old veteran. He was less than a year removed from his personal best season, 1966, and was well on his way to putting up another good season in 1967. More importantly, his team was in contention. At the end of play on September 17th, 1967, the Twins were one game behind the American League-leading Detroit Tigers, and just a half a game out of second place. The Twins were in the midst of a mini-slump, and had lost four straight before the series with Kansas City.

Kaat didn’t need to look far for personal motivation for his start against the Kansas City Athletics. Though the A’s were in last place in the American League, they had become tough outs for Kaat, who had lost four straight to Kansas City through the 1967 season. If that wasn’t enough, Kaat had made headlines earlier in the month when he was the pitcher off of whom Frank Robinson hit his 400th home run. To say that Kaat was due may have been a bit of an understatement.

Whether he would have a great performance or not, there wouldn’t be a lot of witnesses. The official attendance in Kansas City was 4,215.

Those who stayed away missed quite a duel, as Kaat and Catfish Hunter exchanged scoreless innings through nine. Through the first nine, only three A’s advanced past first base. Their best chance against Kaat came in the ninth inning when Sal Bando led off with a double, the first extra-base hit of the game for the A’s. Bando didn’t stay there long, however, as he was thrown out on a fielder’s choice off the bat of the next hitter. A strike out/throw out double play got the Twins out of the inning.

Hunter was just as good as Kaat. Though the Twins had at least one hit in each of the first four innings, Hunter held them scoreless, and retired 19 Twins in a row before he ran into trouble in the 10th.

With two outs, Bob Allison singled and Rod Carew drew a walk (the first of the game for either team). Ted Uhlaender singled to score the go ahead run, and the Twins got the gift of an insurance run when the Kansas City center fielder over threw the catcher trying to catch the runner at the plate.

Kaat came out for the 10th and worked around a lead off hit batsman to close out the game. The second out of the final inning came on a strikeout, Kaat’s 12th of the game.

Minnesota Twins        IP   H  R  ER  BB  SO  HR    ERA
J Kaat, W (14-13)      10   6  0   0   0  12   0   3.22
                       BF  Pit-Str   GB-FB  GmSc  IR-IS
                       36     -       5-11    92    - 

The win put the Twins in a three-way tie for first place in the American League.

Complete boxscore and play-by-play

4 years ago…
7/25/2003: The Twins evened their season record with a 6-5 victory in the first of a three-game series at Cleveland. The game was tied heading into the ninth inning when Doug Mientkiewicz doubled home Cristian Guzman to put the Twins ahead. Mientkiewicz had three hits and two RBI in the game.

12 years ago…
7/25/1995: Chuck Knoblauch hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning that put the Twins ahead at Skydome. The lead would hold up thanks to seven solid innings by starter Frank Rodriguez. Despite the 7-3 win, the Twins were still in last place, 28.5 games out of the top spot in the AL Central.

24 years ago…
7/25/1983: The Twins’ bats exploded for five runs in the first inning of a game against the Milwaukee Brewers. At the end of the game, the Twins piled up 17 runs on the defending American League Champions from across the border. Five different Twins homered in the game, and Frank Viola went the distance to earn his fifth win of the season.

30 years ago…
7/25/1977: Rick Langford of the A’s and Dave Goltz of the Twins engaged in an 11-inning pitcher’s duel at Metropolitan Stadium. The game eventually ended when Larry Hisle singled home Rod Carew in the bottom of the 11th inning. Goltz allowed just one run on eight hits in 11 innings pitched, and struck out 14 A’s in the 2-1 Twins win. It took the two teams just 2 hours and 39 minutes to complete the 11-inning game.

38 years ago…
7/25/1969: In another marathon, the Twins defeated the Indians 4-2 in 16 innings. Rod Carew knocked in the go-ahead runs with a two-run double in the top of the 16th. The win helped the Twins remain three games ahead of Oakland in the division.

What was your favorite Twins’ game that you attended at the ballpark?

Mine is easy, I still have the scorecard. In August of 1991 I was a 13-year-old kid who had grown up with the Twins. Baseball-reference.com tells me that the Twins had a lead in the division, a slim 1.5 game lead over Chicago and four games over the slumping Oakland A’s, who came to the Metrodome for a four-game weekend series against the Twins. For some reason we had tickets to a few of those games, and very good seats (10-15 rows above the first base dugout) for the Friday night game.

I remember the excitement when the Twins took the early lead, and the sinking feeling after Jose Canseco hit his second home run off of Kevin Tapani to give the A’s their first lead. With Eckersley on the mound in the ninth, even I was thinking that the game would be over soon. It was fun to see Canseco’s error in the ninth basically give the Twins a run back, and finally, the game was tied on a Pagliarulo single.

With runners on first and third in the bottom of the 12th, Kent Hrbek was at the plate. I wanted to see a home run, maybe a sacrifice fly; instead, we got an infield single to score the winning run and send 50,000+ people home happy.

Now it’s your turn…brag about the post season games you have been to, the walk-off wins, or the free stuff you got at the game. There are posts where we debate stats, who is the greatest, etc.; this is not one of them.

This is the sixth post in a series detailing the 20 best pitching performances in Twins history based on Bill James’ game scores. The games are posted in chronological order.

Wednesday July 26, 1967
Yankee Stadium
Bronx, NY

Less than two months after his gem against the Yankees, Jim Merritt found himself taking the mound at Yankee Stadium, this time for game two of a double header. Once again the Twins dropped the first game, this time by a score of 6-1. Since Merritt’s last game against the Yankees, he had become a regular part of the starting rotation, and had decent success, posting a 3-3 record with a 2.94 ERA since May 30.

The Twins scratched together an unearned run against Yankee pitcher Fred Talbot in the second inning, thanks in part to an error and a passed ball. It was a game in which that seemed like it would be enough for Merritt, who dominated early. The only hit he allowed in the first trip through the order was a two out triple to Talbot, who came into the game batting .154/.290/.269.

The Yankees finally got to Merritt in the fifth inning. Joe Pepitone and Steve Whitaker led off the inning with consecutive singles. With Pepitone at third, manager Ralph Houk knew he had to get runs off of Merritt when he could, and called for the squeeze with Ruben Amaro at the plate. The play was successful and tied the score, but the real damage was done by Talbot, whose second base hit of the game scored the go-ahead run. Talbot’s 2-for-2 performance raised his season batting average by 60 points.

Merritt settled back in after the fifth, perhaps sensing that he would not face that day’s nemesis again. The Twins tied the score in the sixth, and Merritt retired 25 of the next 29 men he faced, taking the game into the 13th inning. Most of the outs were recorded by ground out, but Merritt did manage to sprinkle in seven strikeouts.

J Merritt           13  7  2  2  1  7   0   2.27
                    46    -    12-18   91    - 

After the 13th inning, Twins manager Cal Ermer decided that Merritt had enough, and called to the bullpen. The game continued into the 18th inning, when the Twins finally scored in a crazy top of the 18th inning. It started when Zoilo Versalles walked, but was caught trying to be too aggressive when he was thrown out trying to steal second. With two outs, Rod Carew must not have learned his lesson, because he may have been thrown out stealing as well, but a throwing error charged to the catcher left him on third base, from where he scored on Rich Rollins’ infield single.

Jim Roland closed the game by retiring the Yankees in the18th, and the Twins had split a double header in the Bronx, although they played the equivalent of three games.

Complete Boxscore and play-by-play

1 year ago…
7/18/2006: Francisco Liriano pitched 8 2/3 innings in the Twins’ 8-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Nick Punto knocked in three RBI while Joe Mauer improved his batting average to .376 with a 2-for-4 game. Lirano struck out 7 in his victory. As it turned out, this outing was the longest for a Twins starting pitcher all season. The only run he allowed in the game was an unearned run.

16 years ago…
7/18/1992: Scott Erickson and Roger Clemens put on a great pitching duel in front of 42,078 at the Metrodome. The Sox scored a run in the first on a Wade Boggs single. Nine innings later that held up as the game winner. Erickson allowed just five hits, though he did walk five, while striking out seven in the complete game loss. Clemens was just a bit better, throwing a two-hit shut out against the Twins. Despite the loss, the Twins remained three games ahead of Oakland for first place in the AL West.

18 years ago…
7/18/1989: The Twins found themselves trailing 4-2 in the late innings thanks to two Joe Carter home runs, including an inside-the-park home run in the sixth inning. The team fought back, however, and scored a run in each of the final three innings to come from behind for the win. The game-winner came when Jim Dwyer, pinch-hitting for pitcher Frank Viola, hit a sacrifice fly to score Gene Larkin from third. The Twins lost the DH when Tom Kelly, apparently for strategy, substituted for his DH in the top of the ninth inning.

27 years ago…
7/18/1980: Another Twins pitcher named Erickson lost a 1-0 game to Boston. In 1980, however, it was Roger Erickson for the Twins, and the opposing pitcher was Mike Torrez. Erickson had a seven-hit shut out going through nine innings pitched, but Torrez was able to hold the Twins lineup to no runs on six hits in nine innings. The Red Sox finally got the Erickson in the tenth, when Dave Stapleton hit a home run to win the game.

44 years ago…
7/18/1963: Camilo Pascual won his 10th game of the year in a 9-3 Twins’ victory over the New York Yankees. Rich Rollins homered and had five RBI for the Twins.

This is the fifth post in a series detailing the 20 best pitching performances in Twins history based on Bill James’ game scores. The games are posted in chronological order.

Tuesday May 30, 1967
Yankee Stadium
Bronx, NY

Though Jim Merritt showed flashes of dominance in 1966 (including game number three on the list), overall 1966 wasn’t a great year for the young pitcher. After finishing the season 7-14 with a 3.38 ERA, Merritt started the 1967 season by coming out of the bullpen. He was used only six times from the start of the season until late May, but posted an impressive 1.74 ERA in just over 10 innings pitched. Still, it took an injury to Jim Grant combined with a schedule filled with double headers to get Merritt in the starting rotation. He made his first start of the season on May 26 in Kansas City, and put together a five hit shut against the A’s to ensure that he would get another start.

That start came on May 30th at Yankee Stadium. The Twins dropped the first game of a double header with the Yankees, 4-3. Merritt took the hill for the second game against Yankee starter Fritz Peterson.

The Twins got to Peterson early, using four consecutive hits in the first inning to put three runs on the board before Merritt ever took the mound. As it turned out, the Twins wouldn’t score again, but three runs was more than enough for Merritt.

After allowing a single to the first batter he faced, Merritt didn’t give up another hit until the seventh inning. The Yankees couldn’t get anything started against the young pitcher despite two fielding errors by the Twins in the middle innings. The biggest Yankee threat came in the seventh when Charley Smith hit a one out double to left field. He advanced to third on a ground out, but was stranded there when Merritt got Steve Whitaker to ground out to end the inning. No other Yankee base runner made it past first base.

In the final frame, Merritt got Ruben Amaro to fly out to center for the first out. Mickey Mantle followed with a pop fly to third, and Merritt wrapped up his gem with a strikeout of Elston Howard. It was Merritt’s 11th strikeout of the game.

Minnesota Twins      IP  H  R  ER  BB  SO HR  ERA
J Merritt, W (3-0)    9  2  0   0   0  11  0 0.64
                     BF  Pit-Str GB-FB GmSc IR-IS
                     31     -     7-9    94   -

For Jim Merritt, it was his second consecutive shut out. He hadn’t allowed a run in 20 innings pitched. He will find himself on this list again later in the same season.

Complete Boxscore and play-by-play

Notes:

The Twins haven’t had a lot of starters in the past few decades not named Kirby Puckett. In fact, only Torii Hunter has started based on fan vote.

Kirby Puckett and Harmon Killebrew are the only Twins to have hit home runs in All Star play.

I wonder how many seasons Kent Hrbek might have been considered for the All Star Team had he not publicly stated that he would never accept an invitation. As it stands, he had exactly as many appearances as the most infamous Twins selection: Ron Coomer.

Tom Kelly showed more restraint the second time he managed the game, only naming two Twins in 1992 to join Kirby Puckett (who was voted in), while he named five in 1988, including Tim Laudner.

Bold indicates starter

1981:
Doug Corbett DNP

1982:
Kent Hrbek 0-1

1983:
Gary Ward 0-1

1984:
Dave Engle DNP

1985:
Tom Brunansky 0-1

1986:
Kirby Puckett 1-3

1987:
Kirby Puckett 0-4

1988:
Gary Gaetti 0-1
Tim Laudner 1-1
Kirby Puckett 0-1
Jeff Reardon DNP
Frank Viola W, 2 IP 0 H 0 R 1 K

1989:
Gary Gaetti 0-1
Kirby Puckett 1-3, R

1990:
Kirby Puckett 1-1

1991:
Rick Aguilera 1.3 IP 2 H 0 R 3 K
Scott Erickson DNP
Jack Morris 2 IP 4 H 1 R 1 K
Kirby Puckett 0-1

1992:
Rick Aguilera 0.7 IP 1 H 1 R
Chuck Knoblauch 0-1
Kirby Puckett 1-3, R

1993:
Rick Aguilera 1 IP 2 H 0 R 2 K
Kirby Puckett 2-3, HR 2 RBI - MVP

1994:
Chuck Knoblauch 0-3, R
Kirby Puckett 1-3, RBI

1995:
Kirby Puckett 0-2

1996:
Chuck Knoblauch 1-1

1997:
Chuck Knoblauch 0-0

1998:
Brad Radke 1 IP 2 H 1 R 1 BB 1 K

1999:
Ron Coomer 0-1

2000:
Matt Lawton 1-2, R, RBI

2001:
Cristian Guzman 0-1
Joe Mays 1 IP 0 H 0 R
Eric Milton DNP

2002:
Eddie Guardado 0.7 IP 0 H 0 R 2 K
Torii Hunter 0-2
AJ Pierzynski 0-3

2003:
Eddie Guardado 0.3 IP 2 H 1 R

2004:
Joe Nathan 1 IP 0 H 0 R 2 K

2005:
Joe Nathan 1 IP 2 H 1 R
Johan Santana 1 IP 1 H 0 R 1 BB 0 K

2006:
Francisco Liriano DNP
Joe Mauer 0-2
Johan Santana 1 IP 0 H 0 R 1 BB 1 K

2007:
Torii Hunter 0-2
Justin Morneau 0-2
Johan Santana 1 IP 0 H 0 R 0 BB 2 K

A few weeks ago I posted an all-something team asking readers to name it. It was, in fact, a team made up of players that have represented the Twins in at least one All Star Game. Here is the full list of Twins in the All Star Game.

Notes:
Rod Carew never had much of a mid-season break. Counting time away from the Twins, he was a part of the All Star Game every year between 1967 and 1984.

While the 1965 team had six representatives at the hometown game, the Twins had four players start the ASG in 1967, including Dean Chance who was the starting pitcher that year.

Bold indicates starter
* There were two games held in 1961 and 1962

1961:
Harmon Killebrew 1-2 HR (GM 1) DNP (GM 2)
Camilo Pascual DNP (GM 1) 3 IP 0 H 0 R 1 BB 4 K (GM 2)

1962:
Earl Battey 0-2 (GM 1) 0-2, R (GM 2)
Jim Kaat DNP (GM 1 & GM 2)
Camilo Pascual L, 3 IP 4 H 2 R 1 BB 1 K (GM 1) DNP (GM 2)
Rich Rollins 1-2, R (GM 1) 1-3 (GM 2)

1963:
Bob Allison 0-1
Earl Battey 1-2, RBI
Harmon Killebrew 0-1
Zoilo Versalles 1-1

1964:
Bob Allison 0-3
Jimmie Hall 0-0
Harmon Killebrew 3-4, R, RBI
Tony Oliva 0-4
Camilo Pascual 2 IP 2 H 1 R 1 K

1965:
Earl Battey 0-2
Mudcat Grant 2 IP 2 H 2 R 1 BB 3 K
Jimmie Hall 0-2, R
Harmon Killebrew 1-3, HR, 2 RBI
Tony Oliva 1-2
Zoilo Versalles 0-1

1966:
Earl Battey 0-1
Jim Kaat 2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 K
Harmon Killebrew 1-1
Tony Oliva 0-4

1967:
Rod Carew 0-3
Dean Chance 3 IP 2 H 1 R 1 K
Harmon Killebrew 0-6
Tony Oliva 2-6

1968:
Rod Carew 0-3
Harmon Killebrew 0-1
Tony Oliva 1-1

1969:
Rod Carew 0-3
Harmon Killebrew 0-1
Tony Oliva DNP
Johnny Roseboro 0-1

1970:
Rod Carew DNP
Harmon Killebrew 1-2
Tony Oliva 1-2
Jim Perry 2 IP 1 H 1 R 1 BB 3 K

1971:
Leo Cardenas DNP
Rod Carew 0-1, R
Harmon Killebrew 1-2, HR, 2 RBI
Tony Oliva DNP
Jim Perry DNP

1972:
Rod Carew 1-2, RBI

1973:
Bert Blyleven L, 1 IP 2 H 2 R 2 BB 0 K
Rod Carew 0-3

1974:
Rod Carew 0-1, R

1975:
Rod Carew 1-5

1976:
Rod Carew 0-3
Butch Wynegar 0-0, BB

1977:
Rod Carew 1-3, R
Larry Hisle 0-1
Butch Wynegar 1-2, R

1978:
Rod Carew 2-4, 2 R

1979:
Roy Smalley 0-3

1980:
Ken Landreaux 0-1