Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins – Mejia, Abbott, McKay, Ryan, Hrbek, Gabino, Miller, Wimmers, Cressend and Siebler

I know, I know, I have neglected this the last few days so we will try to get caught up here today by getting the August 20-26 debuts out here.

 

Adalberto Mejia

Adalberto Mejia (P) – August 20, 2016 – Traded by the San Francisco Giants to the Minnesota Twins for Eduardo Nunez on July 28, 2016. It is never easy to make your debut when your team is down 8 to zip in the fifth inning but that was Mejia’s task at Kauffmann Stadium. Mejia went 2.1 innings allowing 5 hits, 1 walk and 2 earned runs in his first time on a big league mound.

Paul Abbott (P) – August 21, 1990 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 3rd round of the 1985 amateur draft. A tough start for Mr. Abbott against the Kansas City Royals at Royals Stadium when he is pinned with the loss after giving up 7 earned runs in 3 innings on 6 hits and 5 walks in his 84 pitches that day.

Dave McKay

Dave McKay (3B/2B/SS) – August 22, 1975 – Signed by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent in 1971. McKay was the starting third baseman against the Tigers at the Met. Started a Twins four run rally by leading off the bottom of the third inning with a home run off Tiger pitcher Vern Ruhle in his first big league at bat. Ended up 1 for 3 with a RBI and run scored.

Jason Ryan (P) – August 24, 1999 – Traded by the Chicago Cubs with Kyle Lohse to the Minnesota Twins for Rick Aguilera and Scott Downs. Probably drew the short straw when his big league debut was at the Met against the Red Sox and Pedro Martinez. Ryan lasted 4.1 innings giving up 4 earned runs on 4 hits and 6 walks and getting the loss in a 7-1 Red Sox victory.

Kent Hrbek (1B) – August 24, 1981 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 17th round of the 1978 amateur draft. First big league action was a start at first base in Yankee Stadium II against Tommy John in the 8 hole in the batting order. Hrbek went 2 for 5 with a run scored and 2 RBI. One of his 2 hits was a home run off George Frazier leading off the top of the 12th inning which provided the winning run in a Twins 3-2 victory over the Bronx Bombers.

Armando Gabino

Armando Gabino (P) – August 25, 2009 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins from the Cleveland Indians in the 2004 minor league draft on December 13, 2004. Gabino started his big league career with a start at the Dome against the Orioles. Gabino unfortunately lasted just 2.2 innings when he gave up 3 earned runs on 5 hits and 3 walks but the Twins came back to win the game 7-6.

Travis Miller (P) – August 25, 1996 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (34th pick) of the 1994 amateur draft. Travis Miller kind of showed right away that starting was not his thing when he started against the Texas Rangers at the Dome and was lifted after throwing 48 pitches in his first and only inning when he gave up 5 hits and 2 walks while allowing 7 Rangers runs. Two of the five hits were home runs. Oh, he did get the loss.

Alex Wimmers

Alex Wimmers (P) –  August 26, 2016 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (21st) of the 2010 MLB June Amateur Draft. Debuted at Rogers Centre in relief and pitched a slick 1 inning striking out 2 batters in a 15-8 Twins loss to the Bluejays.

Jack Cressend

Jack Cressend (P) – August 26, 2000 – Selected off waivers by the Minnesota Twins from the Boston Red Sox on April 22, 1999. The Twins were down 6-2 to the Tigers when Cressend entered the game in relief and pitched 1 inning giving up one run on two hits. The Twins eventually lost the game 8-2.

Dwight Siebler

Dwight Siebler (P) – August 26, 1963 – Purchased by the Minnesota Twins from the Philadelphia Phillies on August 24, 1963. Siebler entered the game in relief of Jim Kaat with runners on first and second and one out. Siebler got the first batter on a weak foul popup to the third baseman, but then he issued a bases filling walk before hitting the next batter to force in a run, walked the next guy to force in another run before retiring the next batter for the final out of the inning. It all sounds bad but his line was 2/3 of an inning with 2 walks, a HBP and zero runs on his record.

You can check out other Major League Debuts as Twins that I have done by going here.

According to ELIAS – Bartolo Colon

No K’s, no problem for Colon

Bartolo Colon

Bartolo Colon is rewarding the Twins’ faith in him. The hefty veteran wielded an ugly 2–9 record with an equally hideous 7.70 ERA at the end of July, but Colon has won four of five starts since the start of August including Friday night’s victory over the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. Colon’s win against Toronto was unlike any of his major-league career, and when you’re talking about a pitcher with 239 wins, that’s saying something. Friday’s game marked the first time in Colon’s 20 major-league seasons that he registered a win without striking a batter out. He struck out one batter in six of his wins, including one earlier this season for the Braves, which coincidentally also took place at Rogers Centre.

This Day in Twins History – August 25, 1970 – Bomb scare at the Met

A bomb scare caused a 43 minute delay in the fourth inning of the Twins and Boston Red Sox game at the Met. 

“Leave the stadium quickly,” Twins public address announcer Bob Casey declared. “There is going to be an explosion in ten minutes.”

Bob Casey

The people of the Twin Cities were already on edge when Casey made his ill-advised announcement during the fourth inning of the Twins-Red Sox game at Met Stadium on the evening of August 25, 1970. Just three days earlier, a bomb had exploded inside Dayton’s department store in downtown St. Paul, injuring one person. Police and Twins officials had little choice but to stop play and evacuate the stands when they received a phone call warning that a bomb was set to explode at the stadium at 9:30 p.m. Their mistake came in entrusting the gaffe-prone Casey with the task of telling 17,697 people they needed to leave the stadium. Despite Casey’s alarmist announcement, the evacuation went smoothly. Most fans headed to the parking lot while the rest joined the players in center field.

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The game was scoreless going in to the eighth inning when Twins reliever Tommy Hall gave up a home run to Tony Conigliaro after striking out Reggie Smith and Carl Yastrzemski for the first two outs of the inning. The Twins had no match for the home run and ended up losing the game 1-0

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 38 – Chance pitches no-hitter in 2-1 win over Indians

The Twins swept a twin-bill from the Cleveland Indians at Cleveland Stadium in what turned out to be a very interesting day. The first game was tied at 4-4 after 9 innings and in the top of the tenth Tony Oliva singled and scored when Harmon Killebrew followed with his annual triple. Sandy Valdespino followed Harmon with a sac fly to score Killebrew and the Twins were up by 6-4. Ron Kline gave up a home run to Joe Azcue but kept Cleveland from scoring any more runs and the Twins won the game 6-5 in 10 innings.

The first game extra-innings victory was quickly put on the back burner when Twins starter Dean Chance pitched a no-hitter in the second game even though he allowed the Indians to score first in a no-hitter rarity. Chance threw 95 pitches and struck out 8 Indians but walked five and Cesar Tovar committed an error so it not like the Indians didn’t have their chances in the Twins 2-1 win. The Twins scored both of their runs without the benefit of a RBI, the first run scored on an error and the second scored on a balk. 

 

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Previous 1967 AL Pennant Race blogs can be found here.

Food safety at MLB ballparks

The Minnesota State Fair opened today for its 12 day run and when I think of the fair I think of two things, politicians and food. This morning my alarm went off and what did I hear first? None other than Dave Lee of WCCO radio interviewing Senator Amy Klobuchar.

We don’t go to the state fair every year but when we do go we try to taste some of the new foods that they have available which brings to mind a recent article I ran across that Sports Illustrated did a couple of weeks ago in ranking food safety at MLB ballparks in 2017. Food safety standards are not standard across the board so it is difficult to rate and compare, here is what SI had to say about that.

Are standards the same across the country? It can be difficult to compare ballparks since each city, county and state reports restaurant inspections differently. Nonetheless, all departments follow the food code set forth by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which offers a consistent model. Health department representatives said that inspections are largely standardized. Some violations, though, did mean different things in different municipalities. For example, a walk-in refrigerator that didn’t have a thermometer was a non-critical violation in Anaheim and Oakland, whereas it was critical in Toronto and D.C.

The Seattle Mariners and Safeco Field had the best ranking and the Tampa Bay Rays and Tropicana Field had the lowest ranking. So where do the Minnesota Twins and Target Field rank against other MLB ballparks in 2017 as far as food safety is concerned? Sadly, their food safety ranks in roughly the same category as does their pitching. You can read the SI article here.

2017 MLB Ballpark Food Safety Rankings

According to ELIAS – Jorge Polanco

Polanco keeps homer streak alive

Jorge Polanco homered for the third straight game in the Twins’ win over the White Sox yesterday, tying the longest homer streak by a shortstop in Twins history. Their only other players to do that, including their 60 years as the Washington Senators, were Zoilo Versalles (three times) and Roy Smalley, Jr. (in 1980).

According to ELIAS – Brian Dozier

Dozier is Mr. Second Half

Brian Dozier

Brian Dozier hit a three-run homer in the second inning off Carson Fulmer in game two of the twinbill in the South Side of Chicago. The Twins managed a split in the doubleheader, winning game two 10-2. Dozier hit 28 home runs after the All-Star break last season and has already hit 13 post-break home runs in 2017. Dozier’s 13 post-break homers this season are the fourth-most in the majors, trailing Giancarlo Stanton (19), Nelson Cruz (14), and Joey Gallo (14). His 41 overall home runs after the midsummer classic over the last two seasons are by far the most in the majors; Nelson Cruz (34), Justin Upton (33), Khris Davis (32), and Gary Sanchez (30) are the only other players with at least 30.

Did you know?

Tim Melville pitching for the Long Island Ducks

Did you know that Tim Melville whose nickname is “Smellville” attended Wentzville (Holt) High school in Wentzville, MO and goes with a Twitter handle of “timelville”? Melville is expected to join the Twins today and start one of two games of their double-header against the Chicago White Sox. Melville who started two games for the Cincinnati Reds in 2016 has not gone more than four innings in either of his previous big league starts. Hopefully Tim will not live up to his nickname today!

According to ELIAS – Eddie Rosario & Bartolo Colon

Rosario hits a grand slam in his second first-inning AB

Eddie Rosario

After grounding out as his team’s second batter, Eddie Rosario then capped the Twins’ nine-run first inning with a grand slam as Minnesota went on to rout Arizona, 12–5. Only one other first-, second-, or third-place batter in franchise history had ever hit a bases-loaded home run in the first inning. On June 28, 1933, Hall of Famer Heinie Manush, batting second in the Washington Senators’ lineup, hit a first-inning grand slam in a 15–2 win at Cleveland.

Colon completes his bingo card against a team that didn’t exist when he debuted

 

Bartolo Colon

Bartolo Colon allowed four runs in six innings, but that was good enough to earn the victory in the Twins’ 12–5 win over the visiting Diamondbacks. Entering Sunday, Arizona was the only one of the 30 current major-league teams that the 44-year-old righty had never beaten. In fact, Colon made his major-league debut in 1997, one year before the D-Backs played their first game. Two other active pitchers have beaten all 30 teams – John Lackey and Max Scherzer.

Colon’s task was made easier when his teammates scored nine times in the first inning. Before Sunday, the most first-inning runs Colon had ever benefitted from in his previous 519 major-league starts was six, in an A’s win over the Astros on April 17, 2013.

Colon became the 18th pitcher in baseball history to record at least one win against all 30 big league teams.  The veteran righty was 0-2 in four previous career starts against the D’Backs, but he finally notched that elusive win in his 20th MLB season. Former Twins pitcher Kyle Lohse is also one of the 18 that has beaten all 30 teams.

Current Twins pitcher Ervin Santana has beaten 29 teams and still needs to beat the Brewers and former Twins pitcher Francisco Liriano is also one team short still searching for a way to beat the Marlins.