Tag: Frank Viola

Franchise Pitching Game Started leaders

Minnesota Twins

Jim Kaat - Twins pitcher from 1961 - 1973

 

Names Seasons Games started Complete games
Jim Kaat 13 422 133
Brad Radke 12 377 37
Bert Blyleven 11 345 141
Frank Viola 8 259 54
Jim Perry 10 249 61
Dave Goltz 8 215 80
Kevin Tapani 7 180 19
Camilo Pascual 6 179 70
Johan Santana 8 175 6
Eric Milton 6 165 10

Washington Senators 

Walter Johnson
Name Seasons Games started Complete games
Walter Johnson (HOF) 21 666 531
Dutch Leonard 9 251 130
Sid Hudson 10 239 112
Casey Patten 8 237 206
Camilo Pascual 7 225 62
Tom Zachary 9 210 93
Tom Hughes 9 205 139
Jim Shaw 9 194 96
Bob Groom 5 169 104
Early Wynn (HOF) 8 168 92

 

Twins Opening Day pitchers

April 10, 2010 – In the Twins 50 years they are 24-26 on opening day. The Twins have had 25 different pitchers take the mound on opening day on their behalf and only four pitchers have had that honor more than twice. Brad Radke was the Twins opening day pitcher 9 times including seven consecutive opening day starts. Bert Blyleven started on opening day 6 times but oddly his only home opening day start was in 1987 in the Metrodome. The only other Twins pitchers with more than two opening day starts are Frank Viola with 4 and Dave Goltz with 3.

Year Pitcher Game result
1961 Pedro Ramos Twins 6 – Yankees 0
1962 Jack Kralick Kansas City A’s 4 – Twins 2
1963 Camilo Pascual Indians 4 – Twins 4
1964 Camilo Pascual Twins 7 – Indians 6
1965 Jim Kaat Twins 5 – Yankees 4
1966 Mudcat Grant Twins 2 – Kansas City A’s 1
1967 Jim Kaat Orioles 6 – Twins 3
1968 Dean Chance Twins 2 – Senators 0
1969 Tommy Hall Royals 4 – Twins 3
1970 Jim Perry Twins 12 – White Sox 0
1971 Jim Perry Brewers 7 – Twins 2
1972 Bert Blyleven A’s 4 – Twins 3
1973 Bert Blyleven Twins 8 – A’s 3
1974 Bert Blyleven Twins 6 – Royals 4
1975 Bert Blyleven Twins 11 – Rangers 4
1976 Bert Blyleven Rangers 2 – Twins 1
1977 Dave Goltz A’s 7 – Twins 4
1978 Dave Goltz Mariners 3 – Twins 2
1979 Dave Goltz Twins 5 – A’s 3
1980 Jerry Koosman Twins 9 – A’s 7
1981 Jerry Koosman A’s 5 – Twins 1
1982 Pete Redfern Mariners 11 – Twins 7
1983 Brad Havens Tigers 11 – Twins 3
1984 Al Williams Tigers 8 – Twins 1
1985 Frank Viola Twins 6 – Angels 2
1986 Frank Viola Twins 3 – A’s 2
1987 Bert Blyleven Twins 5 – A’s 4
1988 Frank Viola Yankees 8 – Twins 0
1989 Frank Viola Yankees 4 – Twins 2
1990 Allan Anderson A’s 8 – Twins 3
1991 Jack Morris A;s 7 – Twins 2
1992 Scott Erickson Twins 4 – Brewers 2
1993 Kevin Tapani White Sox 10 – Twins 5
1994 Kevin Tapani Angels 8 – Twins 2
1995 Scott Erickson Red Sox 9 – Twins 0
1996 Brad Radke Twins 8 – Tigers 6
1997 Brad Radke Twins 7 – Tigers 5
1998 Bob Tewksbury Blue Jays 3 – Twins 2
1999 Brad Radke Twins 6 – Blue Jays 1
2000 Brad Radke Devil Rays 7 – Twins 0
2001 Brad Radke Twins 3 – igers 2
2002 Brad Radke Twins 8 – Royals 6
2003 Brad Radke Twins 3 – Tigers 1
2004 Brad Radke Twins 7 – Indians 4
2005 Brad Radke Mariners 5 – Twins 1
2006 Johan Santana Blue Jays 6 – Twins 3
2007 Johan Santana Twins 7 – Orioles 4
2008 Livan Hernandez Twins 3 – Angels 2
2009 Francisco Liriano Mariners 6 – Twins 1
2010 Scott Baker Angels 6 – Twins 3

 

10 run leads are just not enough

July 21, 2009 – A lot of Twins fans were already in bed confident of another Twins win when home plate umpire Mike Muchlinski called Mike Cuddyer out on a close call at the plate at about 12:38 AM local time on Tuesday morning. Cuddyer was trying to tie the score at 14-14 all the way from second base on a wild pitch by A’s reliever Michael Wuertz. Replays showed fairly clearly that Cuddyer was safe, having slid under the tag from Wuertz but the dirty deed had already been done, the A’s were already shaking hands for a great come from behind victory while Gardy “discussed” the play with Muchlinski.

It was an abrupt end to a game that dragged on for 3 hours and 32 in front of only 10,283 fans in Oakland in a game where each team hit 4 home runs with a grand slam for each side. Neither starter, or reliever for that matter, had anything, Oakland starter Gio Gonzalez lasted just 2 2/3 innings giving up 11 earned runs and Nick Blackburn pitched 5 innings for Minnesota and gave up 7 earned runs on 13 hits. Twins pitchers threw 155 pitches, allowed 22 hits and 3 walks and strangely enough, did not strike out a single A’s batter.

With the 14-13 loss the Twins tied their record for largest blown lead in Twins history. The Twins and Frank Viola had a 10-0 lead in the 3rd inning at Cleveland Stadium on September 28, 1984 and lost the game 11-10 but that was in the Ron Davis era and many would say that was not all that shocking. Sports Illustrated did a recap of the game in their October 4, 1984 issue and you can check it out here. If you want to see the actual box score of the 1984 game just click here.

According to Elias, Minnesota’s Justin Morneau had two home runs and seven RBIs and Oakland’s Matt Holliday had two homers and six RBIs in the A’s win over the Twins. It was only the fourth game in major-league history in which a player on each team hit at least two home runs and had at least six RBIs. The other pairs of opponents to do that were Rogers Hornsby (Cardinals) and Butch Henline (Phillies) in 1922, Lou Gehrig (Yankees) and Jimmie Foxx (A’s) in 1930, and Albert Belle (White Sox) and Rusty Greer (Rangers) in 1997.

A’s starter Gio Gonzalez gave up 11 runs in two and two-thirds innings Monday night but he did not get a loss as Oakland rallied from a ten-run deficit to beat the Twins, 14-13. Gonzalez is only the second starting pitcher in baseball’s modern era (i.e., since 1900) to avoid a loss in a game in which he pitched fewer than three innings and gave up at least 11 runs. You don’t have to search back very far to find the other instance: the Rangers’ Scott Feldman was charged with 12 runs in two and two-thirds innings in Boston on August 12, 2008 he too was not involved in the decision as Texas lost to the Red Sox, 19-17.

Keep’em Dancing

Jim Kaat

To be a good pitcher they say, you need to keep the hitters off-balance and you can’t let the hitters get comfortable at the plate. If you look at the Twins pitching history, you will see that some of the Twins top pitchers were not afraid to plunk a hitter now and then. I can’t tell you for sure if these pitchers threw at batters on purpose or if they just felt that they owned the plate and they were not afraid to pitch inside, but either way, the pitchers on this list hit their share of batters and a number of these pitchers pitched in the days when they themselves had to step up to the plate to hit. Jim Kaat hit the most batters when he pitched for the Twins, hitting 89 batters (plus 7 more as a Washington Senator before he became a Minnesota Twin) but he also pitched just under 3,000 innings and he averaged a hit batter once every 33.25 innings. Mike Smithson, who certainly was not afraid to pitch inside hit 46 batters in his time with the Twins and he did this in just 816 innings so he hit a batter every 17.74 innings, far and away the most hit batters per innings pitched. Let’s take a look at the Twins top ten.

  Name Batters hit Innings Innings per hit batter
1 Jim Kaat 89 2,959 33.25
2 Bert Blyleven 80 2,566 32.08
3 Brad Radke 62 2,451 39.53
4 Jim Perry 50 1,883 37.66
5 Mike Smithson 46 816 17.74
6 Kyle Lohse 44 908 20.64
7 Scott Erickson 42 979 23.31
8 Dave Boswell 34 1,036 30.47
9 Frank Viola 29 1,772 61.10
10 Johan Santana 27 1,308 48.44

Now let’s take a look at the Twins current starters and see how they compare.

  Name Batters hit Innings Innings per hit batter
1 Scott Baker 25 915 36.60
2 Francisco Liriano 20 617 30.85
3 Nick Blackburn 17 668 39.29
4 Carl Pavano 12 397 33.08
5 Brian Duensing 6 289 48.17