Minnesota Twins Daily Dip: Historical Clinching Day
Minnesota Twins Daily Dip, October 12th, 2017
Welcome to the October 12th edition of the Daily Dip, your daily piece of news and notes here on Puckett’s Pond, offseason edition. You’ll find the most recent news of the Minnesota Twins organization, stories from around the game, and links to any information you may want to know about the Minnesota Twins or baseball as we work our way through the hot stove season!
Minnesota Twins Scores, News and Notes
The Twins players in the Arizona Fall League are on the Surprise Saguaros, who recorded a 3-1 victory on Wednesday night. Sean Miller got the start at second base and went 0-4 with 2 strikeouts. LaMonte Wade played right field and went 0-3 with a walk. Ryan Eades pitched a scoreless inning of relief, allowing one walk, picking up the win. Surprise plays their next game today against Glendale at 2:30PM.
Playoff games yesterday
Washington Nationals 5, Chicago Cubs 0
Stephen Strasburg was dominant, striking out 12 over 7 scoreless innings, and Michael Taylor hit a grand slam in the 8th inning to ice away the game as the Nationals tied the series and sent the series to a decisive fifth game to be played Thursday in Washington.
New York Yankees 5, Cleveland Indians 2
The Yankees finished a dramatic comeback from down 2 games to none to win the deciding 5th game as they were able to once again get to Cleveland ace Corey Kluber. Didi Gregorius went 3-4 with 2 home runs to lead the Yankee offense.
More from Puckett's Pond
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- Minnesota Twins: 4 Possible Trade Chips not named Kepler or Arraez
Playoff games today
Chicago Cubs @ Washington Nationals, 7:00PM CT
Starting Pitchers: Kyle Hendricks vs. Gio Gonzalez
Television: TBS
Series Standing: Series Tied 2-2
Notes from around baseball
- Puig’s excitement rubbing off on teammates
- Ohtani headed for ankle surgery
- Strasburg joins other elite postseason performances by injured/ill athletes
- Could this history say Yankees win World Series?
Next: Twins keep Molitor, let go Allen
One Last Thing
The Minnesota Twins have won two World Series championships. The team participated in the first-ever American League Championship Series in 1969, and it’s fitting that the team would have clinched the ALCS for their two World Series winning seasons on back-to-back days, today and tomorrow.
Thirty years ago, the Twins defeated Detroit 9-5 in game 5 of the 1987 ALCS to send them to their first World Series since 1965. Gary Gaetti was the MVP of the series, though that was really an odd choice. Gaetti hit .300/.348/.650 with a double and 2 home runs, driving in 5 runs. I really think Tom Brunansky should have been the choice, hitting .412/.524/1.000 with 4 doubles and 2 home runs, driving in 9 runs.
Dan Gladden was another one who had an excellent series, with a .350/.458/.450 line with a pair of doubles and 5 RBI, but his work at the top of the lineup was huge for the Twins lineup in the series. On the flip side. Oddly, two of the Minnesota Twins’ big hitters were mostly silent in the Tigers series, as Kent Hrbek and Kirby Puckett hit a combined .182/.234/.341 over the series.
Really, the Twins best pitcher on the series was Senor Smoke, Juan Berenguer, who made 4 appearances, throwing 6 innings, with a 1.50 ERA, 0.67 WHIP, and a 3/6 BB/K ratio. Bert Blyleven and Frank Viola went 3-0 over the series, but they also had a 4.62 ERA and 1.34 WHIP, which was rough for a team with really a 2-deep starting staff.