Minnesota Twins Daily Dip, October 17th, 2017
Welcome to the October 16th 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
Manuel Hired
It was announced early Tuesday morning that the Minnesota Twins have hired long-time Baseball America writer John Manuel away to be part of their scouting department. We’ll have more on this story!
Arizona Fall League Update
After a big win over Scottsdale on Saturday, Surprise opened the week by facing them again on Monday, and it took 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th to get the walk-off win. Chris Paul got the start at third base, his first start at the hot corner, and continued his hot hitting, going 2-5 with a run scored and an RBI. LaMonte Wade continued his struggles, playing right field and going 1-4 with an RBI, adding a strikeout. He’s now hitting .167 in the short time he’s been playing in the AFL.
Two Twins pitchers got into the game with different results. Andrew Vasquez had hitters dizzy in his 1 2/3 innings of perfect relief, striking out 1. Tom Hackimer threw an inning, allowing a run on 3 hits, striking out 1.
Surprise will play Peoria at 2:30PM today.
Playoff games yesterday
New York Yankees 8, Houston Astros 1
CC Sabathia looked tremendous on the hill, and the Yankees got two 3-run home runs to drive their offense in a bounce back game to climb out of a 2 games to none hole. Sabathia went 6 scoreless innings, allowing 3 hits and 4 walks, striking out 5. Aaron Judge and Todd Frazier each put out 3-run home runs. For the Astros, Collin McHugh did put up 4 hitless innings of relief, allowing a walk and striking out 3.
Game 4 of the series will be on Tuesday.
More from Puckett's Pond
- Minnesota Twins: 2 Possible Free Agent Reunions for 2023
- Minnesota Twins: Holiday Wish List for the rest of the Offseason
- Minnesota Twins: After signing with the Mets, Correa spurns Twins again
- Minnesota Twins: You Spin Me Right Round, Right Round
- Minnesota Twins: What happens next at Shortstop?
Playoff games today
Houston Astros @ New York Yankees, 4:00PM CT
Starting Pitchers: Lance McCullers, Jr. vs. Sonny Gray
Television: FS1
Series Standing: Astros lead 2-1
Los Angeles Dodgers @ Chicago Cubs, 8PM CT
Starting Pitchers: Yu Darvish vs. Kyle Hendricks
Television: TBS
Series Standing: Dodgers lead 2-0
Notes from around baseball
- Judge has huge night at plate and in the field
- Hall of Fame exhibit to spotlight ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease)
- The top walk off home runs in postseason history
Next: Twins 2017 Review: Infield
One Last Thing
Thirty years ago today, the first ever indoor postseason game was played as the Minnesota Twins hosted the St. Louis Cardinals in the Metrodome.
The Twins used a 7-run 4th inning to take the first game of the series 10-1. However, the Cardinals did score first off of Twins ace Frank Viola using a double from Jim Lindeman, a sacrifice fly, and a groundout that scored Lindeman. However, that’s all they got as Viola went 8 innings, allowing just that one run on 5 hits and no walks, striking out 5. Keith Atherton had a perfect 9th inning to finish out the game.
The Twins got a grand slam from Dan Gladden in the 4th inning after stringing together four straight singles to open the inning along with a walk in order to chase Cardinals starter Joe Magrane. Tim Laudner greeted Bob Forsch with a single that scored the third run of the inning, before Gladden drove the ball into the left-center bleachers.
Steve Lombardozzi had a 2-run home run in the 5th inning and then scored the final run of the game on a Gladden double. Lombardozzi and Gladden each were part of much of the scoring, with Lombardozzi scoring 3 and driving in 2 while Gladden scored one and drove in 5.