Minnesota Twins Daily Morning Dip: Postseason Lefty Duel

Minnesota Twins Daily Dip, October 25th, 2017

Welcome to the October 25th 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

Arizona Fall League Update

Surprise withstood a late run by Salt River to win 4-3 on Tuesday. LaMonte Wade started in right field, going 1-3 with a run scored, a walk, and a stolen base. Sean Miller had a good day, going 2-4 with a run scored, RBI, a stolen base, and a strikeout. He was also caught stealing.

The entire Twins pitching crew in Arizona threw in the game Tuesday. Ryan Eades had a perfect inning with three strikeouts. Tyler Jay threw a scoreless inning, allowing two hits, striking out 3. Thomas Hackimer threw a scoreless inning, allowing a single and striking out one. Finally, Andrew Vasquez threw a scoreless inning, allowing a walk.

Surprise will play Glendale at 2:30PM CT.

Twins players totals in the AFL:
Chris Paul, 7 games, 29 AB, .310/.355/.448, 2B, HR, 1/7 BB/K
Sean Miller, 6 games, 23 AB, .261/.292/.304, 2B, SB, 1/5 BB/K
LaMonte Wade, 9 games, 32 AB, .250/.368/.406, 2 2B, HR, SB, 5/3 BB/K
Andrew Vasquez, 5 games, 5 2/3 IP, 1.59 ERA, 0.71 WHIP, 1/6 BB/K
Thomas Hackimer, 4 games, 5 IP, 1.80 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 1/4 BB/K
Tyler Jay, 5 games, 4 2/3 IP, 3.86 ERA, 1.93 WHIP, 1/7 BB/K
Ryan Eades, 5 games, 5 1/3 IP, 0.00 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 1/5 BB/K

World Series, Game 1

Los Angeles Dodgers 3, Houston Astros 1
The Dodgers jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the World Series on a sweltering day where the first pitch temperature was over 100 degrees. Lefties Clayton Kershaw and Dallas Keuchel both pitched well through 5 innings. Keuchel visibly tired in the 5th inning, and he allowed his second home run of the game, icing it for the Dodgers.

Keuchel went 6 2/3 innings, allowing 3 runs on 6 hits and a walk, striking out 3. Kershaw was even better, going 7 innings, allowing a run on 3 hits, striking out 11. All runs in the game were scored on home run. Alex Bregman his a solo home run for the Astros. Chris Taylor led off the game with a home run for the Dodgers, and Justin Turner iced the game in the 6th inning with a 2-run home run.

Game 2 will be today.

World Series game today

Houston Astros at Los Angeles Dodgers, 7:00PM CT
Starting Pitchers: Justin Verlander vs. Rich Hill
Television: Fox
Series Standing: Dodgers lead 1-0

Notes from around baseball

Next: Possible Twins HUGE offseason move

One Last Thing

As last night’s game featured two strong lefties, 30 years ago today, the World Series came down to a matchup of lefty starters as Twins ace Frank Viola took the mound in the Metrodome to face off against Cardinals lefty Joe Magrane.

Viola was actually hit first, with the Cardinals stringing together a quartet of singles along with a long fly ball that helped to advance runners in the midst of those singles that scored two Cardinal runs. The Twins answered with their own inning of singles, with Steve Lombardozzi driving in a run to bring the Twins within a run.

Both starters put up zeroes for the next two innings, and seemed in control, however, when Greg Gagne reached on an infield single with Kirby Puckett on the way to the plate, the Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog went to his bullpen to bring in a right-hander to face Puckett as Kirby had crushed a deep fly ball to center in his last plate appearance against Magrane, and Herzog didn’t want to see the lead turn to a deficit with one swing of the bat. Instead, Puckett drove another ball deep toward center field, getting a double, driving in Gagne, and tying the ball game.

Viola would continue to roll, and in the next inning, the Twins took advantage of three walks to the first four batters of the inning, with Gagne driving in a run to take the lead. A Dan Gladden double would score the final run in the bottom of the 8th inning before Jeff Reardon came in to shut the door in order on the Cardinals in the 9th inning to secure the first championship in Minnesota Twins history!

After a dominant game 7, Viola was selected the World Series MVP, going 2-1 over 3 starts, throwing 19 1/3 innings, with a 3.72 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, and a 3/16 BB/K. Of course, second baseman Steve Lombardozzi or Puckett would have both had good arguments for the award as well. Lombardozzi hit .412/.474/.647 with a double and home run in the series. Puckett hit .357/.419/.464 with a double and a triple and typical Kirby flair for his timing of his hits along the way.

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