Never mind what happened on the field Saturday because the Twins were shut out twice in one day for the first time since 1961, making life pretty miserable for them and Twins Territory, while making life pretty wonderful for the Cleveland Guardians and all of Northeast Ohio.
Of interest to me, though, was a conversation between radio voices Dan Gladden and Kris Atteberry in which Gladden talked about reluctantly playing in a first-of-its-kind doubleheader between the Twins and Red Sox. That wasn’t real clear to me, but he mentioned that players requested gifts to be donated to a charity of their choice for playing in the games, or something along those lines, and that there was a huge meal between the two contests.
Intrigued, I started searching through old Twins/Red Sox doubleheaders and I think I found it: On June 24, 1989, both teams met at Fenway Park and neither team was happy about it, the Star Tribune reported.
Players twice voted against a split doubleheader, opting instead for back-to-back games. But, according to players, Twins management told them that Boston players had voted in favor of splitting the games, which means a substantial financial gain for both clubs. Boston players said they then were told the Twins had voted in favor of a split, and the situation was resolved.
In reality, neither clubhouse wanted the split.
“The Boston players actually turned it down, and we were told that they had approved it,” Dan Gladden said. “I’m not saying it contributed to my injury, but you don’t play doubleheaders with two hours in between. What makes me more mad is how management lied. It’s obvious they lied on both sides.”
Gladden said the players were furious about being lied to and about the pitching woes. “Something’s got to be done fast or we’re going to find ourselves 11, 12 or 15 games back,” he said.
“That’s what chaps me.”
The Twins were swept that Saturday afternoon, losing 6-2 and 11-2. In Game 2, the pitching victory went to ex-Twin Mike Smithson, who pitched four innings of relief to pick up the win. Smithson logged some serious innings for the Twins in the mid-1980s.
Meanwhile, the Twins were blanked 6-0 and 8-0 on Saturday. They have dropped the series to the Guards and will now try to avoid the four-game sweep on Sunday. Simeon Woods Richardson gets the ball.
Extra innings…
–The Twins are 66-89.
–Joe Ryan didn’t pitch well in Game 1 and Bailey Ober struggled in Game 2, but Portland, Oregon, native Mick Abel, who came over in the deal that sent Jhoan Duran to the Phillies, showed improvement. Abel struck out six over four innings, but he also loaded the bases by walking three straight batters, then served up a single and two runs scored.
–Ryan’s line: five runs allowed (four earned) on six hits, including four solo home runs, across five innings with two walks and five whiffs.
–Ober’s line: five runs allowed on eight hits across five innings with two walks and one strikeout.
–The Twins and Guards turned five double plays in Game 1.
–The Guards keep winning and the Tigers keep losing. The Guardians are now one game back of the division lead and are tied for the final wild card spot. This will be an epic collapse if Detroit can’t sew up the division title. At one time they led the division by 14 games.
–So what happened in 1961? On May 21, the Twins were shut out by the Cleveland Indians 9-0 and 2-0.
Jimmy Piersall had three hits for the Tribe in Game 1 and Mudcat Grant, who would later join the Twins, pitched a complete game three-hitter with three walks and seven whiffs in Game 2.
The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer:
Those stingy young Cleveland pitchers were more parsimonious than usual yesterday. Wynn Hawkins hurled a two-hit, 9-0 victory in the opener against the Minnesota Twins and Mudcat Grant came back with a 3-0 three-hitter as the rampaging Indians jumped to their eighth victory in nine games.
Source: Newspapers.com