The Twins Almanac for June 17: Curveball Artist Pitches Eighth-Straight Complete Game

[Matt Johnson]

In today's Twins Almanac:

• Team record complete-game streak
• Team record triples streak
• Happy birthday, Tom Drees
• Eighteen-year-old Minnesota native faces major leaguers in exhibition
• Biggest opponent inning in Twins history

 

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Pascual Pitches Eighth-Straight Complete Game

Camilo Pascual pitched his Twins record eighth-straight complete game on this date in 1964. He went 7-1 with a shutout over the streak. 

There have been nine five-game complete-game streaks in team history, including three by Bert Blyleven.

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Carew Triples in Third-Straight Game

Rod Carew tripled in a Twins-record third-straight game on this date in 1977. That record has since been matched by Dan Gladden, Delmon Young, and Eddie Rosario.

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Happy 62nd birthday to 1981 Edina graduate and former White Sox pitcher Tom Drees, born in Des Moines, Iowa on this date in 1963.

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Eighteen-Year-Old Bender Faces Major Leaguers

On their way from Philadelphia to Cincinnati, the Cubs played the semipro Harrisburg Athletic Club on this date in 1902. Eighteen-year-old Minnesota native Charles Albert Bender (recently of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School), held the major leaguers to 6 hits over 9 innings.

Bender made his major league debut with the Athletics the following April, when he was still just 18. In his debut, he earned the win in relief. (The opposing starter was Cy Young.) A week later, he pitched a four-hit shutout in his first MLB start opposing future Senators owner Clark Griffith. 

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Royals Score 12 in One Inning

The Royals had the biggest inning of any opponent in Twins history, plating an even dozen in the sixth inning in Kansas City on this date in 2003. Raúl Ibañez and Ken Harvey both had two RBI hits in the inning. Starter Kenny Rogers was tagged for the first six runs, followed by J.C. Romero and Michael Nakamura with three each. 

Despite the lopsided loss, the Twins maintained a two-game lead over the Royals and went on to win the division before losing to the Yankees in the Division Series. 

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[CoachDW]

Happy Birthday, Mr. Drees! He had quite the professional career. Looking at his numbers, it struck me that the way they developed pitchers in the minor leagues from the late 1980s and early 1990s is tremendously different from what we see today. When Drees was in the White Sox organization in A ball in 1987 he threw 168 innings, with 8 complete games and 3 shutouts. Moving to Double-A in 1988, he tossed 158 innings with 6 complete games and 2 shutouts. Promoted to AAA for 1989 he hurled 168 frames with 4 complete games and 3 shutouts, and followed that up with 97 innings, 4 complete games, and 1 shutout in 1990. Still at AAA in 1991, he threw 143 innings, 3 complete games, and 3 shutouts. At the age of 28 he was a September call up to the White Sox in 1991, but only appeared in 4 games, all in mop-up duty, and one wonders if the heavy minor league workload was just too much. He pitched a total of 7.1 big league innings, giving up 10 hits, 6 walks, and 4 homeruns (ouch).  That seems to be an insane amount of innings, not to mention complete games, for a developing pitcher to throw in the minors, but some would say that pitchers today don't throw enough innings and their arms are protected and coddled to such a degree that they never really learn the art of pitching. Possibly some day organizations  will reach a happy medium. In any event, hats off to all those workhorse pitchers like birthday boy Tom Drees who took the ball and gave it their all in an attempt to reach their big league dreams. 

[stringer bell]

For you young 'uns that can't remember Camilo, he was an elite pitcher for about half a decade ending with injury in '65. Two of the best curve balls ever belonged to Pascual and Bert Blyleven. Pascual led the league in strikeouts in '61-'63, led the league in complete games and shutouts three times each and won 20 games for the Twins in '62 and '63. 

I believe Pascual and Jerry Koosman are two of the most underappreciated ex-Twins to have played here. Both had career WAR over 40, Koosman won over 200 games and had over 2000 strikeouts, but he wasn't Tom Seaver.