April 17, 2009: Twins’ Jason Kubel hits for the cycle, sets tone for career year

Jason Kubel of the Minnesota Twins entered spring training in 2009 with a two-year contract that guaranteed he wouldn’t face arbitration. He had an air of calm confidence. “This is the first year I don’t have any pressure,” he said in late February.1

Drafted out of high school in 2000, Kubel showed promise at each stage of the minors. A top Twins prospect heading into 2003 alongside the likes of Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau, evaluations of him started simply enough: “Can hit.”2 He debuted in the final month of the 2004 season with promising results, hitting .300 in 23 games. But a knee injury in the first game of the Arizona Fall League caused him to miss the 2005 season,3 and he had a slow 2006, playing in only 73 games.

After steady improvement in 2007 and 2008, Kubel’s game was coming together. He and everyone around him could feel it in 2009. “I still think I can hit .300 with 25 homers and 80 to 85 RBI. … We’ll see. Just put it all together and see what happens.”4

But the Twins had a slow start to the season, not helped by Mauer’s absence in April with a lower-back injury.5 They lost five of their first nine games, scoring two or fewer runs in four contests. The 26-year-old Kubel hit only .226 in that stretch. An early offensive burst came in a 12-5 win over the Chicago White Sox on April 10, but Kubel was largely absent, going 1-for-5 with a walk. It would take another week for him to break out.

A Friday crowd of 24,168 gathered at the Metrodome on April 17 to watch two expected contenders6 seek some momentum. The Twins and right-hander Nick Blackburn, who was 0-1 with a 5.73 ERA through two starts, opened a weekend series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and righty Dustin Moseley, who was 1-0 with a 3.86 ERA.7 Kubel started in left field, his first game out of the DH spot in 2009.

The game began calmly. Blackburn had a clean top of the first, and Moseley looked to match. He struck out Denard Span looking and got Brendan Harris to ground out to second. But Morneau walked on a full count and Kubel laced a double into the left-center gap, driving in Morneau for an early 1-0 Twins’ lead.

Blackburn and Moseley each worked around baserunners in the second inning. The Angels’ Howie Kendrick bunted for a single with two outs in the third but was stranded when Maicer Izturis struck out looking.8

After Span flied out to deep center to start the bottom of the third, Harris homered to left field on a high fastball to put the Twins up 2-0. Morneau grounded out to second, but Kubel’s grounder to a similar spot, the right of second base, was hard-hit enough to get past second baseman Kendrick for a single. Michael Cuddyer launched a ball just in front of the right-field wall next to the foul line. Kubel raced home but was cut down by a step with a perfect relay from Bobby Abreu to Kendrick to catcher Mike Napoli to end the inning.

After a quiet fourth inning, the Angels started stringing singles together in the fifth. Juan Rivera led off with a groundball up the middle, followed by Erick Aybar with a line drive to center and Chone Figgins with a grounder into right to load the bases. Kendrick grounded a fastball just under the glove of the diving Nick Punto at shortstop for a fourth consecutive single, scoring Rivera and Aybar to tie the game. Figgins sped to third, drawing a throw from Span that let Kendrick hustle to second.

Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson visited the mound; Izturis grounded out to second on the next pitch, but Figgins scored to put the Angels up 3-2, and Kendrick advanced to third. The left-handed-hitting Abreu was intentionally walked. Torii Hunter – in his second season with Anaheim after receiving seven Gold Gloves and making two All-Star teams in 11 years as a Twin – popped out to shortstop, and Kendrys Morales ended the inning by popping out to second.

The Twins failed to respond in the bottom of the inning against Justin Speier, who replaced Moseley in the bottom of the fourth after the starter left with an elbow injury.9 Speier struck out Punto and Span looking, then struck out Harris swinging.

Blackburn regained his composure in the top of the sixth and put Napoli, Rivera, and Aybar down in order. The Twins sent up the middle of their lineup against Rafael Rodríguez, who was making the second appearance of his career. Morneau flied out to Hunter in center, just shy of the warning track. Kubel, a single and a double under his belt, had the green light on a 3-and-0 count and pulled a center-cut fastball down the right-field line. The 35-year-old Abreu, filling in for the injured Vladimir Guerrero,10 had difficulty corralling the ball after it caromed in the corner. Kubel was initially coasting into second base but looked back to see Abreu chasing down the ball and sprinted to third for a stand-up triple.

Cuddyer grounded to shortstop, but Kubel stayed put. After Brian Buscher walked, Joe Crede hit a single to left and Kubel scored. A weak groundout by Mike Redmond ended the inning, but the Twins had tied it, 3-3, and Kubel was one hefty swing from completing the cycle.

At 95 pitches, Blackburn returned for the top of the seventh. Figgins led off with a single to center and stole second. Kendrick bunted him to third. Jesse Crain relieved Blackburn and got Izturis to pop out to shortstop. The Twins intentionally walked Abreu again to face Hunter. Abreu stole second without a throw, but this time Hunter worked a two-strike count into a walk to load the bases with two outs.

The singles returned. Morales singled to right field, scoring Figgins and Abreu. Napoli singled to center, scoring Hunter. Span misplayed a hop in center field, allowing Morales to go from first to third. Crain walked Rivera to reload the bases, and his evening was over. In came Matt Guerrier.11

Aybar singled again, driving in Morales and Napoli. The speedy Figgins singled on a weak groundball to Punto, but no runs scored. Finally, Kendrick grounded back to Guerrier to end the five-run outburst that put the Angels up 8-3. The game now had all the trappings of the start of the Twins’ season, and the fans were not pleased.12

But the Twins still had some fight. Punto led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a single. Span hit a chopper off the glove of Rodríguez, who tried to recover but short-armed a throw that got by Morales at first base. Punto and Span each moved up a base. Harris hit a sacrifice fly to center that scored Punto and moved Span to third. José Arredondo came in from the bullpen and quelled the short rally with a Morneau fly out and a Kubel strikeout.

The Angels padded their lead in the eighth. Izturis reached on a dropped third strike, stole second, and advanced to third on Abreu’s groundout to first. Hunter hit a sacrifice fly to right field to make it 9-4.

The Twins’ Cuddyer led off the bottom of the eighth with an infield single to shortstop. Buscher struck out swinging, but Cuddyer stole second in the next at-bat and advanced to third on a wild pitch.

Crede walked and Scot Shields replaced Arredondo. Cuddyer scored on Redmond’s single. Redmond was replaced on the bases by rookie José Morales. After Punto walked, Span doubled to the right-center gap, driving in Crede and Morales. Jason Bulger came in for Shields and struck out Harris looking. With two outs, ahead 9-7, the Angels intentionally walked Morneau to load the bases and bring up Kubel, who now had the chance for an electric end to his search for the cycle.

Kubel watched a waist-high curveball on the outside edge for a strike. The next pitch was nearly identical. Kubel sat on it,13 swung smoothly, and it rocketed deep into the right-center-field stands to put the Twins up 11-9 and complete his cycle, the ninth in Minnesota Twins history.14 Kubel was thrilled and his teammates sent him out for a curtain call.15

Joe Nathan closed out the game with a clean ninth inning, ensuring that Kubel’s big day wasn’t to be wasted.

Kubel went on to have the best year of what turned out to be a 10-season career, earning his only MVP votes.16 He topped his own spring-training projections, batting an even .300 with 28 home runs and 103 RBIs. The Twins won the AL Central Division title to reach the postseason for the first time since 2006.17

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Mike Huber and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play. The author also relied on coverage of the game available on YouTube.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN200904170.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2009/B04170MIN2009.htm

Notes

1 La Velle E. Neal III, “Greetings From Florida,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, February 22, 2009: C6.

2 La Velle E. Neal III, “It’s Another Bumper Crop,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, March 30, 2003: S6.

3 La Velle E. Neal III, “The Boys of Fall,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, November 16, 2004: C4.

4 Neal, “Greetings From Florida.”

5 La Velle E. Neal III, “Cure-Alls Are All Around,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, March 30, 2009: C4.

6 Don McGowan, “Yankees Retool for Run at the Title,” Regina (Saskatchewan) Leader-Post, April 4, 2009: C7.

7 Moseley made the rotation because John Lackey, Ervin Santana, and Kelvim Escobar were all injured to start the season. “Ethier, Blake Homer as Dodgers Down Angels,” Palm Springs (California) Desert Sun, April 3, 2009: C2.

8 This was Blackburn’s third start of the season, and only his third strikeout. A classic pitch-to-contact pitcher who relied heavily on his sinker, Blackburn never struck out 100 batters in a season.

9 Mike DiGiovanna, “Angels Are Left Deflated After Bullpen Meltdown,” Los Angeles Times, April 18, 2009: C1. Moseley missed the rest of the 2009 season, and the Angels released him in December.

10 “AL Insider,” USA Today, April 17, 2009: 4C.

11 Guerrier went on to lead the AL in appearances with 79 in 2009. He tied the league lead in 2008 with 76 appearances.

12 La Velle E. Neal III, “Hero Covers All the Bases,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, April 18, 2009: C7.

13 “Hero Covers All the Bases.”

14 The eight previous cycles were Rod Carew (1970), César Tovar (1972), Larry Hisle (1976), Lyman Bostock (1976), Mike Cubbage (1978), Gary Ward (1980), Kirby Puckett (1986), and Carlos Gomez (2008). Cuddyer hit for the cycle in May 2009, then nearly 10 years passed before Jorge Polanco hit the next Twins’ cycle in April 2019.

15 “Hero Covers All the Bases,” C1.

16 Mauer, who made his season debut on May 1, won the AL MVP Award in 2009. Cuddyer came in 21st in the voting.

17 The Twins lost the AL Division Series to the New York Yankees in three games. The Angels also met their expectations as postseason contenders. They won the AL West Division for the third consecutive season, falling to the eventual World Series champion Yankees in the AL Championship Series.