The Twins beat up on the Detroit Tigers 20-6 last night at Target Field in front of 29,394 fans that had to watch 3 hours and 59 minutes of baseball if they wanted to see the games final pitch. The Twins are the first AL team this season to score 20 runs in a game and this is the most runs ever scored by the Twins in a game at Target Field.
This is the 13th time in franchise history and the eighth time in Twins team history that the team has scored 20 or more runs in a game. The Detroit Tigers have been the unlucky victims of the Twins/Senators 20 or more runs parade on five occasions, four times by the Twins and once by the Washington Senators.
The Twins previous high for runs scored in a game at Target field occurred on July 16, 2012 when they out-scored the Baltimore Orioles 19-7. The Twins have had 20 runs scored against them just three times and always on the road. The Twins lost to the Kansas City A’s 20-2 on April 25, 1961, they lost 23-6 to the Kansas City Royals on April 6, 1974 and they lost a 20-6 game to the Texas Rangers on July 25, 2011.
| Rk | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | PA | AB | R | H | HR | BB | LOB | Attendance | GmLen |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1996-04-24 | MIN | DET | W 24-11 | 60 | 46 | 24 | 19 | 3 | 12 | 9 | 12,189 | 223 |
| 2 | 2002-06-04 | MIN | CLE | W 23-2 | 57 | 50 | 23 | 25 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 14,029 | 194 |
| 3 | 1994-06-04 | MIN | DET | W 21-7 | 57 | 49 | 21 | 24 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 23,780 | 194 |
| 4 | 1994-05-20 | MIN | BOS | W 21-2 | 54 | 44 | 21 | 22 | 1 | 7 | 9 | 20,766 | 188 |
| 5 | 1929-08-05 | WSH | DET | W 21-5 | 51 | 41 | 21 | 21 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 132 | |
| 6 | 2014-08-22 | MIN | DET | W 20-6 | 55 | 46 | 20 | 20 | 4 | 9 | 11 | 29,394 | 239 |
| 7 | 2009-05-21 | MIN | CHW | W 20-1 | 54 | 46 | 20 | 20 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 23,048 | 178 |
| 8 | 2007-07-06 (1) | MIN | CHW | W 20-14 | 57 | 47 | 20 | 21 | 2 | 8 | 10 | 31,543 | 222 |
| 9 | 1980-04-27 | MIN | OAK | W 20-11 | 52 | 41 | 20 | 20 | 0 | 8 | 8 | 19,859 | 197 |
| 10 | 1943-08-01 (2) | WSH | SLB | W 20-6 | 56 | 41 | 20 | 19 | 0 | 12 | 12 | 15,579 | 136 |
| 11 | 1925-08-22 | WSH | DET | W 20-5 | 55 | 44 | 20 | 19 | 3 | 10 | 8 | 162 | |
| 12 | 1923-08-24 | WSH | CLE | W 20-8 | 59 | 42 | 20 | 22 | 0 | 14 | 12 | 150 | |
| 13 | 1915-09-29 (2) | WSH | PHA | W 20-5 | 52 | 43 | 20 | 23 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 110 |
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Here is what ELIAS had to say about the game: Eduardo Escobar led the Twins’ 20-hit attack, going 5-for-6 from the eighth slot in the lineup, in their 20-6 victory over the Tigers. He was the first major-league player to collect five hits, including a home run, in a game from either the eighth or ninth slot in the lineup since Detroit’s Carlos Pena generated six hits, including a pair of homers, at Kansas City back in 2004.
Escobar’s night began with a second-inning homer off Robbie Ray, and he followed with a single off Blaine Hardy, a triple off Jim Johnson, a single off Joba Chamberlain and another single off pitcher-for-a-day infielder Andrew Romine. Escobar became the second Twins player this month to get hits off five different pitchers in the same game – Danny Santana did it against the White Sox on August 3 – something no other big-leaguer has done this season.
And just to complete the story, we note that Escobar also made a pair of errors at shortstop on Friday night. The last major-leaguer with at least five hits and at least two errors in the same game was Kansas City’s Angel Berroa, who did it in a game at Cleveland in September 2003.
For the Twins, their 20-run, 20-hit performance marked just the eighth time in modern major-league history that a team had posted those exact numbers – and three of those eight games have been produced by the Twins. Minnesota went 20/20 against the Athletics in 1980 and against the White Sox in 2009.