I thought that with all the attention this year on the length of games that it would be fun to take a look at some of the quickest nine inning games in Twins history in terms of wall clock time. The fastest game turned out to be a Twins 3-0 loss at Exhibition Stadium to the Toronto Blue Jays as starter Jim Clancy and his Twins counterpart Frank Viola faced off.
Twins 9 inning games in 1 hour and 45 minutes and under
| Rk | Date | Opp | Rslt | PA | AB | Attendance | GmLen ? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1982-09-28 (1) | TOR | L 0-3 | 28 | 27 | 0 | 93 |
| 2 | 1973-07-01 | CAL | W 2-1 | 32 | 31 | 27,068 | 100 |
| 2 | 1968-09-13 | BOS | L 0-3 | 31 | 31 | 23,171 | 100 |
| 4 | 1968-08-22 | NYY | W 3-1 | 31 | 26 | 15,898 | 102 |
| 5 | 1979-08-12 | OAK | W 1-0 | 30 | 27 | 14,500 | 103 |
| 5 | 1974-06-17 | BAL | L 0-1 | 31 | 29 | 7,157 | 103 |
| 7 | 1975-09-26 | CHW | W 2-1 | 33 | 29 | 2,769 | 105 |
| 7 | 1966-04-12 | KCA | W 2-1 | 29 | 26 | 21,658 | 105 |
The fastest Twins nine inning game in this century you ask? That would be a 1-0 loss to the Oakland A’s in McAfee Park on June 2, 2007 when Joe Blanton beat Carlos Silva in one hour and 49 minutes. Since the 2000 season began, the Twins have played in only nine complete games that lasted two hours or less.
The Twins longest game in terms of time was a 17 inning six-hour and 36 minute affair back on May 7, 1995 when the Indians beat the Twins 10-9 at Jacob’s Field. I suspect that the 39,431 fans at the ballpark got their money’s worth that day. I wonder what Tom Kelly’s temperament was like after that game? The Twins used nine pitchers and the Indians used eight. Oddly enough, the Twins have played only two games that lasted six or more hours and they were both against the Cleveland Indians. The other long game against the boys from Cleveland was a six-hour and 17 minute affair at the Metrodome but this time the Twins came out with a 5-4 win in 22 innings on August 31, 1993.
I also took a look at the length of an average Twins game in 1961 versus an average Twins game in 2014. Back in the Twins initial season an average Twins game took two hours and 40 minutes, last year an average Twins game took three hours and 7 minutes.