With the Twins on a roll and their starting pitchers pitching well this might not be a good time to bring back bad memories but I couldn’t help myself after seeing that the New York Yankees were not good hosts to the Kansas City Royals and Royals starter Jeremy Guthrie yesterday when they pounded the Royals 14-1 and sent Guthrie to the showers after he had retired just 3 batters and allowed 9 hits, 3 walks and 11 earned runs. A tough day for Guthrie and for those fantasy players that had Guthrie in their line-up yesterday.
So of course that got me wondering what Twins pitchers over the years had rough outings like this. Turns out that the most earned runs given up by a Twins pitcher is 10, here are the pitchers that made the list. Note that some of the pitchers on this list pitched in relief.
| Rk | Player | Date | Opp | Rslt | App,Dec | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | Pit | BF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rick Reed | 2003-04-21 | NYY | L 1-15 | GS-5, L | 4.1 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 95 | 26 | 20.77 |
| 2 | Pat Mahomes | 1993-04-24 | DET | L 1-17 | GS-3, L | 2.2 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 70 | 20 | 33.75 |
| 3 | Willie Banks | 1992-08-04 | CHW | L 11-19 | 3-4 | 1.2 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 56 | 17 | 54.00 |
| 4 | Geoff Zahn | 1980-07-21 (2) | BAL | L 5-12 | GS-6, L | 5.2 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 32 | 15.88 | |
| 5 | Joe Decker | 1976-05-12 | KCR | L 5-17 | GS-2, L | 1.0 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 14 | 90.00 | |
| 6 | Vic Albury | 1974-08-06 | KCR | L 3-17 | 3-7 | 5.0 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 33 | 18.00 |
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The worst Twins start probably belongs to Joe Decker who lasted just one inning and allowed 10 earnies to the Kansas City Royals back on May 12, 1976 at Royals Stadium. I should note however; that the most runs that a Twins hurler has ever given up in a game is 11 by Rick Reed in that April 21, 2003 loss to the Yankees by a 15-1 score at the Metrodome. Two Twins starters, Frank Viola on May 20, 1986 and Ray Corbin June 30, 1975 allowed 6 earned runs without retiring a single out before they were asked to hand over the baseball and leave the pitching mound.
So what Twins starter gave up the most earned runs and still won the game? That would be Jim Kaat who pitched a complete nine inning game on July 2, 1964 and beat the Red Sox 15-9 at Fenway Park while giving up nine earned runs.