TWINS TRIVIA is hopefully a fun and informative site that will help you to better enjoy the Minnesota Twins and their wonderful history. “History never looks like history when you are living through it” – John Gardner, former Secretary of Health
July 16, 1969 – Rod Carew steals home for the 7th time, as the AL-West leading Twins sweep a twin bill, winning 9-8 and 6-3 from the White Sox. Carew ties Pete Reiser’s 1946 record for steals of home in a season. Here you can read some excerpts from Carew’s autobiography “Carew.”
Please stop by our Today in Twins History page to see all the other Twins events that occurred on July 16 over the years.
Rochester (AAA) outfielder Oswaldo Arcia is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. Arcia appeared in eight games for the Red Wings, hitting .296 (8-for-27) with one double, five home runs, 11 RBI, seven runs scored and four walks. Arcia started the 2015 season in Minnesota but after an injury in early May the Twins sent the 24-year-old Arcia to rehab in Rochester and he has played there since that time. In 40 games for the Red Wings, Arcia has hit .274 (40-for-146) with 10 doubles, eight home runs and 29 RBI.
Arcia signed with Minnesota in 2007 at the age of 16 and made his major league debut with the Twins on April 15, 2013. Arcia hit 20 home runs last season for the Twins but has not shown enough consistency to stay with the big league this year and as we all know, Arcia can certainly use some improvement in his outfield play. Oswaldo has a brother, Orlando Arcia who is an infielder in the Brewers organization.
Dozier, Twins shock Tigers with ninth-inning rally
Brian Dozier capped a seven-run outburst in the bottom of the ninth inning with a three-run homer against Tigers closer Joakim Soria to give the Twins an 8-6 walk-off victory. The win marks the first time since May 27, 1997 that Minnesota walked off with a win after trailing by at least five runs entering the bottom of the ninth inning – the Twins erased a five-run deficit in the ninth inning against the Mariners in that comeback victory. For the Tigers, it marks just the second time in the last 65 years that they lost a game in which they led by at least five runs in the ninth inning or later. On August 29, 1986, the Angels plated eight runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to clinch a 13-12 win over Detroit, capped by a walk-off grand slam by Dick Schofield.
Dozier, who also launched a walk-off home run on July 6 against the Orioles to open the Twins’ home-stand, is the second player in franchise history to record multiple walk-off homers in a single home-stand. Roy Sievers achieved that feat for the Washington Senators in the 1958 campaign, having hit game-ending homers against the Indians on July 16 and the White Sox on July 20.
The Minnesota Twins will honor the 1965 American League champion Minnesota Twins team with special events on Friday, July 31, and a special pregame ceremony on Saturday, August 1, during the match-up against the Seattle Mariners. Additional information on the event is available on the Twins web site. The Twins Press Release for the event can be seen below.
Sano and Bryant with similar starts through 20 at-bats
Miguel Sano went 2-for-3 and hit his first career home run as the Twins defeated the Orioles, 8-3. Sano has nine hits (including two doubles and a homer) in his first 20 major-league at-bats, becoming the second player to make his MLB debut in 2015 and collect at least nine hits in his first 20 at-bats, with three going for extra bases. The first was Kris Bryant, who started 9-for-20 with four doubles in April.
Rochester (AAA) right-handed pitcher A.J. Achter is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. Achter appeared in three games for the Red Wings, tossing 5.0 shutout innings with two hits, four walks and seven strikeouts. Achter has gone 3-2, 2.15 ERA (37.2 IP, 9 ER) with 13 saves in 33 games for the Red Wings this season. Earlier this week he was named an International League All-Star for the second straight season.
Achter was a September call-up last year and appeared in 7 games throwing 11 innings and posting a 3.27 ERA with a 1-0 record.
A.J. Achter-overcomes-long-odds-as-46th-round-pick
The 6’5″ 26-year-old Achter was originally acquired by the Twins in the 46th round of the 2010 First-Year Player Draft from Michigan State University for a reported $50,000 signing bonus.
Joe Mauer‘s two-run homer in the first inning set the tone yesterday and the visiting Twins topped the Royals, 5-3. Mauer went 4-for-5, the 23rd game of his career with four-or-more hits and his fifth such game against Kansas City, his highest total against any opponent. But it was also his first such game since Aug. 14, 2013, and the first that he has produced as a first baseman. It was the longest stretch between games of four-or-more hits in Mauer’s big-league career. Source:ELIAS
After getting shutout 5-0 at Dodger Stadium by California Angels right-hander Fred Newman on June 30th the 1965 Twins find themselves with a 43-28 record and in second place in the ten team American League trailing the first place Cleveland Indians by just half a game. Although the Twins have played the first 3 months at a .606 pace, things are about to get even better for the Twins as they prepare to embark on a nine game winning streak from July 2 until they lose the nite-cap of a twin-bill on July 10th. The Twins take over first place in the AL standings on July 3rd and stay in first place for the rest of the season.
On June 11th the Twins sweep a double-header from the Detroit Tigers at Tiger Stadium taking both games by a score of 5-4 and Tiger reliever Terry Fox takes the loss in both games. But things could have been much worse as the June 26, 1965 Sporting News tells us in a short story about how Detroit police search the Tigers dugout and bat rack for a bomb during the first game.
Sporting News June 26, 1965 P27
June 20, 1965 – The largest crowd to ever watch the Twins play on the road, 71,245 New York fans watched their beloved Yankees get swept by the Minnesota Twins 6-4 and 7-4 in a doubleheader as the Twins marched towards their first ever World Series.
The June 26, 1965 Sporting News has a nice article on Don Mincher and his struggles to break into the Minnesota line-up. You can also read about how “Bat Day” got started and learn about Harmon Killebrew‘s first ever home run back on June 24, 1955.
Sporting News June 26, 1965 P11