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
Cedar Rapids Kernels (Low A) infielder Jermaine Palacios is the Twins minor league Player of the Week. In seven games for the Kernels, the 20-year-old from Venezuela hit .387 (12-for-31) with three doubles, one home run, eight RBI and seven runs scored. Last week he was also designated as the Midwest League Player of the Week.
Playing primarily at short for the Kernels this season, Palacios is tearing the cover off the ball this season. In his fourth season of pro ball Palacios is hitting .395 with 34 hits in 86 at bats with three doubles, five triples and a home run pushing his OPS up to 1.016. The MLB Pipeline currently has Palacios as the Twins 24th best prospect.
Miguel Sano and Joe Mauer each hit two-run doubles in the eighth inning to turn a 4-2 deficit into a 6-4 Twins’ lead, and they went on to win by that same score in Kansas City on Friday. The last time the Twins won a road game in which they trailed by two-or-more runs in the eighth inning or later was on August 21, 2015 at Baltimore. They came back from two runs down in the eighth to win, 4-3.
1961 – The expansion Los Angeles Angels play their first home game bowing to the Twins at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, 4-2. The 74-year old baseball legend Ty Cobb, in his last-ever visit to a ballpark, throws out the first ceremonial pitch. This was the first American League game to ever be played in Los Angeles. Box Score
1965 – Camilo Pascual hits a grand slam home run off pitcher Stan Williams in a 11-1 Twins win over the Indians in Cleveland Stadium. Camilo pitches a complete game two hitter and strikes out five in the process. Pascual is the first and only Twins pitcher to hit a grand slam home run. Pascual had also hit a grand slam home run as a Washington Senator at Yankee Stadium I on August 14, 1960 in a 5-4 win over the New York Yankees. Box Score
1969 – Harmon Killebrew hits his 400th HR and the Twins take over first place in the AL West by beating Chicago 4-3. Box Score
1980 – The Twins score 10 runs in the first inning on their way to a 20-11 thrashing of the Oakland A’s. Minnesota starter Geoff Zahn can’t hold the 10-0 lead, allowing 8 runs in 4 1/3 innings, and Doug Corbett picks up the win in relief. Box Score
1994 – Scott Erickson, who allowed the most hits in the majors the previous season, pitched Minnesota’s first no-hitter in 27 years and the Twins third no-hitter as the Twins beat Milwaukee 6-0 at the Metrodome. Box Score
2010 – In a very unusual game at Comerica Park, the Twins beat the Detroit Tigers 2-0 as Francisco Liriano beats Justin Verlander. What’s unusual about that you ask? It was one of those rare baseball games when neither team scores an earned run. The Twins used two pitchers and the Tigers had four hurlers take the mound. Since 2001 this has occurred to the Twins just three times and two of the three occurrences were against the Detroit Tigers. Box Score
2011 – The Tampa Rays beat the Twins 8-2 in Target Field on a cold blustery night in a game that we attended. The temperature at the start of the game was 40 degrees with a stiff 17 MPH northerly wind blowing in from left field. Shortly after the game began, the snow started falling and flurries lasted the entire game making Target Field look like a giant snow globe. The Twins played Christmas carols as the game went along and a fan that came to the game dressed as jolly old St. Nick danced in the stands. It was a weird day at the old ballpark to be sure. I even over-heard some fans saying that the Metrodome wasn’t all that bad……… Box Score . Kind of like today I guess.
Don’t forget to check back on the today in Twins history page every day, there is a lot of cool info out there.
Ervin Santana allowed one run in seven innings of work leading the Twins to an 8-1 win over the Rangers on Tuesday. Santana is 4-0 with a 0.77 ERA in five starts for Minnesota this season. No other Twins pitcher had an ERA below 1.00 through five starts of a season since the club began playing in Minnesota in 1961. Prior to this season, the lowest ERA produced by a Twins pitcher through five starts during their time in Minnesota was 1.07 by Jim Perry in 1965.
Brian Dozier’s three-run double provided all the runs the Twins would need in their 3–2 win over the Rangers on Monday. Dozier entered the game with a .122 batting average (5 for 41) with the bases loaded, with only one extra-base hit. The only active player with a lower bases-full batting average (minimum: 40 plate appearances) was Tyler Flowers (.111), although Dozier has now jumped ahead of Justin Smoak (.123).
By the way, lots of interesting things happened on this day in Twins history, stop by Today in Twins History page to learn more.
Ft. Myers Miracle (High A) pitcher Lachlan Wells is the Twins minor league player of the week. Wells made one start for the Miracle, pitching 7.0 shutout innings against the Florida Fire Frogs on Monday, with no walks, three hits allowed and eight strikeouts. The left-handed pitcher has made three appearances (2 starts) for the Miracle this season, going 1-1, 0.64 ERA (14.0 IP, 1 ER) with one walk and 17 strikeouts. The Newcastle, Australia native was signed by the Twins as an undrafted free agent in August of 2014.
Lachlan has a twin brother Alex who is in Baltimore Orioles organization and is also a left-handed pitcher with Delmarva in A ball. According to reports, each of the Wells twins received a $300,000 signing bonus.
You’d think the Tigers were in safe territory with Justin Verlander taking a 3–0 lead to the bottom of the sixth at Minnesota. But the Minnesota Twins rallied for six runs, four were charged to Verlander and held on for a 6–3 victory last night at Target Field. Coming into the game, Verlander had a 129–5 record when staked to a lead of three or more runs (11 no-decisions).
Joe Mauer doubled to lead off the fourth inning and came around to score on a balk to give the Twins a 1–0 lead against the Indians. It was Mauer’s first extra-base hit this season. His 52 at-bats without a double, triple or homer––before that fourth-inning two-bagger––were by far the most into a season he has ever gone without an extra-base hit. His previous longest extra-base hit drought to begin a campaign was 37 at-bats in 2015.
The Minnesota Twins finished their 1967 Grapefruit League season with a 12-17 record and only the Kansas City Athletics had a worse record. The Twins started the season on the road in Baltimore where they lost two games before coming home to face the Detroit Tigers for their home opener at Met Stadium.
With 21, 347 fans in the stands Twins starter Dave Boswell faced off against Tiger starter Earl Wilson. Boswell kept the Tigers off the board in the first inning and when the Twins came to bat in the bottom of the first they were ready, Cesar Tovar singled to left and advanced on a passed ball and Rich Rollins then doubled to left scoring Tovar. Wilson walked Tony Oliva but Wilson induced Harmon Killebrew to hit into a double play with Oliva reaching second. Wilson wild pitched Oliva to third and up stepped rookie Rod Carew who quickly singled and had his first big league RBI when Oliva scored. Bob Allison stepped up to the plate but the rookie Carew got picked off first by Wilson and the Twins had their first lead of the season.
The Tigers scored three runs off Dave Boswell in the third inning and kept their 3-2 lead until the bottom of the sixth inning when Bob Allison hit his first home run of the season to tie the game at three. The Twins took the lead for good when Zoilo Versalles scored on a Jerry Lumpe error on a Tovar ground ball to second off reliever Larry Sherry. Versalles led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a home run off Johnny Podres to end the scoring. Jim Merritt who pitched the final four inning of scoreless relief was credited with the win and Tiger starter Earl Wilson took the loss. Box score
The Twins then lost their next two games by identical 4-3 scores to the Tigers and the Indians and on April 18 their record stood at 1-4. Their 1-4 start matched their 1963 start which was the worst start they have had since they started play in Minnesota.
Cedar Rapids Kernels (A) infielder Travis Blankenhorn is the Twins first minor league player of the week in 2017. Blankenhorn played in seven games for the Kernels, hitting .379 (11-for-29) with two doubles, three home runs, eight RBI and five runs scored.
The 20-year-old was drafted by the Twins in the third round of the 2015 First-Year Player Draft out of Pottsville (PA) High School and signed with the club for a $650,000 signing bonus. Blankenhorn is projected to be a third baseman.
Cedar Rapids Kernels (Low A) infielder Jermaine Palacios is the Twins minor league Player of the Week. In seven games for the Kernels, the 20-year-old from Venezuela hit .387 (12-for-31) with three doubles, one home run, eight RBI and seven runs scored. Last week he was also designated as the Midwest League Player of the Week.
