Month: April 2017

According to ELIAS

Santana one-hits White Sox

Ervin Santana allowed one hit in his complete-game 6–0 home win over the White Sox. April 15 is the second-earliest calendar date on which a pitcher has thrown a complete-game no-hitter or one-hitter for the Twins franchise. Santana threw 107 pitches. Walter Johnson allowed one hit in a 3–0, season-opening win for the Washington Senators over the Philadelphia Athletics on April 14, 1910. Before that game, William Howard Taft started the tradition of the president throwing out the first pitch of the season (to Johnson, on that day.)

 

 

The Pen is Mightier says Tom Verducci……. Back in 1999

When you turn on the MLB channel which has replaced ESPN as the go-to baseball channel at any point in the day you will quickly learn that the trend according to today’s baseball so-called experts is that the bullpen is now the key to having a winning team that will do well in the playoffs. The Cleveland Indians and Andrew Miller are a prime example they say. But Tom Verducci wrote a story for Sports Illustrated back in September of 1999 expounding on the virtues of relief pitchers. 

Rangers manager Johnny Oates

The importance of the bullpen was not lost on managers back in 1999 either as this quote from then Texas Rangers skipper Johnny Oates attests –

“Getting from two outs in the sixth inning to the ninth inning is the most important part of the game,” Oates says. “That’s where you’ll win or lose the pennant. It’s even more important in the playoffs, when every run is magnified.”

I guess it just goes to show that what goes around comes back around but like everything else in life, the game of baseball is slow to learn from history.

According to ELIAS

Haley fans six in first save

Haley

Justin Haley recorded six of his 10 outs via strikeouts, earning his first major-league save in the Twins’ 11–5 win at Detroit. The last pitcher to collect at least six strikeouts in any save was the Royals’ Danny Duffy, also at Detroit on Sep. 20, 2015 (6 SO in 4 IP.) That also happened to be Duffy’s first (and to date, only) save in the majors. Haley is the 21st reliever to strike out six-or-more batters in his first big-league save since the statistic became official in 1969. Only one of the previous 20 went on to save as many as 90 games. That was Tom “Flash” Gordon, who fanned six in two-and-one-third innings for Kansas City at Texas in 1989. Gordon finished his career with 158 saves, although he wouldn’t earn more than one in a season until 1997.

Bill Campbell is the Twins all-time leader in this category getting 15 saves between 1973-1976 by pitching 3 or more innings in a game for the save.

The 1967 AL pennant race – Part 5 – Walter Bond and Bratwurst on the menu at Met Stadium

Part time outfielder and first baseman Walt Bond played in just 10 games for Minnesota and he was never a star but he had an interesting history. Although his time in Minnesota may have been short, he still should be remembered for wearing a Minnesota Twins uniform before passing away at the age of just 29 on September 14, 1967 of leukemia. 

In memory of Walt Bond

One of the mainstays at all baseball ballparks today are the Hot dogs and Brats but apparently that was not always the case. When the 1967 season opened at Metropolitan Stadium on Friday, April the 14th with the Twins facing the Detroit Tigers there was a new comestible on the menu for fans to try, bratwurst and sauerkraut. So tomorrow will mark 50 years since the Twins first sold Brats at the home ballpark. Twins concessionaire Jimmy Robertson had 16 ounce draft beer on the menu for 50 cents and he said he would consider tortillas, pizza, fish and chips, chow mein and who knows what if someone was willing to buy it. I wonder what a Brat went for back then.

Sporting News 04221967 P16

The 1967 Minnesota Twins opened the 1967 season on April 11th on the road at Memorial Stadium taking on the Baltimore Orioles and their starter Dave McNally, the Twins countered with their big lefty Jim Kaat. 

The game started with a bang when Cesar Tovar hit a double off McNally but the excitement for Twins fans was short-lived when Rich Rollins flew out to left-fielder Curt Belfray who quickly doubled-off Tovar off second base. Oliva followed with a ground out and McNally was out of the inning. Twins starter Jim Kaat must have been a bit nervous because he hit lead-off hitter Curt Blefary and then proceeded to give up a double to Luis Aparicio with Blefary scoring, a single to Frank Robinson that scored Aparicio and then gave up a home run to Brooks Robinson. After facing just four Oriole batters Kaat and the Twins found themselves down 4-0 with still no one out. Kaat shut the door after that but was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the top of the fifth still trailing 4-0.

The Twins scored 3 runs in the fifth knocking McNally out of the game but that was a close as they would get as reliever Jim Perry allowed two more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and the Orioles sent their 39,812 fans home happy after just 2 hours and 32 minutes of play. Rookie second baseman Rod Carew who played for the Wilson Tobs in the class A Carolina League in 1966 hit sixth in the Twins line-up in his first big league game and went 2 for 4 and his Hall of Fame career was under way. Jim Kaat took the loss and reliever Moe Drabowsky got the win for the O’s while Stu Miller got the save.

You can check out the four previous blogs on the great 1967 AL pennant race by clicking here.

According to ELIAS

Supernatural start of season for Santana

Ervin Santana has been lights out for the Twins to start the season. Santana allowed two hits over six scoreless innings in his win over the White Sox on Sunday, six days after allowing two hits and one run over seven innings in his Opening Day win over the Royals. Santana is the first pitcher in Twins/Senators history to win his first two starts of the season while allowing no more than two hits in either game. The last pitcher on any team to start his season in such a way was Jake Odorizzi, who allowed two hits in each of his first two starts – both wins – for the 2015 Rays. Odorizzi had just one game of that kind in his final 26 starts for Tampa Bay that year.

According to ELIAS

Twins peak of AL Central

Phil Hughes

Phil Hughes stifled the White Sox over six innings to keep the Twins undefeated and atop the AL Central standings. Minnesota, who improved to 4–0 on Friday, finished last season with the worst record in baseball at 59–103. The 2017 Twins are the sixth team in major-league history to open a season with a four-game winning streak after losing 100 or more games in the previous season. The other five squads to do so were the 1899 Cardinals, who started 7–0 after a season with 111 losses, 1906 Braves (4–0 after 103 losses), 1952 Browns (4–0 after 102 losses), 2003 Royals (9–0 after 100 losses), and 2004 Tigers (4–0 after 119 losses).

Minnesota partying like it’s 1987

After adding three more scoreless innings on Friday, the Twins bullpen has been unscored upon in their first 13 innings of the 2017 season. That’s Minnesota’s longest streak to start a season without allowing a run in relief since 1987 – the Twins began that season with 13? scoreless innings from their bullpen. That 1987 season, which culminated in a World Series title for Minnesota, was also the last time the Twins started a season 4–0 before this year.

According to ELIAS

Twins sweep Royals

Jason
Jason Castro

Jason Castro hit a game-winning double and scored two runs as the Twins completed a three-game sweep of the Royals at Target Field. Minnesota allowed just five runs over the seasons (since 2011), the only other series sweep of at least three games in which the Twins allowed five-or-fewer runs was from April 11 to 13, 2014 at Target Field. Their opponent in that series was also the Royals (allowed five runs, with the same sequence of one run allowed in each in the first two games and three in the third).

Did you know that the Minnesota Twins longest winning streak to start a new season is just six games? Back in 1968 the Twins started on the road beating the Senators (2-0, 5-4) and Yankees (6-0, 4-3) twice, beat the Orioles 6-3 and then came come and beat the Senators again 13-1 before losing game seven to the Senators 7-6.

 

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 4 – pitching & defense and a rodeo bronc rider

The 1966 Minnesota Twins finished the season in second place with a 89-73 record, a full nine games behind the AL pennant winning Baltimore Orioles and they were looking to regain the pennant they felt should have been theirs for the second year in a row in 1966.

The 1966 Orioles were no slouches themselves having won 97 games on the back of Triple Crown winner Frank Robinson and their top four starters Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Wally Bunker and Steve Barber who won 48 games between them.

Twins owner Calvin Griffith was eager to get back to the World Series and made some moves in December of 1966 that he felt would ensure him the AL pennant in 1967. He traded pitcher Pete Cimino, 1B Don Mincher and OF Jimmie Hall to the California Angels to acquire pitcher Dean Chance and shortstop Jackie Hernandez and the very next day he traded 2B Bernie Allen and P Camilo Pascual to the Washington Senators for reliever Ron Kline.

Manager Same Mele wasn’t entirely pleased with how the Twins did in spring training, finishing with a 11-17 mark in Grapefruit League play. It didn’t make him feel any better when Starter Jim Grant was hit in the forearm by a line drive that took him out of action for several weeks just before the 1967 season was about to start.

The April 15, 1967 Sporting News lays out the Twins plan to win it all with pitching and defense and gives you a look at the roster of the 1967 Twins as they prepare to open the season in Baltimore on April 11. It also has a short piece on Twins rodeo bronc riding third baseman Ron Clark.

Sporting News 04151967 P39

 

All of my previous blogs on the 1967 pennant race can be found here.

 

 

According to ELIAS

Twins’ big inning subjugates Royals

Eduardo Escobar

Miguel Sano hit a three-run triple and Eduardo Escobar blasted a three-run homer in the seventh inning of the Twins’ 9–1 win over the Royals on Wednesday. It’s the first time since the Twins arrived in Minnesota in 1961 that they had a three-run triple and three-run homer in the same inning.

Sano’s triple was a welcome sight for Twins fans: Minnesota hit .190 with the bases loaded last season, the lowest in the major leagues in any of the past three seasons (2014–16) and the lowest for Minnesota since 1982.

Don’t forget to check out our Today In Twins History page, lots of fun facts there.

Twins Express bus gets benched

I have taken the so-called Twins Express bus to Target Field numerous times over the last few years from 394 and County Road 373 and found it an easy and inexpensive way to get to Target Field and not have to worry about finding and paying for a parking spot. With the Minnesota Twins playing poorly since 2010 it turns out that ridership had dropped from about 100,000 a season to just 25,800 in 2016.

According to the Star Tribune article on March 30th:

Ridership on Route 679 is down so much that the agency has decided to drop the service that for the past six years has ferried fans between Target Field and the park-and-ride at Interstate 394 and County Road 73.
“We have done everything we can to get that route going,” Kelci Stones, a specialist in Metro Transit’s marketing department, told the Met Council this week. “We couldn’t continue the service this year any further.”

The service offering a round-trip ride for $5 debuted in 2010 with the opening of the new stadium and generated nearly 100,000 rides. Since the Twins won the division title that year, the team has struggled on the field and at the box office. Consequently, Metro Transit has seen a steady decline in fans taking the express bus. Last season, ridership fell to an all-time low of just more than 25,800 for the 81 home games.

It is a shame that this service has been discontinued, hopefully once the Twins start playing a better brand of baseball and fans start going to Twins games again that this service can be revived. I will miss this service.

Metro Transit drops Twins Express service for 2017 season