Dozier’s late-inning thunder wins it for Twins
Brian Dozier hit a two-run, two-out homer as the first batter to face Rays reliever Tommy Hunter in the eighth inning, snapping a 2-2 tie and propelling the Twins to a 5-3 triumph at Target Field yesterday. It was just the seventh homer this season for Dozier, who belted 42 last year, but he’s actually ahead of last year’s schedule. He didn’t hit his seventh of last season until June 7 (and then didn’t hit his eighth until June 19). And he has a history with Hunter: The first walk off homer of Dozier’s big-league career was surrendered by Hunter (then with Baltimore) on July 6, 2015, also breaking a 2-2 tie.
Wild, wacky stuff happening in MLB
There were 16 major-league games played on Saturday (including one doubleheader), and here were the final scores of those games: 3-2, 3-1, 5-3, 3-0, 6-0, 4-3, 3-0, 6-1, 5-2, 5-2, 4-3, 5-0, 5-2, 5-4, 3-0 and 6-3. That’s right. No team scored more than six runs in any of Saturday’s 16 games. That marked the first time in major-league history, dating to 1876, that no team had scored more than six runs on a day on which at least 16 games were played. (If you’re wondering, Saturday, May 27, 2017 was the 703rd day in major-league history on which at least 16 games were played.)
This came on the heels of Elias’s discovery that Friday, May 26 marked the first day in major-league history on which at least 15 games were played and there were no sacrifice bunts. You had two triples, a grand-slam homer, even a batter awarded first base on catcher interference, but nary a sacrifice bunt. (There had been 2900 days on which at least 15 games were played through Friday, May 26.)
Archer is On Target
Chris Archer and the Rays defeated the Twins 5-2 at Target Field on Friday and Archer improved to 4-0 to go along with a 1.38 ERA in four career starts at the Twins’ home stadium. Archer’s 1.38 ERA at Target Field is the lowest for any pitcher with at least four starts there, below Ubaldo Jimenez (1.81) and Mark Buehrle (1.85).
Bonus: LEGENDS, SIMPSONS TEAM UP FOR MEMORABLE HALL OF CLASSIC