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) first baseman Lewin Diaz (bats and throws left-handed) is the Twins minor league Player of the Week. In five games for the Kernels, he hit .474 (9-for-19) with four doubles, two home runs, eight RBI, one walk and four runs scored. Diaz has played in 27 games for the Kernels this season, hitting .282 (29-for-103) with 11 doubles, three home runs and 17 RBI. The 6’3″ , 180 pound 20-year-old was signed by the Twins as an undrafted free agent in July of 2013. Diaz was signed by Minnesota for $1.4 million and some scouts say that Diaz reminds them of Ryan Howard.
Hector Santiago improved to 4-1 with a 2.76 earned-run average after another solid outing in the Twins’ win over the White Sox. Teammate Ervin Santana is 5-1 with a 1.72 ERA in seven starts this season. The last pair of Twins teammates to both start 4-1 or better with an ERA under 3.00 in their first seven start of a season were Jim Kaat (6-1, 1.11 ERA) and Bert Blyleven (4-1, 2.63) in 1972.
Both of today’s major league debuts as Minnesota Twins took place in the same game at Anaheim Stadium in a 5-0 win over the California Angels.
Kirby Puckett (OF) – May 8, 1984 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (3rd pick) of the 1982 amateur draft (January). An impressive major league debut indeed!
Mike Hart
Mike Hart (OF) – May 8, 1984 – Signed as a Free Agent with the Minnesota Twins on January 31, 1983.
Chris Sale struck out 10 batters in 6 innings yesterday, improving to 3–2 in the Red Sox’ 17–6 win at Minnesota. Sale’s MLB-leading total of 73 strikeouts this season is the highest in a pitcher’s first seven appearances of a season since 2002, when Curt Schilling, pitching for the Diamondbacks, struck out 75 batters in his first seven starts.
Impressive as Sale’s achievement is, we don’t want to overlook the rarity of Boston’s 10-run ninth inning. It was the latest double-digit inning by the Red Sox or against the Twins in the history of either franchise. That includes 60 seasons by the Washington Senators before they moved to Minnesota.
The Twins walked off with a victory against the Red Sox last night thanks to a game-ending home run by Joe Mauer, the first walk-off bomb of his major-league career. Mauer had three walk-off RBIs with the Twins prior to Friday, but he has generally struggled in potential walk-off situations. Before his homer, Mauer had batted .176 in at-bats with the potential to record a game-ending RBI, with no extra-base hits in 68 at-bats of that kind prior to Friday.
After 15 games had been played in the 1967 season the Minnesota Twins found themselves five games under .500 with a 5-10 mark and in last place in the American league 4.5 games behind the high-flying Detroit Tigers when they lost a double-header to the Washington Senators on the months final day. In game 2 of the double-header loss at D.C. Stadium Senators starter Barry Moore held the Twins to just one hit, a single by Cesar Tovar in the sixth inning. The game lasted just two hours as Moore walked two batters and struck out none of the 29 batters he faced.
On April 21, Tony Oliva of Minnesota lost a home run due to a base running blunder. Playing in Detroit in the third inning, Cesar Tovar was the runner at first base. Oliva hit the ball out of the park off Denny McLain, but then passed Tovar between first and second. He was credited with a single and one RBI for scoring Tovar. In the ninth inning Oliva hit another home run and this one counted. The Twins ended up losing the game 12-4.
The Twins were road warriors in April playing 11 of their first 15 games on the road, the good news however; was that a long home stand that would last until mid-May was on the horizon. One of the problems the Twins faced that they needed to remedy was the fact that they were out scored 71-50 in the month of April. The Twins pitching staff was last in the league with a 4.54 ERA and the hitters was last in the league in hitting with a .225 average.
Sabath Anthony “Sam” Mele was born in Astoria, New York on January 21, 1922 and passed away in his home in Quincy, Massachusetts this past Monday at the age of 95. Sam Mele‘s parents were born in Avellino, Italy although they met in America. Mele’s mother was sister to big league brothers Al and Tony Cuccinello. Sam Mele was a natural all-around athlete and a Queens Park baseball legend and went on to attend New York University where he excelled as a basketball and baseball player before serving his country in the Marines during World War II. But Mele wanted to play pro baseball and was signed as a free agent by the Boston Red Sox in 1946. In his first year of organized ball, Mele played 119 games for Scranton (A ball in the Eastern League) hitting .342 with 18 home runs before being moved up to Louisville in the AAA American Association where he played all of 15 games. Mele made his major league debut with the Red Sox the following year against the Washington Senators on April 15, 1947. His rookie season may have been one of the best of his career as Sam hit 12 home runs and knocked in 73 runs in 123 games while hitting .302. Mele would never hit over .300 again in his 10 year major league career. During his playing career spanning 1947 to 1956, Mele, who batted and threw right-handed, saw duty with six major league clubs: the Boston Red Sox, Washington Senators, Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians, batting .267 with 80 home runs in 1,046 games. Sam Mele played his final major league game as a Cleveland Indian on September 16, 1956. Mele played AAA ball with for the White Sox and Athletics in 1957 and 1958 but never returned to the majors as a player.
Kennys Vargas drove in five runs in the Twins’ win over the Athletics on Wednesday. The only other DHs to have a five-RBI game this season were Shin-Soo Choo (April 16) and Nelson Cruz (April 23).
Ervin Santana threw six shutout innings in the Twins’ 9–1 home win over the Athletics. In six starts this season, Santana has held the opposition scoreless three times and allowed exactly one run in each of the other three. Santana is the second pitcher in franchise history to allow no more than one run in each of his first six starts of a season. Walter Johnson started 1913 with a streak of seven straight such starts for the Washington Senators (4 complete-game shutouts and three starts with one run.)
