Month: June 2017

Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins – Serafini, Erickson, Torve and Thompson

We have four big league debuts as Minnesota Twins on June 25.

Dan Serafini

Dan Serafini (P) – June 25, 1996 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (26th pick) of the 1992 amateur draft. Started against the Yankees in the second game of a DH at the Dome but after 5 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks he found himself headed for the showers after 4.1 innings.

 

Scott Erickson

Scott Erickson (P) – June 25, 1990 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 4th round of the 1989 amateur draft. First time on a big league mound was at the Dome in a start against the Rangers. Erickson pitched 6 innings and allowed one run on four hits and two walks and earned his first big league victory. Everybody loved Scottie, especially the ladies.

Kelvin Torve (1B) – June 25, 1988 – Signed as a Free Agent with the Minnesota Twins on January 18, 1988. Pinch-hit in his first appearance in a big league, unfortunately it was against Oakland and Dennis Eckersley and he went down swinging.

 

Danny Thompson

Danny Thompson (SS/3B/2B) – June 25, 1970 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (18th pick) of the 1968 amateur draft (June Secondary). Thompson took and 0 for 4 with a strike out in his big league debut at County Stadium against the Milwaukee Brewers.

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The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 17 – Twins open 13 game home stand against division leading WSox

Joel Horlen

The 32-32 Minnesota Twins who are 7 games out of first open a 13 game home stand against the first place Chicago White Sox on Friday, June 23. A crowd of 30,100 fans, the largest since opening day show up to see the White Sox starter Joel Horlen who is 8-0 duel against the 9-5 Twins ace Dean Chance. As predicted it turns out to be a pitching duel with both teams scoreless through 6 innings, the Twins have 4 hits and the White Sox just 3. 

Chance holds Chicago scoreless in the top of the seventh while the Twins finally put a 1 on the board with a home run by Harmon Killebrew, his 12 of the month and 22 of the season. Chance finishes the shutout for his 10th win and Horlen is lifted for a pinch-hitter after 8 innings and Bobby Locker finishes up. Just one hour and 58 minutes after the game started Dean Chance retires Pete Ward for the 27th out and the game goes in the books as a 1-0 Twins win. The Twins pick up a game in the standings but still find themselves looking up at the Red Sox, Tigers and White Sox. Box Score

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The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

According to ELIAS – Indians are hot

Indians’ offense is clicking

The Indians scored six runs on 13 hits in their victory over the Orioles on Thursday night, their ninth consecutive game with at least five runs and 10 hits. That ties the longest streak of this type for any team over the last nine seasons (since 2009). The Royals did so in nine straight games from May 23 to June 1 in the 2016 season.

Just what the Minnesota Twins need as they head into Cleveland………

Major League debuts as Minnesota Twins – Dan Masteller

Just one major league debut as a Minnesota Twins again today, June 23

Dan Masteller (1B/OF) – June 23, 1995 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 11th round of the 1989 amateur draft. Debuted at Kauffman Stadium as the Twins first baseman but took an 0-3 in a Twins 4-0 loss to the Royals.

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The 1967 AL pennant race – Part 16 – Twins and Tigers play nine and end up in a tie

The Twins had a 5-2 lead after five innings of play at Tiger Stadium but the Tigers scored one in sixth and two in the seventh to tie the game at 5 apiece. The game was finally called a draw in the top of the ninth with Harmon Killebrew at the plate with two strikes and one out after Rod Carew led off the top of the ninth with a single but was caught stealing. The game had four rain delays and was called around midnight CDT. Box Score.

The Star Tribune pages below will tell  you more about the Twins/Tigers game, a brawl in New York between the Yanks and Red Sox and more about the disagreement on the Twins bus between Tony Oliva and Ted Uhlaender that was supposedly instigated by Dave Boswell. At the end of the day the Twins were 32-31 and 6.5 games behind the high-flying Chicago White Sox.

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A nice picture of Tiger Stadium

The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

 

Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins – June 22 – Kyle Lohse

We have one player making his major league debut as a Minnesota Twin on June 22

 

Kyle Lohse

Kyle Lohse (P) – June 22, 2001 – Traded by the Chicago Cubs with Jason Ryan to the Minnesota Twins for Rick Aguilera and Scott Downs on May 21, 1999. Lohse’s debut was a start at Comerica Park against the Tigers and he pitched into the 7th inning but after 106 pitches and the scored tied at 4-4, Twins skipper Tom Kelly had seen enough.

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According to ELIAS – Jose Berrios

Berrios wins again

 

Jose Berrios

Jose Berrios improved his record to 7-1 in eight starts with a solid eight inning performance in the Twins’ win over the White Sox. Berrios is the sixth pitcher in Senators/Twins history to win at least seven of his first eight starts of a season. The others were Walter Johnson, who did it in 1913 (7-1) and 1925 (7-1), Joe Boehling in 1913 (7-0), Jerry Koosman in 1979 (7-0), Geoff Zahn in 1979 (7-1) and Francisco Liriano in 2006 (7-1).

Home Runs and Strikeouts, Strikeouts and Home Runs

Major League Baseball seems odds-on to set single-season industry-wide records for both home runs and strikeouts. There were 238 home runs hit in 72 major-league games from Friday to Tuesday, an average of 3.31 homers per game. That was the most homer-happy five-day period in the 142-year history of Major League Baseball, whether reckoned by total homers or by average per game.

But strikeouts grabbed the Elias Says headlines on Wednesday night, as major-league teams struck out a total of 290 times over 15 games. That average of 19.33 strikeouts per game was the highest on any day with at least 12 games played in major-league history. The previous record was set on Sept. 14, 2015, when there was an average of 19.25 strikeouts over 12 games.

Twins minor league pitcher Cam Booser suspended for 50 games

Twins minor leaguer pitcher Cameron Booser will miss 50 games due to violations of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. Minnesota Twins left-hander Cam Booser has been suspended 50 games after testing positive for a drug of abuse for the second time.

Cam Booser

Cam Booser was signed by the Minnesota Twins as a non-drafted free agent on Aug. 12, 2013. Booser, a 25-year-old on the Rookie-level Elizabethton Twins, had pitched 2 2/3 innings this season for Class A Advanced Fort Myers, allowing one run while walking seven and hitting two batters over three relief appearances. He went 0-4 with an 8.53 ERA, 34 strikeouts and 31 walks over 25 1/3 innings for Class A Cedar Rapids and Fort Myers in 2016.

Booser’s ban will begin with Elizabethtown’s season opener Thursday against Danville. These suspensions are the 43rd and 44th handed down for violations of the Minor League drug program in 2017.

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 15 – Twins take a break to play an exhibition game – Billy Martin plays

The Minnesota Twins took a break for the rigors of a pennant race and flew from Baltimore to Indianapolis to play an exhibition game against the Indianapolis Indians before flying on to Detroit to play the Tigers the next day. Why the Twins were playing an exhibition game against the Chicago White Sox AAA team is beyond me. I am sure that the MLB players union of today wouldn’t allow such exhibition games in the middle of a season.

Billy Martin

The Twins ended up losing the game 11-10. The most interesting part of the game was the fact that Twins coach Billy Martin played in the game. Martin last played in the big leagues in 1961 with the Twins and then became a scout from 1962-1964 before joining the Twins coaching staff in 1965. Martin entered the game as a PH and promptly doubled and then had a bunt single ending his night 2 for 3.

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Twins_Exib_06201967_P23

The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

 

 

Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins – Moeller & Davidson

A couple of players had their major league debuts on June 20th.

Chad Moeller (C) – June 20, 2000 –  Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 7th round of the 1996 amateur draft. Debut not too memorable, 0 for 3, hit into a double play and didn’t get the ball out of the infield in a Twins 5-2 loss in Arlington to the Rangers.

 

Mark Davidson (OF) – June 20, 1986 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 11th round of the 1982 amateur draft. His debut was as a defensive replacement for in the 7th inning of a 9-8 Twins win at the Dome over the Indians.

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