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
Tommy Milone defeated the Tigers last night in the Motor City giving him wins in each of his last three starts, and he hasn’t struck out as many as five batters in any of those games. Three other pitchers have won three straight starts without a 5-K game this season: Martin Perez (a four-game streak), Jeff Locke (a pair of three-game streaks) and J.A. Happ.
Since the Twins moved to Minnesota in 1961, they have won only two road games by at least 10 runs against a team that entered the day with the best record in its league. The first took place in late June 1988, an 11-0 whitewash of the Canseco-McGwire A’s at the Oakland Coliseum, and the second came on Sunday, when they routed the Rangers in Arlington, 15-5.
Ervin Santana twirled a two-hit shutout in the Twins’ 4-0 victory over the A’s. It was the first complete-game shutout by a Twins pitcher since Andrew Albers threw one in August 2013. Every other major-league team besides the Twins has had at least two complete-game shutouts over the last three seasons. The 453-game streak without a complete-game shutout by a starting pitcher is by far the longest such streak in Twins franchise history. Minnesota’s previous longest streak was 271 games spanning from August 2005 to June 2007.
Max Kepler homered twice in a seven-RBI performance, while Miguel Sano contributed a home run and three RBIs to the Twins’ rout of the Rangers. Kepler and Sano are the first pair of teammates–each age 23 or younger–to combine for 10 RBIs in a game in which they each homered since Chipper Jones and Ryan Klesko did that for the Braves in 1995. Before the Atlanta duo, you have to go back to Andre Dawson and Ellis Valentine of the 1977 Expos, and then Lou Gehrig and Tony Lazzeri with the 1927 Yankees to find pairs of that kind.
Max Kepler’s seven RBI yesterday afternoon set a Twins single-game rookie record for RBI. The previous three to have a share of the record of six were Tony Oliva May 7, 1964 against Los Angeles-AL; Oswaldo Arcia September 22, 2013 against Oakland; and Miguel Sano August 12, 2015 against Texas.
Ian Desmond‘s tenth-inning home run was the game-winner for the Rangers in their 3-2 triumph at Minnesota yesterday. Brian Dozier extended his career-best hitting streak to 13 games by going 1-for-4 with a single, but it snapped his streak of 11 consecutive games with at least one extra-base hit, which tied the longest streak of that kind in American League history. The only other AL players with 11-game extra-base-hit streaks were Hank Greenberg (1935), Jesse Barfield (1985) and Alex Rodriguez (2006 to 2007).
Brian Dozier extended to 11 his team-record streak of consecutive games with an extra-base hit by belting a fourth-inning home run at Chicago on Thursday. It’s the longest streak by any major-league player since Alex Rodriguez had an 11-game streak overlapping the 2006 and 2007 seasons; and it’s the longest in the majors by a middle infielder since the Hall-of-Famer Rogers Hornsby, like Dozier a second baseman, produced at least one extra-base hit in each of 12 consecutive games in 1928. That was The Rajah’s only season playing for the Boston Braves; his extra-base-hit streak began on May 27, a couple of days after he became the team’s manager in addition to being its second baseman.
Dozier has accumulated 20 hits, including six homers, over his last 11 games. The last four Twins players who produced those totals over an 11-game span were all boldface names: Joe Mauer(2009), David Ortiz (2002), Dave Winfield (1993) and Kirby Puckett (1987).
Brian Dozier hit two home runs and knocked in four runs in the Twins’ 4-0 win over the White Sox last night. It marked the ninth consecutive game that Dozier delivered an extra-base hit, tying the Twins franchise record in that category. Mickey Vernon had a double, triple or homer in nine consecutive games for the then Washington Senators in 1953. Prior to Dozier, the last major-league player to produce an extra-base hit in at least nine consecutive games while starting at second base in each game during the streak was Chase Utley in 2008.
Dozier broke the Twins record of eight consecutive game XBH that was previously held by Harmon Killebrew (1970) and Tony Oliva (1969). Another long time record bites the dust……
A total of 52 homers pushes June’s average into near-record territoryFifty-two home runs were hit on Sunday in MLB, the most on any single day in more than 10 years since June 11, 2006, to be exact, when 54 home runs were hit. This is just the latest example of the dramatic increase in the home-run rate over the first three month of this season, from 2.09 per game in April, to 2.28 in May, to a near-record 2.52 this month.
In fact, there have been only two months in the history of major-league baseball in which the per-game home-run average was as high is it has been this month (minimum: 10 games played). Those were the first two months of the 2000 season, at the height of home-run hysteria: 2.56 in April and 2.64 in May.
The Twins defeated the Yankees, 7-1, yesterday in a game that proved the rule about the futility of trying to predict baseball. Minnesota arrived at Yankee Stadium with the lowest winning percentage in the majors (.311). But the Twins hit six home runs, which was their highest total in any game since 2007 and, perhaps more impressive, the highest total in franchise history in any of their 1887 games against the Yankees (including 1903 through 1960 as the Washington Senators). The last team with the worst record in the majors to hit six homers in one game was Tampa Bay in 2002 at Kansas City.
| Rk | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | PA | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1962-04-29 (2) | MIN | CLE | W 7-3 | 41 | 7 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 7 |
| 2 | 1963-08-29 (1) | MIN | WSA | W 14-2 | 49 | 14 | 20 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 14 |
| 3 | 1964-05-14 | MIN | CHW | W 15-7 | 44 | 15 | 15 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 15 |
| 4 | 1966-06-09 | MIN | KCA | W 9-4 | 38 | 9 | 13 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 9 |
| 5 | 1993-08-15 | MIN | OAK | W 12-5 | 44 | 12 | 17 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 12 |
| 6 | 2000-04-09 | MIN | KCR | W 13-7 | 43 | 13 | 16 | 5 | 0 | 6 | 13 |
| 7 | 2001-07-12 | MIN | MIL | W 13-5 | 46 | 13 | 15 | 4 | 0 | 7 | 13 |
| 8 | 2004-04-10 | MIN | DET | W 10-5 | 47 | 10 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 10 |
| 9 | 2007-07-06 (2) | MIN | CHW | W 12-0 | 48 | 12 | 15 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 12 |
| 10 | 2016-06-26 | MIN | NYY | W 7-1 | 37 | 7 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 7 |
Kurt Suzuki went 4-for-5 with six RBIs in the Twins’ 14-10 victory over the Phillies on Tuesday. Suzuki is only the second catcher in the Twins’ franchise history to produce at least four hits and six RBIs in a game, joining Joe Mauer, who had five hits and seven RBIs on July 26, 2010.
Ervin Santana was charged with two earned runs in 7 1/3 innings to earn the victory in the Twins’ 7-4 win over the Yankees at Target Field yesterday. Santana was coming off perhaps the worst five-start stretch of his major-league career (0-5 with a 7.71 ERA). He had never before lost five consecutive starts while producing an ERA that high. Santana also snapped his personal eight-game losing streak against the Yankees, which spanned 11 starts since September 2008 and was the longest current losing streak against the Bombers for any major-league pitcher entering play on Sunday. That distinction now belongs to CC Sabathia, who has lost his last seven decisions against his current team (2001 to 2008).
