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
Shields sets mark for futility
James Shields allowed eight runs while recording only five outs in the White Sox 13-2 loss to the Indians yesterday. Shields has now allowed seven or more runs before the end of the third inning in each of his last four starts. That is the longest streak of its kind for any pitcher in major-league history.
I guess it just goes to show that anyone can have a bad game, a bad month, a bad streak, or a bad year!
Max Kepler‘s first career home run–a 10th-inning three-run blast over the centerfield wall and off the batters-eye at Target Field gave the Twins a dramatic 7-4 win over the Boston Red Sox yesterday afternoon. Among the 138 players in major-league history to hit 300 career home runs, only two had their first one come as a walkoff shot in extra innings: Miguel Cabrera (in his major-league debut) and Alfonso Soriano.
Congratulations Max!
It was a painful game-winning RBI for Brian Dozier, who was hit with a pitch by Erasmo Ramirez with the bases loaded in the sixth inning to give the Twins the lead for good over the Rays last night. Dozier is the first Twins player in almost 10 years to collect a game-winning RBI by getting plunked with the bases full. On June 27, 2006,Jason Bartlett‘s hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded in the second inning gave the Twins a lead they would not relinquish against the Dodgers.
Miguel Sano cracked a fourth-inning round-tripper that extended his home-run streak to four consecutive games in the Twins’ 5-4 win at Seattle. Eighteen days after his 23rd birthday, Sano is the second-youngest player to fashion a four-game home-run streak for the Senators/Twins franchise. Kent Hrbek homered in four straight games for Minnesota at age 22 in 1982.
Eduardo Nunez led off the bottom of the first with a home run and Brian Dozier followed with a home run of his own staking the Twins to a 2-0 lead en route to the team’s 7-5 win over the Royals yesterday afternoon. It marked the fifth time that the first two hitters in the Twins’ lineup hit consecutive home runs in the first inning since the franchise moved to Minnesota in 1961. That also happened on May 10, 1962 (Lenny Green and Vic Power), July 18, 1986 (Kirby Puckett and Gary Gaetti), August 19, 2002 (Jacque Jones and Cristian Guzman) and June 9, 2014 (Danny Santana and Dozier).
Two teams start the season with 30 losses in their first 40 games.
The Minnesota Twins fell to 10-30 this season with their extra-inning loss to the Blue Jays, after the Atlanta Braves record dropped to 10-30 with their loss at Pittsburgh earlier on Thursday night. This is only the second season since 1900 in which two major-league teams each lost at least 30 of their first 40 decisions. That had not happened since 1904, when the Philadelphia Phillies started 9-31 and the Washington Senators (who would become the Minnesota Twins) began with a 7-33 mark.
Not to scare you but the 1904 Washington Senators finished the season with a 38-113 record while scoring 437 runs and giving up 743 runs.
Zimmermann’s unusual performance a first since Grove
Jordan Zimmermann allowed eight runs over seven innings but still managed to earn the win over the Minnesota Twins last night. It’s been just over two years since a pitcher got the win in a game in which he allowed at least eight runs; the Phillies’Cliff Lee surrendered eight runs over five innings on March 31, 2014 against the Rangers in a 14-10 win.
What was even more unusual was that Zimmermann struck out nine batters in Monday’s matchup. The last pitcher to earn the win while allowing at least eight runs and recording nine or more strikeouts was the Athletics’ Lefty Grove on May 30, 1927 against the Yankees (9 IP, 8 R, 11 SO in a 9-8 victory); those Yankees went on to finish the season 110-44 and swept the Pirates in the World Series. Babe Ruth went 2-for-5 with an RBI and Lou Gehrig was 1-for-4 with two runs batted in off Grove that day.
Zimmermann (6-2, 2.45 ERA) is the first pitcher to win at least six of his first eight starts for Detroit with an ERA under 3.00 since Doyle Alexander in 1987 (7-0, 1.61 ERA). The Tigers traded John Smoltz to acquire Alexander that season.
Centeno homers off Kluber
Juan Centeno‘s first career home run, a two-run shot in the fifth inning off Corey Kluber, gave the Twins a lead they never relinquished in their win over the Indians yesterday. Centeno is the third player this season whose first career home run in the majors came off a former Cy Young Award winner. Colorado’s Trevor Story hit his first off Zack Greinke and Arizona’s Socrates Brito hit his off Jake Arrieta.
Centeno is the ninth player in Minnesota Twins history whose first career homer came off a former Cy Young Award winner. Some of the names on that list include Butch Wynegar, Lyman Bostock, John Castino and Steve Lombardozzi.
Joe Mauer started in the leadoff spot for the first time in the major leagues in Tuesday’s matchup between the Twins and the Orioles which the Orioles won 5-3 at Target Field. Mauer, who was played 920 games at catcher, is one of only three players who debuted in the expansion era (1961 to date) to bat leadoff for the first time after having caught at least 800 games: Carlton Fisk, who started there only once, in 1980, in his final game for the Red Sox; and Ivan Rodriguez, who had 24 such starts there from 2006 to 2008.
Mauer made his 1,429th start in the majors on Tuesday. Over the last 20 years, only two other players started for the first time in the leadoff spot after having started as many games as Mauer: Mark McGwire (1,694th start in September 2000) and Ivan Rodriguez (1,899th start in August 2006).
Jordan Zimmermann allowed one run in seven innings at Minnesota yesterday to improve to 5-0 on the season. Zimmermann, who signed with the Tigers this past offseason after seven seasons with the Nationals, is the fourth hurler ever to earn a victory in each of his first five games in the American League after having previously pitched in the National League. Bill McAfee was the winner in each of his first five appearances (two starts, three in relief) for the Washington Senators in 1932. Jerry Koosman won his first five games, all starts, for the Twins in 1979 after having a 3-15 record for the Mets the previous year. And Matt Palmer earned the victory in his first five appearances, all starts, for the Angels in 2009. Zimmermann’s 0.55 ERA is far lower than that of McAfee (2.49), Koosman (3.86), and Palmer (4.26) during their 5-0 starts.