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
Santana thrives at O.co
Ervin Santana threw 7 2/3 scoreless innings as the Twins won in Oakland on Friday night. Santana’s 1.93 career ERA at O.co Coliseum is the third-lowest among pitchers who have had at least 10 starts in that stadium, behind Pat Dobson (1.84) and Bret Saberhagen (1.89). Source: ELIAS
Dozier, Twins shock Tigers with ninth-inning rally
Brian Dozier capped a seven-run outburst in the bottom of the ninth inning with a three-run homer against Tigers closer Joakim Soria to give the Twins an 8-6 walk-off victory. The win marks the first time since May 27, 1997 that Minnesota walked off with a win after trailing by at least five runs entering the bottom of the ninth inning – the Twins erased a five-run deficit in the ninth inning against the Mariners in that comeback victory. For the Tigers, it marks just the second time in the last 65 years that they lost a game in which they led by at least five runs in the ninth inning or later. On August 29, 1986, the Angels plated eight runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to clinch a 13-12 win over Detroit, capped by a walk-off grand slam by Dick Schofield.
Dozier, who also launched a walk-off home run on July 6 against the Orioles to open the Twins’ home-stand, is the second player in franchise history to record multiple walk-off homers in a single home-stand. Roy Sievers achieved that feat for the Washington Senators in the 1958 campaign, having hit game-ending homers against the Indians on July 16 and the White Sox on July 20.
Sano and Bryant with similar starts through 20 at-bats
Miguel Sano went 2-for-3 and hit his first career home run as the Twins defeated the Orioles, 8-3. Sano has nine hits (including two doubles and a homer) in his first 20 major-league at-bats, becoming the second player to make his MLB debut in 2015 and collect at least nine hits in his first 20 at-bats, with three going for extra bases. The first was Kris Bryant, who started 9-for-20 with four doubles in April.
Joe Mauer‘s two-run homer in the first inning set the tone yesterday and the visiting Twins topped the Royals, 5-3. Mauer went 4-for-5, the 23rd game of his career with four-or-more hits and his fifth such game against Kansas City, his highest total against any opponent. But it was also his first such game since Aug. 14, 2013, and the first that he has produced as a first baseman. It was the longest stretch between games of four-or-more hits in Mauer’s big-league career. Source:ELIAS
Vargas gets his first four-hit game
Twins designated hitter Kennys Vargas was 4 for 4, including a three-run homer, in Minnesota’s 13-2 rout of the White Sox. It was the first four-hit game for Vargas in his two seasons in the major leagues, and only the third four-hit game by a Twins DH over the last five seasons. The others were both in 2014, by Danny Santana (June 7 vs. Houston) and Trevor Plouffe (Septmber 23 vs. Arizona). Source: ELIAS
Vargas wins it in walk-off style
Kennys Vargas connected for a two-out, walk-off home run to give the Twins a 2-1 victory over the Cardinals yesterday. Vargas is the fifth player this season with a two-out, walk-off homer, joining the Nationals’ Yunel Escobar and Ryan Zimmerman, San Diego’s Derek Norris, and the Reds’ Todd Frazier.
The Cardinals, who led, 1-0, in the eighth inning, had won their previous 50 games when leading in the eighth inning or later, dating back to September 2014. Entering Thursday’s games, that was the third-longest current streak in the majors, behind the Royals (111) and Orioles (75).
What’s better than triple-double? How about a triple-triple.
Eduardo Nunez, Shane Robinson, and Eduardo Escobar all tripled in the sixth inning for the Twins yesterday. And if that doesn’t seem unusual enough for you consider this: Minnesota scored only one run in the inning, with Robinson getting picked off and Escobar getting stranded. The Twins did win the game 4-3.
It was the first time since the Washington Senators moved to Minnesota in 1961 that the Twins had three triples in one inning. And it was the first instance in the expansion era of a team scoring only once despite three triples in an inning. The other 20 teams to do so averaged 4.6 runs in those innings. Source:ELIAS
Pelfrey tosses eight scoreless innings
Mike Pelfrey scattered eight hits over eight innings and Glen Perkins notched his 21st save of the season as the Twins topped the Brewers, 2-0 yesterday. Pelfrey has started 194 games during his major-league career, but Sunday’s victory was only the third of those starts, and his first since 2010 with the Mets, in which he pitched as many as eight innings without allowing a run. The only current major-league pitchers who have started as many games as Pelfrey without tossing at least one shutout in their careers are Jorge De La Rosa (198 starts) and Chris Young (194). Source:ELIAS
Gomez gets revenge over Twins
Carlos Gomez went 4-for-4 and drove in three runs against his former team in the Brewers’ 4-2 win at Target Field. Two other ex-Twins have gone 4-for-4 or better with at least three RBIs against Minnesota since the team relocated from Washington in 1961: Tom Brunansky for Boston on May 19, 1990 and Casey Blakefor Cleveland on July 5, 2003. Both Brunansky and Blake put up identical lines of 5-for-5 with seven RBIs.
Twins overcome early deficit for late win at Fenway
The Twins, who trailed 4-0 early, scored four runs off Koji Uehara in the ninth inning to gain an 8-4 victory at Boston yesterday and split the four game series. It was the first time in Uehara’s 314 major-league appearances that he allowed even one run and failed to retire a batter.
This was Minnesota’s 825th game at Fenway Park, including 523 as the Washington Senators from 1912 to 1960. It was only the second of those games in which the Senators or Twins won by at least four runs after the Red Sox had taken a lead of four or more runs. The first was in 2003 and, for what it’s worth, Minnesota faced knuckleballers in both games: Tim Wakefield 12 years ago and Steven Wright yesterday. Source: ELIAS