Glen Perkins notched his 19th save of the season by pitching a scoreless ninth inning to preserve the Twins’ 6-5 victory over the Blue Jays on the final day of May. Perkins registered 13 saves during May to establish a club record for saves in one calendar month. He matched the highest save total in one month for any pitcher in the last five seasons (Aroldis Chapman in July 2012) and he fell one shy of the single-season major-league record for saves during the month of May (14 by Cincinnati’s Danny Graves in 2004).
Category: According to Elias
According to ELIAS
The Twins ended Mark Buehrle‘s streak of 35 consecutive innings without allowing Minnesota an earned run early and with emphasis last night, scoring four runs, all earned, in the first inning. But then Buehrle slipped back into form, the Blue Jays pecked away and the veteran left-hander wound up going the distance to earn a 6-4 victory. Only two major-league pitchers over the last 30 years have earned a complete-game win, going nine or more innings, after having allowed four or more runs in the first inning¿and even they were long ago. In 1995, Seattle’s Tim Belcher downed Cleveland, 11-5, after allowing four in the first, and in 1986, Fernando Valenzuela went the route after yielding four in the first to help the Dodgers top the Phillies, 11-4.
Buehrle’s streak, crafted over five games dating back to 2011, was the longest by any big-league pitcher against an opposing team since Zack Greinke held Seattle without an earned run over 38 innings from 2008 to 2010. It was the longest such streak crafted by a starting pitcher against the Twins since Sudden Sam McDowell sailed through 48 innings without allowing the Twins an earned run over 1968 and 1969. Source: ELIAS
According to ELIAS
Hicks snaps RBI drought
Aaron Hicks hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning in the Twins’ 6-4 win over the Red Sox on Wednesday afternoon. Hicks entered the contest on a streak of 71 consecutive plate appearances without driving in a run, which was the third longest current streak for any major-league position player entering Wednesday’s action, behind Mike Baxter (103) and Coco Crisp (72). Source: ELIAS
On the flip side, Kirby Puckett holds the Twins longest streak of getting one or more RBI in a game with 11 games from September 15-25 in 1988. During his RBI streak Puckett hit .479 in 48 at bats and had a total of 15 RBI. source: Baseball-Reference Play Index
Historically bad starts by Twins pitchers
With the Twins on a roll and their starting pitchers pitching well this might not be a good time to bring back bad memories but I couldn’t help myself after seeing that the New York Yankees were not good hosts to the Kansas City Royals and Royals starter Jeremy Guthrie yesterday when they pounded the Royals 14-1 and sent Guthrie to the showers after he had retired just 3 batters and allowed 9 hits, 3 walks and 11 earned runs. A tough day for Guthrie and for those fantasy players that had Guthrie in their line-up yesterday.
So of course that got me wondering what Twins pitchers over the years had rough outings like this. Turns out that the most earned runs given up by a Twins pitcher is 10, here are the pitchers that made the list. Note that some of the pitchers on this list pitched in relief.
| Rk | Player | Date | Opp | Rslt | App,Dec | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | Pit | BF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rick Reed | 2003-04-21 | NYY | L 1-15 | GS-5, L | 4.1 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 95 | 26 | 20.77 |
| 2 | Pat Mahomes | 1993-04-24 | DET | L 1-17 | GS-3, L | 2.2 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 70 | 20 | 33.75 |
| 3 | Willie Banks | 1992-08-04 | CHW | L 11-19 | 3-4 | 1.2 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 56 | 17 | 54.00 |
| 4 | Geoff Zahn | 1980-07-21 (2) | BAL | L 5-12 | GS-6, L | 5.2 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 32 | 15.88 | |
| 5 | Joe Decker | 1976-05-12 | KCR | L 5-17 | GS-2, L | 1.0 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 14 | 90.00 | |
| 6 | Vic Albury | 1974-08-06 | KCR | L 3-17 | 3-7 | 5.0 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 33 | 18.00 |
.
The worst Twins start probably belongs to Joe Decker who lasted just one inning and allowed 10 earnies to the Kansas City Royals back on May 12, 1976 at Royals Stadium. I should note however; that the most runs that a Twins hurler has ever given up in a game is 11 by Rick Reed in that April 21, 2003 loss to the Yankees by a 15-1 score at the Metrodome. Two Twins starters, Frank Viola on May 20, 1986 and Ray Corbin June 30, 1975 allowed 6 earned runs without retiring a single out before they were asked to hand over the baseball and leave the pitching mound.
So what Twins starter gave up the most earned runs and still won the game? That would be Jim Kaat who pitched a complete nine inning game on July 2, 1964 and beat the Red Sox 15-9 at Fenway Park while giving up nine earned runs.
According to ELIAS
Ricky Nolasco earned career win #100 in the Twins’ win over the Red Sox. Nolasco is the 14th pitcher to earn career win #100 while wearing a Twins uniform, and ten of them did it in a home game. Some notable pitchers whose 100th career win came as a Minnesota Twins player are Camilo Pascual (1963), Mudcat Grant (1966), Jim Kaat (1967), Dean Chance (1968), Jim Perry (1968) and Frank Viola (1988). Source: ELIAS
According to ELIAS
Brian Dozier homered to lead off yesterday’s game and he added a three-run shot in the seventh inning to close the scoring in the Twins’ 8-1 victory over the White Sox. It was the ninth first-inning leadoff home run of Dozier’s career, all since 2013 (the second-most in the majors over that span, behind Shin-Soo Choo‘s 11), but it was the first of those nine games in which Dozier homered again in a subsequent at-bat. Source: ELIAS
Dozier is hitting .294 (15-for-51) with two doubles, one triple, seven home runs, 10 RBI and 12 runs scored in his last 13 games (since May 9), in that span, only Toronto’s Edwin Encarnacion has more home runs in all of baseball with eight.
According to ELIAS
Hunter ablaze in May
Torii Hunter and Eduardo Nunez reached Chris Sale for second-inning home runs and the Twins were never headed in their 4-3 victory yesterday in Chicago. Hunter, who will turn 40 this summer, is having quite a month, batting .351 and slugging .623, with six homers and 18 RBIs in 19 games. Since the team moved to Minnesota in 1961, only one 39-or-older Twins player has ever had a month of at least 75 at-bats in which he batted .350 or better while slugging .600 or better; in July of 1993, 41-year-old Dave Winfield batted .355 and slugged .710. Source: ELIAS
Today’s Twins Notes has this to say about Torii today: Torii Hunter hit his 199th career home run in a Twins uniform yesterday to reach 200. The last to do it was Justin Morneau (221 total home runs with Twins) who did it in 2012. Gary Gaetti is next on the list with 201 all-time, Kirby Puckett finished his Twins career with 207 home runs.
According to ELIAS
Finally some Mauer power
Joe Mauer was homerless in 154 at-bats this season before his game-winning round-tripper against the Pirates in the 13th inning at PNC Park last night. Mauer is the first major-league player since Jim Gantner in 1992 to connect for a game-winning homer in the 13th inning or later after having not hit a four-bagger in 150 or more at-bats to that point in the season. Gantner had not gone deep for the Brewers in 209 at-bats that year when he hit a walkoff home run in the 13th inning off Boston’s Jeff Reardon at Milwaukee County Stadium. Source: ELIAS
According to ELIAS
Archer on target against Twins
Chris Archer is now 4-0 with a 0.74 ERA in four starts against the Twins after throwing six superb innings for the Rays on Sunday. The only other active pitcher to win his first four starts versus Minnesota is the Mariners’ Hisashi Iwakuma, who is 5-0 in five starts versus the Twins and has yet to allow an earned run in 33? innings against them (though he surrendered an unearned run in two of those contests). Besides Archer and Iwakuma, the only other pitcher since 1961 (which marked the Twins’ first year in Minneapolis) to post a 4-0 record with an ERA under 1.00 in his first four starts against Minnesota is Sidney Ponson (4-0, 0.96 ERA through four starts). Source: ELIAS
According to ELIAS
Escobar goes four for four
Eduardo Escobar went 4-for-4 in the Twins win over the Rays yesterday afternoon. It was the second time in his major-league career that Escobar went 4-for-4 or better in a game as a shortstop with the other such game coming on April 30 of last season against the Dodgers. No other player has more than one game of 4-for-4 or better as a shortstop over the last two seasons. Source: ELIAS