The Twins defeated the Tigers, 12-3 yesterday, preventing the Detroit from clinching the American League Central Division title. It was the last-place Twins’ 10th win in 18 games against the division-leading Tigers this season. Believe it or not, the Twins, despite a 26-41 record since the All-Star break, lead the American League with 4.67 runs per game over that same stretch. Similarly, the Rockies led the National League in scoring average before the break this year (4.76), despite reaching the intermission at 40-56. Since the first All-Star Game in 1933, only one other major-league team has led its league in runs per game either before or after the break, while having at least 15 more losses than wins over that span; the Rockies did it in the first half of the 2004 season.
Category: According to Elias
Phil Hughes according to Elias
Phil Hughes allowed one run over eight innings and earned the victory in Minnesota’s 2-1 win over Arizona on Wednesday. Hughes is 16-10 in his first season with the Twins after going just 4-14 with the Yankees last season. He is the fourth pitcher in major-league history to follow a season with four-or-fewer wins with 16-plus wins the following season, having at least 25 starts in each campaign. The others to do that were Frank Mountain in 1883 (26-33 after going 4-21 in 1882), Jerry Koosman in 1979 (20-13 after going 3-15 in 1978) and Matt Keough in 1980 (16-13 after going 2-17 in 1979). Koosman did it under similar circumstances to Hughes: his three win season in 1978 came in New York (with the Mets) and then after being traded to the Twins in the offseason, he went on to win 20 games in his first season in Minnesota in 1979.
If Wednesday was Hughes’ final appearance of the season, he will have finished the year with 16 wins and only 16 walks allowed. Only three pitchers in the modern era registered as many or more wins as walks while winning at least 15 games: Christy Mathewson did it twice (25 wins, 21 walks in 1913 and 24 wins, 23 walks in 1914) and Slim Sallee (21 wins, 20 walks in 1919).
Because of the rain delay in yesterday’s game, Hughes came up a third of an inning short of notching 210 innings that would have triggered a $500K bonus. I can’t believe there is any way that the Twins would be so stupid as to not give Hughes this bonus anyway when they have him signed to a multi-year deal. Back in the day, Twins owner Calvin Griffith who was considered as cheap an owner as there was in baseball was not averse to giving a player a bonus after a particularly outstanding season. The sad sack Twins should not let a good publicity opportunity slip through the cracks. Free agents that the Twins might be interested in signing in the future are watching so don’t screw this up Minnesota Twins front office!
UPDATE – It turns out that the Twins did not screw things up here and came to a fair understanding with Phil Hughes. The team offered Phil Hughes the opportunity to pitch in relief this coming week-end in Detroit so that he could meet the 210 inning limit to collect a $500K bonus and Hughes decided to pass on the offer. I also read in the Star Tribune that according to the baseball collective bargaining agreement that the Twins can not call it “close enough” and pay Hughes the bonus. Good to see there are no hard feeling on either side.
According to Elias
Trevor Plouffe drove in the winning run with a single in the bottom of the 10th inning in Minnesota’s 5-4 win over Cleveland last night. Plouffe had not had an RBI in extra innings over the last two seasons prior to his heroics in Cleveland. Plouffe’s 130 total RBIs since the start of the 2013 season were the fourth most for any A.L. player that had not driven in a run beyond the ninth inning entering Friday’s action, behind Edwin Encarnacion (191), Adam Dunn (147) and James Loney (141).
A bonus fan fact:
With his hit in last nights game Danny Santana has now gotten a hit in 17 straight games when he has played and gotten at least one official at bat at Target Field. The previous Twins record was 16 games for Ben Revere. The Twins record holder for a hitting streak with at least one at bat in the Metrodome is Kent Hrbek with 23 games in 1982. The Twins record holder at Met Stadium is Rod Carew at 21 games and he did it twice, in 1974 and again in 1977. The longest similar hitting streak by a Twins opponent in a Twins stadium is 27 games by Garret Anderson between June 8, 1997 and September 2, 2003 at the Metrodome. Next on the list at 23 games, Jim Thome.
This and That
According to Elias – Danny Santana was 3-for-5 with a double, triple, and stolen base in the Twins’ 8-4 home win over the Tigers. It was the second time this season that Santana delivered at least three hits, two extra-base hits, and a steal from the leadoff slot; he also did it against the White Sox on August 3. The only other Twins leadoff hitters to have more than one such game in a season since the team moved to Minnesota in 1961 were Dan Gladden (3 in 1988) and Jacque Jones (2 in 2002).
The Chattanooga Lookouts are pleased to announce that the organization has signed a four-year player development contract with the Minnesota Twins. Chattanooga is part of the 10 team Southern League which is split into the Northern and Southern Division. The Lookouts are in the Northern Division. The Lookouts who were affiliated with the Los Angeles Dodgers this past season will replace the previous Twins Double-A affiliate the New Britain Rock Cats (Eastern league) who had been the Twins Double-A home since 1995. New Britain has announced a new two-year player development agreement with the Colorado Rockies.
The Twins finally announced that Glen Perkins will be under-going an MRI, what took them so long? In his last eight games going back to August 26 Perkins has pitched 6.1 innings giving up 12 hits, two walks, five home runs, and 10 earned runs while striking out two batters. Did I mention that in those 6+ innings he has faced 32 batters and posted a 14.21 ERA? You think there is a problem here? Is this another case of a Twins player hiding an injury? Can’t be sure, but I am getting tired of players that keep playing when they are injured, they are no better in my eyes than the players that beg out of a game when they have a hang-nail. These players are professionals that are paid big money to play major league baseball, it is a shame a number of them don’t act like it. Just what the Twins need, another question mark heading into the 2015 season.
So what will happen with manager Ron Gardenhire? Will the Twins fire him or will Gardy announce that he has resigned? My guess is that Gardy will walk away after the 2014 season finally ends to recharge his batteries and spend more time with his family and take a job with MLB TV for the 2015 season and then take another managing job next season when a manager gets axed or after the 2015 season ends. Just think how much fun it will be to watch Gardy on MLB TV, they should give him his own show. The Twins still don’t like firing people and a Gardenhire resignation will work best for everyone involved. Everyone except the current Twins coaching staff, but they have all earned the right to become free agents and a clean sweep of the Twins coaching ranks is in order. The term “getting it right” has been used a lot in the Twin Cities the last week or so with another professional team that calls Minnesota home and the Twins can borrow that phrase and put it to good use. I have always liked Ron Gardenhire but the time has come when a change needs to be made, it is kind of like when we have to get rid of a car that we have had for a long time and we really liked. The car has served us well over the many years we owned it and we have gotten used to its many idiosyncracies and most of the time it got us to where we needed to go but now it has broken down again and it is time to call the tow truck and have it taken away. There is always someone out there that thinks another mans junk is another mans treasure and Gardy is too young to be sent to the manager scrap heap so you will see him managing again soon, maybe against our Minnesota Twins.
According to Elias
The Twins entered the top of the ninth inning with a 2-0 lead over the Tigers. J.D. Martinez‘s three-run home run off Glen Perkins turned that lead into a 3-2 deficit before the Twins rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning for the win. It’s been over 30 years since the Twins won a game in which they led entering the top of the ninth inning; fell behind in the top of the ninth before rallying in the bottom of the ninth for the win. The Twins last such win occurred on April 13, 1984 against the Mariners. Minnesota saw a 2-1 lead disappear when Alvin Davis and Ricky Nelson hit back-to-back home runs off Ron Davis to open the top of the ninth inning. The Twins rallied in the bottom of the ninth on RBI singles by Tim Teufel and Tom Brunansky for the win.
According to Elias
Torii Hunter‘s solo home run in the ninth inning broke a 6-6 tie and Miguel Cabrera added some insurance with a homer of his own to give the Tigers an 8-6 win at Target Field yesterday. Hunter is the second player to appear in at least 500 games for the Minnesota Twins and then hit a game-winning home run in the ninth inning or later against them. He joins Rod Carew, who connected for a home run in the 15th inning to give the Angels a victory over Minnesota in 1980.
According to Elias
Quintana joins Sale to form big-strikeout duo for Sox
Jose Quintana struck out 13 Minnesota Twins in seven innings of the White Sox’ 5-1 victory in the first game of their doubleheader in Chicago. Quintana is the second left-handed pitcher this season to strike out 13 batters in a game for the Southsiders; Chris Sale fanned 13 Tigers on August 30. Only three other teams in the modern era (since 1900) have had two different southpaws record 13+ strikeouts in a game: The 1959 Dodgers (Sandy Koufax and Johnny Podres), 1969 Tigers (Mickey Lolich and Mike Kilkenny), and 1971 Tigers (Lolich and Les Cain).
Jose Quintana is the second White Sox pitcher in 2014 to strike out at least a dozen Twins in a game. Chris Sale recorded 12 strikeouts at Target Field on July 26. It’s the third time that two different White Sox pitchers have registered a 12-strikeout game versus the same opponent in the same year. In 1954, Billy Pierce and Jack Harshman both struck out a dozen Tigers in a game. And in 1961, Pierce and Juan Pizarro each put up 12+ Ks in a game versus the Orioles.
A record-tying strikeout performance for Minnesota, Chicago
Twins and White Sox pitchers combined to strike out 45 batters in their doubleheader yesterday. That tied the modern major-league record for combined strikeouts by two teams over two nine-inning games in a day. Rockies and Marlins hurlers also fanned 45 in two games on August 16, 2009.
According to Elias
Carlos Santana hit a two-run home run in the first inning to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead in Cleveland’s 8-2 win over Minnesota in the first game of a doubleheader, and then in the nightcap, he put the first run on the board with a solo home run in the fourth inning in a 2-0 Indians win. Over the last 20 seasons, only two other players have hit a home run to put their team ahead for good in both games of a doubleheader sweep: Kansas City’s Eric Hosmer on August 16, 2013 against Detroit and Boston’s Trot Nixon on October 5, 2001 against Baltimore.
Santana is the first Indians player to do that in over 50 years, since Max Alvis did it in both games of a doubleheader, also against the Twins on June 17, 1964. Box score game 1, Box score game 2
According to Elias
It has come to this for Joe Mauer. In the eighth inning of a tie game with runners on second and third and one out, manager Buck Showalter decided that the Orioles should pitch to Mauer (albeit bringing in a tough lefty, Andrew Miller, to do so) rather than put Mauer on and pitch to bring up rookie Kennys Vargas, playing in his 30th big-league game.
And could you blame Showalter? Mauer brought a .271 batting average and four home runs into the game, and was batting .244 against lefties. But deep in Mauer’s statistical profile for this forgettable season lay this nugget: Mauer was batting .320 (16 for 50) in at-bats with two-or-more runners on base, including a two-run triple just two innings earlier. And Mauer came through with a two-run single, propelling the Twins to a 6-4 win. The loss ended Baltimore’s streak of having won the last 21 games in which it scored four-or-more runs, which had been the longest current streak in the majors.
According to Elias
Trevor Plouffe‘s solo home run in the seventh inning would not appear to be notable at first glance, especially since the Twins would muster no more offense in their 9-1 loss at Oriole Park at Camden Yards last night. That long ball however was indeed historic – it was the 10,000th home run hit by the Twins/Senators franchise. They were the last of the 16 pre-expansion franchises to reach 10,000 home runs. The Twins have contributed 7,214 of those homers while the Senators hit 2,786. By the way, Plouffe also hit Twins home run numbers 9,999 and 10,001.
The Washington Senators’ longtime home field, Griffith Stadium, had very distant fences and high outfield walls. One of the most remarkable statistics in baseball history: In 1945, the Senators went through the entire season of 78 home games hitting exactly one home run in their own park – and that one was an inside-the-park four-bagger! This wasn’t in 1845; it was 1945! And that 1945 team was pretty good – finishing second, one and one-half games behind the Tigers, who would go on to win the World Series.