Category: According to Elias

According to Elias

Fien, Casey 2013J.D. Martinez lifted a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth inning that plated the winning run for the Tigers in their 4-3 triumph over the Twins. Twins reliever Casey Fien, who was tagged with the loss for Minnesota, has been on the mound for three walkoff defeats this season (game-ending singles by Cleveland’s Mike Aviles on May 7 and Toronto’s Kevin Pillar on June 9 before Martinez’s game-winner on Sunday), tying him with Boston’s Andrew Miller for the most in the major leagues.

According to Elias and a little extra

Kyle Gibson
Kyle Gibson

The biggest pitch Kyle Gibson threw in his seven scoreless innings on Friday night was the one that induced a Miguel Cabrera double-play grounder with the bases loaded in the fifth inning. Cabrera entered the game with a career .417 batting average with the bases loaded which was the second-highest such average for any player who debuted in the expansion era (since 1961) and has at least 100 at-bats with the bases full, behind Tony Gwynn (.444). Twins beat the Tigers 2-0 at Comerica Park. Miguel Cabrera enters today’s game with impressive career numbers vs. Minnesota. Cabrera is batting .314 (139×443) with 31 doubles, 28 home runs and 108 RBI in 118 career games against the Minnesota Twins. He ranks third among all active players with 28 home runs and 108 RBI, fourth with 78 runs scored, sixth with 31 doubles and eighth with 139 hits against the club. Cabrera has hit safely in each of his last six games and 11 of his last 14 contests vs. Minnesota.

Rich Rollins - Twins 3B from 1961 - 1968
Rich Rollins – Twins 3B from 1961 – 1968

When I modified the number of at bats need to qualify from 1oo to 50 then I get an interesting cast of characters that knew how to hit in the clutch but maybe did not have careers as long as Gwynn and Cabrera. Note that former Twins 3B Rich Rollins is very high on the list and that outfielder Jason Kubel was a qualifier too. Phil Nevin was a Twins player too but since he only had 8 hits in a Twins uniform we didn’t see his clutch hitting skills. This list is from 1961-current.

Rk Player G Gtot BA BAtot PA AB R H HR RBI BB SO OBP SLG OPS
1 Pat Tabler 105 1202 .489 .282 109 88 80 43 2 108 11 9 .505 .693 1.198
2 Russ Snyder 70 1365 .483 .271 67 60 77 29 2 68 5 5 .507 .717 1.224
3 Felix Jose 53 747 .481 .280 56 52 39 25 2 60 1 9 .464 .788 1.253
4 Jeff Keppinger 67 818 .456 .282 69 57 55 26 0 65 4 4 .435 .614 1.049
5 Tony Gwynn 153 2440 .444 .338 158 133 211 59 3 143 9 8 .433 .594 1.027
6 Rich Rollins 75 1002 .443 .269 75 70 66 31 4 80 4 4 .467 .714 1.181
7 Ian Desmond 60 682 .434 .270 60 53 41 23 2 51 0 7 .383 .585 .968
8 Rennie Stennett 81 1237 .423 .274 80 71 65 30 1 71 4 3 .425 .521 .946
9 Mike Blowers 89 761 .420 .257 92 81 48 34 7 92 5 20 .424 .827 1.251
10 Rusty Greer 97 1027 .418 .305 98 79 98 33 6 97 10 14 .449 .684 1.133
11 Miguel Cabrera 164 1723 .414 .321 165 140 170 58 4 150 10 28 .418 .614 1.032
12 Joe Orsulak 93 1494 .410 .273 96 78 90 32 2 82 9 7 .448 .564 1.012
13 Mark Grace 163 2245 .402 .303 168 127 173 51 3 156 21 8 .429 .575 1.003
14 Carlos Guillen 148 1305 .402 .285 154 127 122 51 3 140 11 16 .403 .622 1.025
15 Mike Hargrove 109 1666 .402 .290 111 82 136 33 1 101 20 14 .486 .549 1.035
16 Jim Gentile 83 936 .400 .260 86 70 73 28 6 92 11 23 .453 .729 1.182
17 Eddie Murray 298 3026 .399 .287 302 238 285 95 19 299 22 34 .387 .739 1.127
18 Kevin Seitzer 118 1439 .398 .295 116 93 118 37 4 110 17 8 .466 .624 1.089
19 Phil Nevin 125 1217 .397 .270 135 116 106 46 7 120 9 28 .422 .621 1.043
20 Ross Gload 58 795 .396 .281 62 53 29 21 1 50 4 8 .403 .547 .950
21 Mike LaValliere 71 879 .393 .268 72 61 34 24 1 62 5 6 .403 .557 .960
22 Troy Tulowitzki 97 934 .393 .299 102 89 82 35 2 81 4 17 .392 .562 .954
23 Jason Kubel 105 1036 .392 .262 115 97 71 38 8 110 7 22 .391 .732 1.123
24 Richie Zisk 109 1453 .392 .287 110 97 97 38 3 99 6 22 .400 .598 .998
25 Bill Madlock 128 1806 .390 .305 128 105 154 41 3 116 7 7 .383 .600 .983
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/14/2014.

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According to Elias

 

Phil Hughes
Phil Hughes

Phil Hughes hurled seven shutout innings and earned the win in Minnesota’s 7-2 victory over the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre on Wednesday afternoon. Hughes has won each of his last four road starts, pitching at least seven innings and allowing two or fewer runs in the process. Over the last 45 seasons, only two other Twins pitchers had four consecutive road starts of that type: Joe Mays in 2001 and Johan Santana in 2004.

According to Elias

 

Oswaldo Arcia
Oswaldo Arcia

Oswaldo Arcia hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the fourth inning and singled in Josh Willingham in the bottom of the seventh for his four RBIs in the Twins 6-4 win over the Brewers on Wednesday night. Arcia entered the game hitting just .120 (3-for-25) with men on base this season, which was the fourth lowest such batting average for any major-league player entering Wednesday’s action (minimum: 25 at bats), ahead of only Pedro Florimon (.040), Jose Molina (.054) and J.P. Arencibia (.074).

Joe Mauer
Joe Mauer

To be fair, Arcia only has 60 total at bats in 2014 due to all the time he spent on the DL this year.  Joe Mauer on the other hand has 207 at bats and his batting average with runners in scoring position is .159 this season which means that 240 major league players have a higher batting average with runners in scoring position this season then Joe does. OUCH!

According to Elias

Ricky Nolasco Ricky Nolasco, after 222 previous major-league starts, finally got to pitch against the Yankees for the first time in his career, the most starts among active pitchers who had never played a game against the Yankees. And it was worth the wait. While Nolasco allowed seven hits, four walks and two stolen bases over six innings, the Bombers scored just one run, and Nolasco earned credit for the Twins’ 6-1 victory.

Oswaldo Arcia
Oswaldo Arcia

Minnesota right fielder Oswaldo Arcia homered and threw out two Yankees runners at the plate as they tried to score on singles. It’s been nearly 25 years since a Twins outfielder hit a homer and threw out two runners at the plate in the same game; that last to do that was Dan Gladden in a 9-4 victory at Toronto on Sept. 3, 1989.

The Twins are 9-4 against AL East opponents in 2014, winning five of their last six and seven of their last nine. In those last six, the Twins have averaged 5.5 runs-per-game (33 runs) and averaged 11.2 hits-per-game while pitchers have posted a 3.11 ERA (55.0 IP, 19 ER). The Twins averaged just 11.5 wins against that division from 2010-13, posting a .324 winning percentage (46-96) in that span.

The Twins are 7-6 in their last 13 games in New York, dating back to May 16, 2010. The Twins have out-scored the Yankees 63-52 in that span. In the last nine games in Yankee Stadium, the Twins are hitting .276 (92-for-333) with 24 doubles, 14 home runs and 46 runs scored. The Twins current three-game winning streak in New York is their longest since May 2 – July 6, 1992 (also 3). Their last four-game winning streak in the Big Apple was June 6-August 9-11, 1968. (Source – Twins Notes)

Former Twins OF Revere finally gets off the home run schneid

Ben RevereBen Revere hit his first major-league home run in his 1466th at-bat in the Phillies’ home loss to the Rockies. That was the longest start-of-career homer-less streak by any player since the Pirates’ Frank Taveras connected for an inside-the park grand slam at Cincinnati on August 5, 1977 in his 1594th at-bat.

 

Twins batters with 100 or more at bats and zero home runs

Rk Player AB HR From To G PA H 2B 3B RBI BA
1 Al Newman 1647 0 1987 1991 618 1876 380 59 7 135 .231
2 Ben Revere 989 0 2010 2012 254 1064 275 22 11 64 .278
3 Houston Jimenez 384 0 1983 1984 144 409 75 16 2 28 .195
4 Luis Gomez 362 0 1974 1977 241 403 72 6 2 22 .199
5 Junior Ortiz 304 0 1990 1991 132 338 85 12 2 29 .280
6 Mudcat Grant 263 0 1964 1967 151 298 45 10 2 23 .171
7 Bert Blyleven 235 0 1970 1988 348 265 34 3 0 9 .145
8 Tsuyoshi Nishioka 233 0 2011 2012 71 254 50 5 0 20 .215
9 Dick Stigman 213 0 1962 1965 138 233 20 4 0 6 .094
10 Dean Chance 209 0 1967 1969 104 246 9 0 0 4 .043
11 Jim Merritt 206 0 1965 1968 122 236 27 6 0 7 .131
12 Nelson Liriano 185 0 1990 1990 53 211 47 5 7 13 .254
13 Jose Morales 158 0 2007 2010 74 181 47 9 0 14 .297
14 Sergio Ferrer 138 0 1974 1975 56 157 36 3 3 2 .261
15 Dan Monzon 131 0 1972 1973 94 154 32 2 1 9 .244
16 Tom Hall 130 0 1968 1971 145 146 25 2 0 2 .192
17 Bruce Look 118 0 1968 1968 59 139 29 4 0 9 .246
18 Dick Woodson 117 0 1969 1974 129 129 9 0 0 2 .077
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/28/2014.

According to Elias

 

Brian Dozier
Brian Dozier

Brian Dozier delivered a three-run homer to give the Twins the lead for good over the Mariners last night. It was Dozier’s 22nd home run from the leadoff spot since the start of the 2013 season, third most in the majors behind Coco Crisp and Shin-Soo Choo (each with 25).

Dozier has at least 10 home runs from the first slot in the lineup in each of the last two seasons (12 in 2013, 10 in 2014). The last Twins player to do so in consecutive seasons was Shannon Stewart in 2004 (11) and 2005 (10).

Dozier has 11 home runs through the Twins’ 41 games this season. Over the last 25 years, only one other Twins player has hit that many through the team’s first 41 games: Justin Morneau, who did so in 2007 (11), 2009 (12), and 2010 (11).

According to Elias

Brian Dozier
Brian Dozier

Brian Dozier hit his tenth home run of the season, his ninth from the first spot in the batting order, in the Twins’ win over the Mariners. Dozier is the second player in Twins franchise history to hit nine or more home runs from the #1 spot in the batting order in the team’s first 40 games of a season. The other to do it was Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett in 1986 (11).

According to Elias

Aaron Hicks
Aaron Hicks

Light-hitting Aaron Hicks delivered a game-winning single in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Twins a 4-3 victory over the Red Sox. Hicks had a .185 batting average at the time of his game-winner, becoming the first player with a career mark below .190 to produce a walkoff hit since 1980 (minimum: 300 at-bats). The last player to do so was Joe Niekro, (former Twins pitcher) a career .159 hitter at the time of his 17th-inning single that gave the Astros a 1-0 win over the Cubs (Aug. 23, 1980).

Phil Hughes
Phil Hughes

Twins starter Phil Hughes struck out eight batters without issuing a walk over six innings. It was the first time in 140 major-league starts that Hughes recorded at least seven strikeouts and no walks. For the first time in his MLB career, Hughes has made four consecutive starts without walking a batter.

The Twins entered Thursday’s game against the Red Sox with an all-time record (since 1961) of 4,222-4,263 and needed just one win to match their win total when the franchise was the Washington Senators from 1901-1960, going 4,223-4,864 (46.47%). With their 4-3 victory over the boys from Boston the Minnesota Twins record now stands at 4,223-4,263 for a winning percentage of 49.76%.

According to Elias

 

Eduardo Nunez
Eduardo Nunez

Eduardo Nunez capped Minnesota’s three-run eighth inning with an RBI single that gave the Twins a 4-3 lead that they never relinquished yesterday in their victory at Detroit. The Tigers had won the last 53 regular-season home games in which they led in the eighth inning or later, which was the longest current streak of its kind in the majors before Sunday’s loss.