Category: According to Elias

According to Elias

Jared Burton
Jared Burton

Jose Reyes snapped a scoreless tie with his RBI double off Jared Burton in the eighth inning and he came around to score an insurance run in the Blue Jays’ 2-0 win at Minnesota yesterday. With his loss on Sunday, Burton’s record fell to 2-9 this season, a major-league high for losses by a reliever. Burton’s nine losses match the most for a Minnesota reliever in any of the last 29 years. Two other Twins absorbed nine losses out of the bullpen in one season since 1985: Rick Aguilera (4-9 in 1998) and Matt Guerrier (6-9 in 2008).

If you look back through the Twins entire history going back to 1961 you will find that “Iron Man” Mike Marshall hold the Twins record for most losses by a reliever not starting a single game with 12 in the “L” column. There are some pretty good relievers on this list and it goes to show that won/lost records for relievers mean very little. The list below reads like a list of “Whose Who” of Minnesota relievers.

Twins relievers with 8 or more losses in a season

Mike Marshall - Twins pitcher 1978 - 1980
Mike Marshall – Twins pitcher 1978 – 1980
Rk Player L Year Age G GS GF W W-L% SV IP H SO ERA HR BA
1 Mike Marshall 12 1978 35 54 0 51 10 .455 21 99.0 80 56 2.45 3 .225
2 Ron Davis 11 1984 28 64 0 57 7 .389 29 83.0 79 74 4.55 11 .253
3 Ron Perranoski 10 1969 33 75 0 52 9 .474 31 119.2 85 62 2.11 4 .205
4 Jared Burton 9 2013 32 65 0 12 2 .182 2 61.1 57 56 3.96 6 .243
5 Matt Guerrier 9 2008 29 76 0 15 6 .400 1 76.1 84 59 5.19 12 .275
6 Rick Aguilera 9 1998 36 68 0 64 4 .308 38 74.1 75 57 4.24 8 .262
7 Ron Davis 9 1982 26 63 0 53 3 .250 22 106.0 106 89 4.42 16 .261
8 Al Worthington 9 1967 38 59 0 44 8 .471 16 92.0 77 80 2.84 6 .229
9 Mike Trombley 8 1999 32 75 0 56 2 .200 24 87.1 93 82 4.33 15 .272
10 Jeff Reardon 8 1987 31 63 0 58 8 .500 31 80.1 70 83 4.48 14 .232
11 Keith Atherton 8 1986 27 47 0 31 5 .385 10 81.2 82 59 3.75 9 .264
12 Ron Davis 8 1983 27 66 0 61 5 .385 30 89.0 89 84 3.34 6 .266
13 Tom Burgmeier 8 1975 31 46 0 37 5 .385 11 75.2 76 41 3.09 7 .265
14 Ron Perranoski 8 1970 34 67 0 52 7 .467 34 111.0 108 55 2.43 7 .259
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/9/2013.

According to Elias

 

Chris Colabello
Chris Colabello

Chris Colabello, making his third start at first base since Justin Morneau was traded to Pittsburgh, connected for a tie-breaking ninth-inning grand-slam homer to propel the Twins to a 10-6 comeback victory at Houston. Colabello, who had homered earlier in the game, became the first player in the history of the franchise – not just in Minnesota since 1961, but going all the way back to Washington in 1901 – to hit two homers in a game, including a go-ahead grand-slam in the ninth inning or later.

Coming into Colabello’s ninth-inning at-bat, the 29-year-old rookie was batting .186 overall, and had been held hitless in his 25 major-league at-bats with runners on base and two outs. The last position-player to start his big-league career with such a long streak of hitless at-bats in those situations was Chris Gimenez, a catcher with the Indians, who went hitless in his first 31 at-bats with runners on base and two outs over 2009 and 2010.

According to Elias

Kevin Correia
Kevin Correia

Kevin Correia threw seven innings and recorded 14 outs on groundballs in his win over the Rangers on Sunday. Correia induced two double-play grounders, bringing his total for the season to 23, which now leads all American League pitchers. Mariners teammates Felix Hernandez and Joe Saunders, who shared the A.L. lead with 22 apiece entering play on Sunday, are now tied for second place.

From Elias yesterday –

Matt Garza had nine strikeouts in his seven innings against the Twins, the highest strikeout total for any pitcher in any of Saturday’s major-league games. But when the day, and the month, were done, major-league pitchers finished August with an average of 14.945 strikeouts per game, the sixth-highest average in any month in major-league history in which at least 100 games were played. And, yes, it’s our end-of-the-month duty to note that the streak continues: the 12 months with the highest strikeouts-per-game averages in major-league history (minimum: 100 games) are the last 12 months: September of 2011, all six months of last season, and the five months played so far this season.

The Twins got themselves their own piece of strikeout history: with 11 strikeouts on Saturday night – nine at the hands of Garza and two more by Joe Nathan – the Twins finished August having struck out 291 times in 30 games, the highest total of strikeouts by any team in one month in major-league history.

According to Elias

Liam Hendriks
Liam Hendriks

Liam Hendriks was the winning pitcher in the Twins’ come-from-behind victory at Texas, improving his record to 2-12 in 25 career starts. The last pitcher with two or fewer victories in his first 25 major-league starts was Jason Hammel (2-12 from 2006 to 2008).

According to Elias

Chris Herrmann
Chris Herrmann

Twins rookie catcher Chris Herrmann banged out three hits in Minnesota’s 7-6 win at Detroit, including a run-scoring double which snapped a 6-6 tie in the eighth inning. It was the third three-hit game of the season for Herrmann, all of which have come in games in which he was behind the plate. That ties him with the Marlins’ Rob Brantly for the most games of three or more hits by a rookie catcher this season. Since 1986, the only other rookie catcher to record as many three-hit games in one season for the Twins as Herrmann was Joe Mauer with three in 2004.

According to Elias

 

Ron Gardenhire
Ron Gardenhire

Ron Gardenhire was pushing the right buttons on Thursday night. Pinch-hitter Chris Herrmann drove in pinch-runner Doug Bernier with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth as the Twins topped the White Sox, 4-3. Minnesota had only one other walk off victory for Gardenhire in which a pinch-hitter and pinch-runner combined for the winning run. That was in 2009, also against the White Sox, when Jose Morales drove in Nick Punto for the victory. We were at this game last night and it was a fun game to watch, but then again I always enjoy a Twins victory over the “Mighty Whitey’s” no matter what their record might be.

According to Elias

Joe Mauer
Joe Mauer

Joe Mauer was 5-for-7 yesterday, including a game-tying home run in the 10th inning of the Twins 9-8 home loss to the Indians. Mauer is the second player in franchise history to record five hits and an extra-inning homer in one game. Justin Morneau went 5-for-5 with a go-ahead 11th-inning shot at Detroit on July 10, 2008.

Bonus trivia question – Andrew Albers threw the Twins first complete game of the season the other day leaving the Orioles and Astros as the only two teams in MLB in 2013 to not have a complete game. Four native Minnesotans have thrown 10 or more  complete games in a season while wearing a Minnesota Twins uniform, can you name them?

According to Elias

Andrew Albers
Andrew Albers

Andrew Albers shut out the Indians last night 3-0 after he threw 8 1/3 scoreless innings last Tuesday in his big-league debut against the Royals. Albers is the first pitcher not to allow a run in either of his first two games in the major leagues, while pitching at least eight innings in each game, since Baltimore’s Tom Phoebus began his career with consecutive shutouts in September 1966.

Brian Dozier‘s solo home run and Trevor Plouffe‘s two-run shot accounted for the Twins’ scoring in Monday night’s 3-0 win over the Indians. Minnesota’s last 22 runs have been scored on home runs, the longest such streak by a major-league team since the Phillies scored 22 straight runs with homers back in 2002.

According to Elias

Justin Morneau
Justin Morneau

Justin Morneau hit two homers and drove in five runs in the Twins’ win over the White Sox in the day portion of the day/night doubleheader at U.S. Cellular Field. Morneau is the first Twins player in almost two years to hit two homers and drive in at least five runs in a game. Luke Hughes was the last Twins player to do it on Aug. 28, 2011. It’s the sixth time in his career that Morneau has accomplished this, five of them have come in road games. Only two other players in Minnesota Twins history had six games with at least two homers and five runs batted in: Harmon Killebrew and Gary Gaetti had six each.

Brian Duensing
Brian Duensing

Twins reliever Brian Duensing picked up the win in both games as the Twins swept their day/night doubleheader against the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field. Duensing is only the second pitcher in the history of the Twins franchise to win two games in one day. Walter Johnson won both games of a doubleheader against the Browns on September 17, 1923. “The Big Train” won the first game with three shutout innings in relief and then went out and threw a seven-inning complete game in the nightcap. Game 1 box score. Game 2 box score. The last major-league pitcher to win twice in one day was Luis Vizcaino for the Yankees against Tampa Bay in 2007.

However, I think a case could be made that Jim Perry was actually the first Twins pitcher to win two games in one day. According to MLB the Twins did not win two games on July 20 but if you are splitting hairs,  here is what happened.

7/19/1969 – The Twins and the Seattle Pilots play for 16 innings and the game is deadlocked at 7-7 at Sick’s Stadium and the game is suspended by league curfew and resumed the next day (July 20). I believe there was also a 20 minute delay in the game for the Apollo 11 moon landing. Box score.

Jim Perry
Jim Perry

7/20/1969 – The Twins and Seattle Pilots resume play in the 17th inning. The pitchers in the 17th inning are todays scheduled starting pitchers, Jim Perry for Minnesota and John Gelnar for Seattle. After a scoreless 17th inning, the Twins break through for 4 runs in the top of the 18th and win the game 11-7. The team’s end up stranding 44 base runners, the Twins had 16 hits and 18 walks in the game. Gelnar was pulled after pitching 1 1/3 innings and was the loser. In the regularly scheduled game, Jim Perry again faced off against John Gelnar and Perry pitched a complete game shutout with the Twins winning 4-0 and Gelnar took the defeat. So in reality, Jim Perry won two games on this date and John Gelnar lost both games on this date. Box score.

 

Winning and losing on the same day

Ray Moore
Ray Moore

5/20/1962 – The Twins split a double-header at Yankee Stadium losing the first game 4-3 and winning the second game 4-2. Twins reliever Ray Moore becomes the first Twins pitcher to lose and win a game in the same day. Box score game 1. Box score game 2.

On the losing end twice in one day

Rick Lysander5/27/1983 – Twins reliever Rick Lysander becomes the first Twins pitcher to lose both games of a double-header as the Tigers beat the Twins 7-4 and 2-1 at Tiger Stadium. Box score game 1. Box score game 2.

According to Elias

 

Andrew Albers
Andrew Albers

Andrew Albers threw 8 1/3 scoreless innings in his major-league debut in Minnesota’s win in Kansas City on Tuesday. No other Twins pitcher has thrown more than seven scoreless innings in his first game in the big leagues since the team arrived in Minnesota (from Washington) in 1961.

Brian Dozier and Justin Morneau each hit first-inning homers off James Shields on Tuesday. It was only the second time that Shields has allowed two homers in the first inning of a game. The first instance was at Coors Field on June 15, 2007, when Garrett Atkins and Brad Hawpe went back-to-back against Shields.