Category: According to Elias

According to Elias

From Elias: The Indians snapped an 11-game losing streak with a 6-2 win over the Twins yesterday afternoon. It marked the first time since the Twins moved to Minnesota that they lost to a team on an 11+ game losing streak. Minnesota was 8-0 in those games since 1961 prior to Wednesday.

Indians outfielder Shin-Soo Choo went 4-for-4 with two RBI to help lead the Indians to a win over the Twins on Wednesday. Choo entered the game with a .220 career batting average in 246 at bats against Minnesota, the second lowest average against the Twins among active players with 200-or-more at bats ahead of only Brandon Inge (.206).

According to Elias

The Twins scored 10 runs in the second inning en-route to a 14-3 victory over the Indians in Cleveland on Monday night. It marked only the fourth time that the Twins scored 10-or-more runs in an inning on the road since the team moved to Minnesota. The Twins scored 11 runs in the tenth inning at Oakland on June 21, 1969, 10 runs in the fourth inning at Detroit on April 30, 1985 and 10 runs in the fourth inning at Oakland on June 28, 1992. Source: Elias

According to Elias

The Twins blanked the Boston Red Sox, 5-0 last night while holding Boston to only two hits. It was only the second time in the last 75 seasons that the Twins/Senators franchise shut out the Red Sox at Fenway Park and allowed two or fewer hits. The other instance was on July 24, 1992, when Scott Erickson threw a one-hitter in a head-to-head matchup against Roger Clemens in a first game of a doubleheader. The Twins won the first game 5-0 but lost the second game by a 5-4 score.  Source: Elias

According to Elias

Rookie Samuel Deduno earned the win for the Twins Saturday night by throwing seven innings and allowing only two hits. That performance came one game after fellow Twins rookie Scott Diamond earned a win by throwing nine innings and allowing only three hits. The last time a major-league team had rookies throw back-to-back games in which they both pitched at least seven innings and allowed no more than three hits was the Pirates in July 2000 (Jimmy Anderson and Bronson Arroyo). The last American League team to do it was the Rangers in a doubleheader on July 26, 1973 (Jim Bibby and David Clyde).

According to Elias

Cole De Vries

The Twins bullpen collapsed last night, allowing four runs in the seventh inning and five in the eighth as the White Sox rallied for an 11-4 victory. It was the third time this month that Minnesota’s hard-luck starter, Cole De Vries, left a game in line for a victory only to see his teammates squander the lead. That total ties De Vries for third most in the AL for the entire season.

According to Elias

Joe Mauer led off the 11th inning with a double and scored moments later on Josh Willingham’s single and the Twins took a 2-1 decision in Kansas City. In a tight game when the offense has to do something to win, there has been none better in recent years than Mauer, who, over the last three seasons, is now batting .365 (50 for 137) in Late-Inning Pressure Situations-those spots in the seventh inning or later in which the score is tied or the team at bat trails by up to three runs (or four runs if there are at least two runners on base). Mauer’s .365 batting average is the best in the big leagues over that stretch among more than 300 players who have had at least 100 at-bats in those situations.

According to Elias

Francisco Liriano

Francisco Liriano struck out 15 batters against the Athletics on Friday night and had 10 more strikeouts on Wednesday night against the Orioles, but he took the loss in each game. The only other major-league pitcher in the last 13 seasons (2000-2012) to lose back-to-back starts despite registering 25 or more strikeouts over those two games was Randy Johnson with the 2004 Diamondbacks. In August of that year Johnson had 14 strikeouts against the Reds and then 11 versus the Pirates and he was 0-2 in those games.

According to Elias

Francisco Liriano

Twins lefty Francisco Liriano struck out 15 batters at Target Field but allowed a grand slam home run to Jonny Gomes in the fourth inning which led to a 6-3 loss to the A’s last night. Liriano is the first pitcher since 1900 to register at least 15 strikeouts and allow a grand slam in the same game. Liriano registered the ninth 15+ strikeout performance in the Twins/Senators franchise history, but he is the first to do that in a losing effort. Source:Elias

 

According to Elias

Trevor Plouffe

Trevor Plouffe hit his 19th home run of the season in the Twins’ 8-6 win at Detroit. All but one of Plouffe’s homers has come in his last 39 games. Eighteen home runs tie the most over any 39-game single-season span in franchise history. The only other player to do that was Harmon Killebrew, in 1962, 1964 and 1967.

According to Elias

Trevor Plouffe (twice), Josh Willingham and Drew Butera all homered in the Twins’ 10-8 victory over the Royals at Minnesota. It was the first time that the Twins have hit more than three home runs in a game at Target Field, which opened for business in 2010. Minnesota entered Sunday’s game with a streak of 204 consecutive home games without hitting as many as four homers in a game (since October 4, 2009, at the Metrodome). The longest current streaks of that kind belong to the Pirates (234 home games) and Athletics (218). Source: Elias