TWINS TRIVIA is hopefully a fun and informative site that will help you to better enjoy the Minnesota Twins and their wonderful history. “History never looks like history when you are living through it” – John Gardner, former Secretary of Health
Eddie Rosario delivers key blow for Twins at Detroit
Eddie Rosario
Eddie Rosario’s three-run homer in the fourth inning gave the Twins a lead that they never gave up in Minnesota’s 9-4 victory at Detroit last night. The home run was Rosario’s 15th this season, but only his second with more than one runner on base. The other three-run shot was his first homer this season, and it also came against the Tigers. Friday’s homer at Comerica Park was only Rosario’s third in a road game this season. Among the 112 major-league players with at least 15 homers this season, only one other player has hit at least 80 percent of his circuit clouts at home: Cincinnati’s Eugenio Suarez has hit 17 of his 20 home runs at Great American Ball Park.
Joe Mauer rapped out three hits in the Twins’ win over the Brewers yesterday. It was the 162nd three-hit game of Mauer’s career, third most for any Twins player since the franchise moved to Minnesota from Washington in 1961, behind Hall of Famers Rod Carew (214 three-hit games for the Twins) and Kirby Puckett (208).
Bartolo Colon threw seven shutout innings in the Twins’ 4–0 victory over the Brewers. It was Colon’s fifth career win against Milwaukee. The first came on July 2, 1998, when he beat them with help from home runs by Indians teammates Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome and Shawon Dunston.
The Twins powered up against Matt Garza and company, slamming five home runs in their 11–4 victory over the Brewers. Max Kepler and Eddie Rosario, who each homered twice for Minnesota, became the first Twins duo in just over six years to hit multiple homers in the same game. Michael Cuddyer and Delmon Young each hit a pair of four-baggers for Minnesota on August 3, 2011 at Angel Stadium.
Clutch grand slams for both Dozier and Lamb
Brian Dozier
Brian Dozier also homered for the Twins on Tuesday, with his grand slam turning a one-run deficit into a three-run lead for Minnesota. Jake Lamb replicated that feat for the Diamondbacks later in the night, homering off Dodgers reliever Tony Watson with the bases loaded to give Arizona a 6–3 lead (the D-Backs won by that same score). There was one other day this season in which multiple players hit a go-ahead grand-slam home run with his team trailing at the time. And on that day – June 3 – there were four players that hit home runs of that kind! Those trailing-to-leading salamis were produced by Matt Adams, Kyle Schwarber, Travis Shaw, and Chris Taylor.
Eddie Rosario scored the go-ahead run in the seventh inning on a two-out balk by Oliver Drake, and Ryan Pressly and Matt Belisle kept the Brewers off the board as the Twins took a 5-4 decision in Minneapolis. This was the first time since the franchise moved from Washington to Minnesota in 1961 that the Twins won a game with the go-ahead and final run coming home on a balk in the seventh inning or later. The last such win by any major-league team came on July 16 of last year, when the Padres won, 7-6, in 10 innings on a walk off balk by Giants reliever Santiago Casilla.
Berrios shakes off rough start, earns victory over Rangers
Jose Berrios
The Rangers scored five runs in the top of the first, but Minnesota overcame the early deficit to post a 6–5 victory. Twins starter Jose Berrios earned the win by completing five innings and allowing only three hits after the first inning. Berrios is the first pitcher to be credited with a win this season after allowing five or more runs in the first inning. Only one pitcher did so in 2016 (Johnny Cueto), and only one other did so for the Twins since they moved to Minnesota in 1961 (Nick Blackburn in 2011).
Bartolo Colon went the distance for the Twins on Friday to earn his first win since signing with Minnesota last month. At age 44, Colon became the oldest player to record a complete-game win in the last seven seasons. The last player that threw a complete game and earned a win at an older age than Colon was Jamie Moyer, who was 47 years young when he held the Padres to two runs over nine innings for the Phillies on June 5, 2010. Colon did stake his claim as the oldest player with a complete-game win for the Twins/Senators franchise, besting Connie Marrero who was 43 at the time of his last complete-game victory for the Senators in 1954.
Including Friday’s performance, Colon has thrown a complete game for eight different major-league teams: the Indians, Expos, Angels, White Sox, Yankees, A’s, Mets, and Twins. Only two other pitchers that debuted in the modern era – that is, since 1900 – pitched a complete game for at least eight different ball clubs. Mike Morgan did so for nine different teams, and Doyle Alexander did so for eight teams.
Friday’s game marked Colon’s first win at Target Field, which is the 40th venue at which Colon has recorded a win. Only three other pitchers in the modern era have notched a win at 40 or more stadiums – Randy Johnson (43), Jamie Moyer (42), and Pedro Martinez (40). The all-time record holder is Tim Keefe, who won 342 games at 47 different stadiums from 1880 to 1893.
Have baseball, will travel
Jaime Garcia
Jaime Garcia’s winning streak ended on Friday night after allowing six runs (five earned) in his debut with the Yankees against the Indians. Garcia, who earned a win in his final start for the Braves on July 21 as well as his only start for the Twins on July 28, did put his name in the record books in another way, becoming the first pitcher in major-league history to start a game for three different teams over a span of 15 days. The previous shortest span for a pitcher making a start for three different teams was 23 days, a mark set by Ed Daily in 1890 (Brooklyn Gladiators of the American Association, New York Giants, Louisville Colonels of A.A.) and tied by Ron Darling in 1991 (Mets, Expos, Athletics).
Ervin Santana threw his fifth complete game of the season, a four-hitter, in the Twins’ 5–2 win in San Diego on Wednesday. In four of those complete games he’s allowed fewer than five hits, tying the highest total for any major league pitcher over the last six seasons (2012 to date). Clayton Kershaw had four in 2014 and Jake Arrieta had four in 2015.
Santana is 3–0 with a 1.40 ERA in five starts in National League parks over the last two seasons, including a four-hit shutout in San Francisco on June 9 this season.
If hitting walk-off homers were everything, the A’s would be awesome
Yonder Alonso hit a 12th-inning walk-off homer off the Twins’ Tyler Duffey. It was the Athletics’ seventh walk-off home run this season, the most in the majors (the Blue Jays stand second with five, including one on Sunday). That total of seven walk=off homers is the highest prior to the beginning of August by any team in major-league history! Sunday’s walk-off blast came on the heels of Rajai Davis’s walk-off home run Saturday night. It was the second time this season that the A’s have hit walk-off home runs in back-to-back games: they did it on May 7 (Ryon Healy against the Tigers) and May 8 (Jed Lowrie against the Angels). The A’s are the first team in major-league history to have two separate instances of back-to-back games with walk-off home runs in the same season.
Alonso’s blow was the third walk-off homer in the majors on Sunday, the most on one day since there were three on June 7 of last year.
Bellinger hits a homer unlike any in MLB this season
Taylor Rogers
Cody Bellinger reached Taylor Rogers for a three-run homer on an 0-2 pitch in the eighth inning, turning a 4-3 deficit into a 6-4 lead, the same score by which the Dodgers went on to dispatch the Twins. It was the major leagues’ first lefty-on-lefty, 0-2-pitch, go-ahead homer in the sixth inning or later this season. The blow was Bellinger’s 28th home run of the season, and of his big-league career, and it came in his 80th game. He tied Jose Abreu for the second-highest homer total over a player’s first 80 big-league games (Abreu did it three years ago); Rudy York set the record with 30 homers over his first 80 games with the Tigers back in the 1930s.
