Fireworks night at Target Field last night

 

The Twins beat the Texas Rangers last night by a score of 15-6 at Target Field. Martín Pérez (8-3) was the starter and winner, allowing four runs on seven hits in 6 innings pitched. The offense recorded 20 hits as each starter in the lineup recorded one hit and at least eight starters had multiple hits.

  • 13 extra-base hits tied a Twins single-game record set earlier this season in game two
    of a doubleheader on April 20 at Baltimore.
  • 20 hits marked a season-high, their most since June 13, 2017 vs. Seattle when they
    set a club-record with 28, it marked the 57th time in club history for the Twins to reach
    20 hits in a game.
  • Nine doubles tied for the most in Senators/Twins history (since 1901), tying the Senators’ nine back on June 9, 1934 (box score) at Boston and Hall of Fame pitcher Left Grove.

Credit to Twins GameNotes

Twins Win!

Who would have thought CJ Cron could do this?

CJ Cron

C.J. Cron has 45 RBI this season, ranking second on the team to Eddie Rosario (52), his 15 home runs are half way to his single-season career-high of 30, done last season with Tampa Bay. As of Monday’s AL All-Star Game balloting, he ranked second among first basemen with 302,586 votes, trailing Luke Voit (393,356) and ahead of José Abreu (286,145).

Cron rankings among AL first basemen:

  • second in slugging percentage (.541)
  • third in RBI (45)
  • fourth in doubles (14), OPS (.878), wOBA (.380) and batting average (.275)
  • fifth in home runs (15)

Credit to MN Twins GameNotes

The Minnesota Twins train keep rolling along!

Keep it on track Rocco!

The Minnesota Twins have gone 24-12 on the road this season, the most road wins in baseball. The Twins went 29-52 on the road in 2018 and didn’t record their 23rd road win
in 2018 until August 29 and their 24th road win until August 31. 

Where the Twins offense ranks among all of baseball on the road*

  • Runs: 227 (1st)
  • HR: 77 (1st)
  • SLG: .533 (1st)
  • Iso. Pow: .239 (1st)
  • Hits: 361 (1st)
  • AVG: .284 (1st)
  • wOBA: .367 (1st)
  • Run Diff: +102 (2nd)
  • 2B: 76 (1st)
  • OBP: .342 (2nd)
  • OPS: .848 (1st)
  • XBH: 267 (1st)

 

  • – Credit Twins GameNotes

Could Eddie Rosario be on his way to an MVP?

“Leader of the Pack” Eddie Rosario hits one out with credit to Michael Layton/Getty Images

In 1969 at the ripe old age of 33, Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew won the American League MVP award when he played in 162 games and led the league with 49 home runs, 140 RBI, 145 walks and a 1.011 OPS. All of these were career highs for the Killer.

Could current Twins left fielder Eddie Rosario be on his way to a season for the ages and bring home another MVP award? 48 games does not a season make but it is still fun comparing former Twins MVP winners to our current MVP candidate Eddie Rosario with about 30% of the season in the books.

On June 4, 1969 Killebrew had played in 48 games with 209 plate appearances and was hitting .269 with 12 home runs, 38 RBI, 39 walks and a .940 OPS.

On May 24, 2019 Eddie Rosario who is just 27 had played in 48 games with 204 plate appearances and was hitting .285 with 15 home runs, 42 RBI, 9 walks and a .868 OPS. 

 

Other Twins MVP’s after 48 games

On June 8, 1965 at the age of 25 Zoilo Versalles had played in 48 games with 225 plate appearances and was hitting .269 with 6 home runs, 31 RBI, 11 walks and a .788 OPS.

On June 1, 2006 at the age of 25 Justin Morneau had played in 48 games with 195 plate appearances and was hitting .240 with 10 home runs, 36 RBI, 14 walks and a .760 OPS.

On June 24, 2009 at the age of 26 Joe Mauer had played in 48 games with 212 plate appearances and was hitting .394 with 14 home runs, 42 RBI, 27 walks and a 1.167 OPS.

Jorge Polanco is a gem and deserves to be an All-Star

Jorge Polanco on 2019 picture day

Jorge Polanco, who signed a five-year contract extension this offseason to remain with the organization through 2023, has established himself as one of the top offensive shortstops in Twins history. Ranking first in average (.284), slugging (.448), OPS (.791), wOBA (.345), Isolated Power (.164), BABIP (.319) and pitches-per-plate appearance (3.97).

  • He has the lowest percentage of swings at the first pitch (16.5%), and he has the second lowest at-bat/home run percentage (39.28 ABs).
  • He also ranks tied for third in 4+ hit games (7), fourth in percentage of swings with balls put in play (44.1%) and seventh in XBH (126).
  • Since his debut in 2014, Polanco ranks fourth among all Major League shortstops in batting average, sixth in on-base percentage, seventh in OPS and in swing-miss percentage (15.6). He’s also tied for the fourth-fewest strikeouts in that span (209) with Alexei
    Ramirez, who hasn’t played since 2016, (the only active player with at least 300 games at shortstop and less strikeouts is Miami infielder Miguel Rojas, who has struck out 127 times in 338 games as a shortstop since 2014).

*All stats with minimum of 300 games as shortstop. Data courtesy of Twins GameNotes.

Vote Twins – click on image

 

What will it take to get Minnesota Twins fans to believe in this team

Before the 2019 season began for the Minnesota Twins pretty much everyone agreed that the Twins fate this season hinged on how well Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano performed. Both were coming off a 2018 season in which they underperformed and/or were injured or both. 

Buxton played in just 28 games hitting .156 for Minnesota and finished the 2018 season in AAA and didn’t even get called up in September, he was miffed to say the least. Sano didn’t do much better appearing in just 71 games and hit .199 with 13 home runs, a career low for him. He played so poorly he was sent all the way back to High A ball in Fort Myers to lose weight and regain his batting form.

The Twins signed free agent Martin Perez on January 30th and expected him to fight for a starting spot. Twins fans were not happy with the signing since the soon to be 28-year old lefty was 2-7 with a 6.22 ERA in 15 starts for the Rangers in 2018. Twins fans wanted the front office to sign a legitimate Ace starting pitcher and some bullpen help and when that did not happen, fans were upset and just didn’t buy tickets for the 2019 season.

Twins $5 Ticket Idea Proves To Be a Winner

I have gotten on the Minnesota Twins case over the years for their high ticket prices but the flash sale $5 ticket plan announced by the ballclub on May 7 that all upper deck (Home Run Porch and Grandstand) tickets for remaining Twins games in May would be sold for $5 with no processing fees is a winner. The Twins reported that approximately 20,000 tickets were available and they sold out in under 24 hours.

The next day the Twins announced another flash sale for $5 ballpark access only tickets again with no processing fees for the remaining May home games. With these tickets you get in the ballpark but have no seat.

Twins leaders with two or more home runs in a game

No surprise here that it is Harmon Killebrew, right?
Results
Rk Player #Matching
1 Harmon Killebrew 35
2 Justin Morneau 20
3 Tony Oliva 18
4 Kent Hrbek 16
5 Bob Allison 15
6 Kirby Puckett 13
7 Gary Gaetti 13
8 Tom Brunansky 11
9 Don Mincher 9
10 Torii Hunter 9
11 Eddie Rosario 8
12 Corey Koskie 8
13 Jacque Jones 8
14 Jimmie Hall 8
15 Brian Dozier 8
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/1/2019.

.

Eddie Rosario is climbing this list pretty quickly.

Another occurrence of strange but true

Ryan Harper

This past Thursday Ryne Harper pitched 3.1 innings of solid relief against the Toronto Blue Jays at Target Field giving his team a chance to come back and win the game. The Twins didn’t come back to win the game but the 31-year-old rookie pitcher did his share. 

Twins relief pitchers have pitched 3 or more innings in a game 1,787 times since 1961. From 1961-1969 Twins relievers did it 282 times, in the 70’s they did it 475 times, in the 80’s they did it 388 times, in the 90’s they did it 358 times, in the 2000’s Twins relievers did it 161 times and from 2010 through yesterday it has been done 123 times and to be fair, some of these occurrences starting in 2018 are “primary pitchers” following an “opener”. 

Ray Corbin

The longest Twins relief appearance took place back on May 25, 1975 when Ray Corbin relieved Vic Albury after just two outs when the Detroit Tigers jumped on Albury for three first inning runs at Metropolitan Stadium and manager Frank Quilici had seen enough. Corbin pitched the next 10.1 innings allowing just two runs (one earned) on seven hits and four walks along with four strikeouts. The game was tied at 4-4 after five innings until the Tigers scored an unearned run off Corbin (Corbin’s error) in the top of the 11th inning to take a 5-4 lead. In the bottom of the 11th Tiger pitcher John Hiller walked Steve Brye and Larry Hisle followed with a two-run home run and the Twins walked off the Tigers 6-5 with Ray Corbin getting the well deserved win. Just four days earlier Corbin had pitched 6.1 innings of relief.

Vic Albury

As irony would have it, just over a month later on June 30th the Twins were facing the California Angels at the Met and the Twins started Ray Corbin. Before Corbin could retire a single Angel batter he gave up five straight singles and John Doherty followed with a three-run homer, the only home run he would hit that season and the Angels were up 6-0 and Twins skipper Frank Quilici sent Corbin to the showers and called for Vic Albury. Albury held the Angels scoreless for 8 innings before running into trouble in the ninth when he gave up four runs but only one earned run on three hits and an error. Albury pitched 9 innings of relief allowing the one earned run on six hits and seven walks while striking out four batters and ended up with a no decision for his days work as the Angels beat the Twins 10-3.

Twins relievers have pitched seven or more innings in a game a total of 33 times. Ray Corbin and Tom Burgmeier each did it on three occasions. It has been a long time since it was done last, 34 years ago Dennis Burtt was the last Twins pitcher to pitch seven or more innings of relief when he did it in October of 1985 in a 8-6 Twins loss to the Indians at the Metrodome.

Here is a list of games in which a Minnesota Twins reliever pitched seven or more innings.

It appears that it is just not starting pitchers that are pitching fewer innings in each start, it looks like relievers don’t stay in games as long either.