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
I have run a Fantasy baseball League under Yahoo for the past 10 years and this year the “League of 10,000 Lakes” has several openings. The players in this league have played together for many years and it is serious and stiff competition. We are looking for a few serious competitive players to join us in this free auto-pick draft league. If you want to join us, drop me a line at jjswol@twinstrivia.com and I will put the names in a hat and draw two or possible three names to join our league.
The top half of the Twins’ lineup struck early and often in Minnesota’s 17–0 victory over the Royals. The first five batters in the Twins lineup––Brian Dozier, Joe Mauer, Byron Buxton, Jorge Polanco, and Eduardo Escobar––each finished with multiple runs scored and multiple runs batted in. It is the second time this season that five or more players did that in a game for the Twins; six players produced at least two runs and two RBIs for Minnesota on June 13 versus the Mariners. No other team in the majors has had even one game of that kind since the start of last season.
Big night for Escobar
Eduardo Escobar
Eduardo Escobar did the most damage for the Twins, driving in six runs with a triple and pair of home runs. Escobar’s 11 total bases were more than the Royals compiled as a team (seven). Escobar became the third Twins player to total more than 10 bases in a game this season, joining Eddie Rosario (13 total bases on June 13) and Byron Buxton (13 on August 27). Two other teams this season have had at least three games in which a player finished with more than 10 bases. Five Nationals players have had such a game this season (Bryce Harper, Anthony Rendon, Jayson Werth, Michael Taylor, Ryan Zimmerman), while the Braves have had three such games (two by Freddie Freeman, one by Matt Kemp).
Historic score for Minnesota
The 17 runs scored by the Twins on Saturday are the most by any major-league team in a shutout victory this season. Saturday’s win also marked the first time in Twins/Senators franchise history that the team scored at least 17 runs in a game while keeping its opponent off the scoreboard––an impressive feat considering the franchise has posted more than 1100 shutout wins in its 117 seasons.
While 17–0 looks more like the final score of an NFL game, consider that the Chiefs have never scored fewer than 10 points in any of their 12 matchups against the Vikings. And only one of the Vikings’ 901 games––including the regular season and postseason––ended 17–0. Minnesota defeated Chicago by that score on November 3, 1974.
Just one MLB debut as a Minnesota Twin on July 25.
Mark Guthrie
Mark Guthrie (P) – July 25, 1989 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 7th round of the 1987 amateur draft. Guthrie threw 36 pitches in his big league debut pitching 1.2 innings and giving up 2 hits but he also struck out three Orioles in the Dome and held Baltimore off the scoreboard in a 9-3 Twins victory over the visiting birds from Baltimore.
The Twins had a 6-4 lead at Municipal Stadium over the last place Kansas City A’s going into the bottom of the 8th inning but the home town A’s plated 5 runs on 4 hits, an error and an IBB and held on for a 9-6 win. The Twins committed five errors while their pitching staff allowed nine hits and five walks and had their losing streak extended to three games, fortunately they remained just one game out of first place. Cesar Tovar was 2 for 4 with a run scored and 2 RBI. Al Worthington took the loss in relief of Dean Chance. Box Score
The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.
The franchise leader in complete games pitched for the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins is Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson who had 38 complete games in 1910 in 42 starts for the Washington Senators. Twins pitcher Bert Blyleven, also in the Hall of Fame is the Twins leader in complete games in a single season with 25 complete games in 40 starts back in 1973. The last Twins pitcher to lead the AL in complete games was Carl Pavano with seven in 2010.
But who holds the Minnesota Twins record for the most complete games in a row? That record of course belongs to Twins curve-ball ace Camilo Pascual who had 8 complete games in a row between May 10, 1964 and June 17, 1964. Bert Blyleven is second on the Twins list below but he pitched 10 complete games in a row in 1985 for the Cleveland Indians.
Back in 1980 Oakland A’s starter Rick Langford as a 28 year-old pitched an amazing 22 complete games in a row between May 23 and September 12 and that included a 14 inning win against the Cleveland Indians. The A’s starting staff had an work-man like 94 complete games in 1980. The starting five made up of Rick Langford, Mike Norris, Matt Keough, Steve McCatty and Brian Kingman started all but three A’s games that season. The team finished with a 83-79 record under skipper Billy Martin and pitching coach Art Fowler.
Nolan Ryan who was pitching for the California Angels at the time had a streak of 10 complete games in a row against the Minnesota Twins from September 30, 1972 through September 28, 1974 but the Twins did manage to win 3 of those 10 games. About the time Ryan’s streak was ending, teammate Frank Tanana started a streak of his own pitching 7 complete games in a row against the Twins from September 27, 1974 through June 15 1977.
We hope you are all able to spend this wonderful holiday with your family and friends and that you all find peace, health and happiness. Don’t forget those service men and women who are protecting you in all corners of this world and can’t be home to spend time with their family and friends.
