Category: Washington Senators 1901-1960

Twins score 20

The Twins beat up on the Detroit Tigers 20-6 last night at Target Field in front of 29,394 fans that had to watch 3 hours and 59 minutes of baseball if they wanted to see the games final pitch. The Twins are the first AL team this season to score 20 runs in a game and this is the most runs ever scored by the Twins in a game at Target Field.

This is the 13th time in franchise history and the eighth time in Twins team history that the team has scored 20 or more runs in a game. The Detroit Tigers have been the unlucky victims of the Twins/Senators 20 or more runs parade on five occasions, four times by the Twins and once by the Washington Senators.

The Twins previous high for runs scored in a game at Target field occurred on July 16, 2012 when they out-scored the Baltimore Orioles 19-7. The Twins have had 20 runs scored against them just three times and always on the road. The Twins lost to the Kansas City A’s 20-2 on April 25, 1961, they lost 23-6 to the Kansas City Royals on April 6, 1974 and they lost a 20-6 game to the Texas Rangers on July 25, 2011.

Rk Date Tm Opp Rslt PA AB R H HR BB LOB Attendance GmLen
1 1996-04-24 MIN DET W 24-11 60 46 24 19 3 12 9 12,189 223
2 2002-06-04 MIN CLE W 23-2 57 50 23 25 3 7 10 14,029 194
3 1994-06-04 MIN DET W 21-7 57 49 21 24 4 5 9 23,780 194
4 1994-05-20 MIN BOS W 21-2 54 44 21 22 1 7 9 20,766 188
5 1929-08-05 WSH DET W 21-5 51 41 21 21 1 6 6 132
6 2014-08-22 MIN DET W 20-6 55 46 20 20 4 9 11 29,394 239
7 2009-05-21 MIN CHW W 20-1 54 46 20 20 4 5 7 23,048 178
8 2007-07-06 (1) MIN CHW W 20-14 57 47 20 21 2 8 10 31,543 222
9 1980-04-27 MIN OAK W 20-11 52 41 20 20 0 8 8 19,859 197
10 1943-08-01 (2) WSH SLB W 20-6 56 41 20 19 0 12 12 15,579 136
11 1925-08-22 WSH DET W 20-5 55 44 20 19 3 10 8 162
12 1923-08-24 WSH CLE W 20-8 59 42 20 22 0 14 12 150
13 1915-09-29 (2) WSH PHA W 20-5 52 43 20 23 0 4 8 110
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/23/2014.

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Here is what ELIAS had to say about the game: Eduardo Escobar led the Twins’ 20-hit attack, going 5-for-6 from the eighth slot in the lineup, in their 20-6 victory over the Tigers. He was the first major-league player to collect five hits, including a home run, in a game from either the eighth or ninth slot in the lineup since Detroit’s Carlos Pena generated six hits, including a pair of homers, at Kansas City back in 2004.

Eduardo Escobar
Eduardo Escobar

Escobar’s night began with a second-inning homer off Robbie Ray, and he followed with a single off Blaine Hardy, a triple off Jim Johnson, a single off Joba Chamberlain and another single off pitcher-for-a-day infielder Andrew Romine. Escobar became the second Twins player this month to get hits off five different pitchers in the same game – Danny Santana did it against the White Sox on August 3 – something no other big-leaguer has done this season.

And just to complete the story, we note that Escobar also made a pair of errors at shortstop on Friday night. The last major-leaguer with at least five hits and at least two errors in the same game was Kansas City’s Angel Berroa, who did it in a game at Cleveland in September 2003.

For the Twins, their 20-run, 20-hit performance marked just the eighth time in modern major-league history that a team had posted those exact numbers – and three of those eight games have been produced by the Twins. Minnesota went 20/20 against the Athletics in 1980 and against the White Sox in 2009.

According to Elias

 

Trevor May
Trevor May

Trevor May walked seven batters without recording a strikeout in his major-league debut, a 9-4 Twins loss at Oakland last night. No pitcher had issued that many bases on balls without a strikeout in his first big-league game since the White Sox Ken Kravec (7 walks) on September 4, 1975 versus the Royals. And the only other pitcher in Twins franchise history with such an inauspicious debut was the Washington Senators’ Joe Krakauskas, against the Philadelphia Athletics on September 9, 1937 (7 BB).

No major-league pitcher had issued 7+ walks without a strikeout in any game since the Blue Jays’ Ricky Romero (8 BB at Detroit) on August 21, 2012. And the last Twins pitcher to put up a line like this was Willie Banks (7 BB at Boston) on July 25, 1992.

History indicates Yohan Pino’s tenure as a Twins starter will be short

Yohan Pino
Yohan Pino

A two-hour and 6 minute rain delay before last nights Twins game at Target Field started was no biggie for Twins starter Yohan Pino. After all, he has toiled in the minors for 10 years and waited 30 years and 175 days before making his Major League debut against the White Sox on Thursday.

The right-hander went seven innings, giving up two runs and five hits and one walk while striking out seven, but was lifted after 7 innings with the score knotted at 2-2. His seven strikeouts were the second most in franchise history in a debut, tying him with Darrell Jackson and Bert Blyleven, and trailing only Boof Bonser‘s eight strikeouts set in 2006.

Andrew Albers
Andrew Albers
Alex McColl
Alex McColl

Pino also became the oldest starting pitcher to make a big league debut in Twins history, passing Andrew Albers, who was 27 years and 304 days old when he made his debut with the Twins just last season. The Twins released Albers this past January allowing him to sign with a South Korean team. Albers ended up signing with the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization. The oldest pitcher in franchise history to debut in the big leagues was Alex McColl who pitched in his first game for the Washington Senators in 1933 at the age of 39 years and 151 days.

Oldest Twins rookie pitchers to debut in big leagues and have at least one start

Rk Player G GS Year Age ? W L SV IP SO ERA
1 Yohan Pino 1 1 2014 30 0 0 0 7.0 7 2.57
2 Les Straker 31 26 1987 27 8 10 0 154.1 76 4.37
3 Jerry Crider 21 1 1969 27 1 0 1 28.2 16 4.71
4 Cole De Vries 17 16 2012 27 5 5 0 87.2 58 4.11
5 Mark Wiley 15 3 1975 27 1 3 2 38.2 15 6.05
6 Andrew Albers 10 10 2013 27 2 5 0 60.0 25 4.05
7 Tom Klawitter 7 2 1985 27 0 0 0 9.1 5 6.75
8 Dennis Burtt 5 2 1985 27 2 2 0 28.1 9 3.81
9 Matt Fox 1 1 2010 27 0 0 0 5.2 0 3.18
10 Ed Hodge 25 15 1984 26 4 3 0 100.0 59 4.77
11 Brian Duensing 24 9 2009 26 5 2 0 84.0 53 3.64
12 Albert Williams 18 9 1980 26 6 2 1 77.0 35 3.51
13 Francisco Oliveras 12 8 1989 26 3 4 0 55.2 24 4.53
14 Greg Brummett 5 5 1993 26 2 1 0 26.2 10 5.74
15 Jay Pettibone 4 4 1983 26 0 4 0 27.0 10 5.33
16 Dave Gassner 2 2 2005 26 1 0 0 7.2 2 5.87
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/20/2014.
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If you look at the list of pitchers on the list above you will see that none of them were a starter for the Minnesota Twins for very long and in most cases most of them did not pitch for the Twins or anyone else for any length o time. Les Straker did start two World Series games for the Twins in 1987. History seems to indicate that if you do not debut in the big leagues before your 26th birthday (at least with the Twins), the odds are very much against you. We can hope that Yohan Pino has better luck but don’t bet the farm on it. Kyle Gibson just missed being on this list because his big league debut occurred in 2013 at the age of 25 and 249 days.

According to Elias

Aaron Hicks
Aaron Hicks

Light-hitting Aaron Hicks delivered a game-winning single in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Twins a 4-3 victory over the Red Sox. Hicks had a .185 batting average at the time of his game-winner, becoming the first player with a career mark below .190 to produce a walkoff hit since 1980 (minimum: 300 at-bats). The last player to do so was Joe Niekro, (former Twins pitcher) a career .159 hitter at the time of his 17th-inning single that gave the Astros a 1-0 win over the Cubs (Aug. 23, 1980).

Phil Hughes
Phil Hughes

Twins starter Phil Hughes struck out eight batters without issuing a walk over six innings. It was the first time in 140 major-league starts that Hughes recorded at least seven strikeouts and no walks. For the first time in his MLB career, Hughes has made four consecutive starts without walking a batter.

The Twins entered Thursday’s game against the Red Sox with an all-time record (since 1961) of 4,222-4,263 and needed just one win to match their win total when the franchise was the Washington Senators from 1901-1960, going 4,223-4,864 (46.47%). With their 4-3 victory over the boys from Boston the Minnesota Twins record now stands at 4,223-4,263 for a winning percentage of 49.76%.

According to Elias

 

Kurt Suzuki
Kurt Suzuki

Kurt Suzuki‘s two-out single off Justin Verlander with the bases full in the seventh inning plated a pair of runs, and that was enough for the Twins to sneak off with a 2-1 victory at Detroit on Friday. Verlander’s nine-game winning streak against the Twins ended; it had been tied for the longest current streak by any major-leaguer starter against any opposing team. Felix Hernandez has won his last nine decisions as a starter against the Tigers, as have Edwin Jackson against the Indians, and Kyle Kendrick against the Marlins. It’s not easy to load the bases against Verlander, but if you do, you have a chance. With Suzuki’s hit on Friday night, opponents now have a .339 career batting average with the bases loaded against the Tigers ace (39 hits in 115 at-bats). Sourc

Kurt Suzuki is hitting .340 (16-for-47) with two doubles, 13 RBI and a .436
on-base percentage in 13 road games, his average and OBP both rank fifth best in the AL. Kurt has five multi-hit games on the road and has reached base in 11 of 13 games.

The Twins enter today’s game with an all-time record (since 1961) of 4220-4261 and need just three wins to match their win total when the franchise was the Washington Senators from 1901-1960, psting a 4223-4864 record. The Senators were one of the eight original franchises in the American League for sixty years. The Senators played baseball  in our nation’s capital, winning one World Championship in 1924 and three AL pennants (1924, 1925, and 1933. After the 1960 season owner Calvin Griffith moved the Washington Senators from Washington, DC to Minnesota.

Don’t forget to stop by our “Today in Twins History” page and checked out what happened on this day in Minnesota Twins history.

A look back at the life and times of the Twins original owner Calvin Griffith

 

An interesting 5 minute 11 second video clip by WTCN (KARE 11) Jeff Passolt done in 1984 about the life and times of the Minnesota Twins first owner. There is a short but nice aerial shot of Met Stadium that you might also enjoy as well as a peek at a young Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew and several other players.

http://tcmedianow.com/video/wtcn-kare-1983-jeff-passolt-feature-on-the-life-of-calvin-griffith/l

 

I did a piece about Calvin Griffith when he was inducted in to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010 that you can view at http://wp.me/p1YQUj-Ce .

On This Day in Twins History – September 6, 1954

Carlos Paula
Carlos Paula

On this day in 1954 the Washington Senators played a black ballplayer for the first time. His name was Carlos Paula and he was not African American, he was from La Habana, Cuba. The 26 year-old Paula started in left field for the Senators seven years after Jackie Robinson made his major league debut. Paula went 2 for 5 with a double and knocked in 2 runs in a 8-1 win in game one of a DH against the Philadelphia A’s. The Senators lost game two by a 3-2 score at Griffith Stadium. Only 4,865 fans were on hand to witness this historic occasion.

Paula was acquired by the Washington Senators from the Paris Indians of the Big State League in an unknown transaction after the 1953 season. Paula’s major league career lasted just three seasons and 157 games, all with the Senators from 1954-1956. Paula played in the minors after that from 1957-1959 for the Philadelphia A’s, New York Yankees, New York Giants, Cincinnati Reds and Milwaukee Braves organizations but never again had a chance to play in the majors. Paula played his final season (1960) in Mexico City. Carlos Paula had a career batting average of .271 in 457 at-bats with 9 home runs and 60 RBI.

According to the SABR bio on Zoilo Versalles the Twins shortstop who was the 1965 AL MVP both he and Carlos Paula lived in the same neighborhood. As a youngster Versalles patterned his play after flashy Almendares star shortstop and active major leaguer Willy Miranda who many consider to have been the slickest fielding shortstop ever born in Cuba. Versalles also received encouragement and inspiration from another neighborhood big-leaguer, Carlos Paula, who once gave the young hopeful one of his tattered and discarded fielder’s mitts.

Only the Yankees in 1955, the Phillies in 1957, the Tigers in 1958 and the Red Sox in 1959 broke the color-line later than did the Senators/Twins franchise.

Box score game one

Box score game two

This Day in Twins History – June 24

6/24/1955 – Harmon Killebrew hit his first major league homer, off Billy Hoeft at Griffith Stadium, but the Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators 18-7. Here is what dcbaseballhistory.com wrote about this event. “The visiting Tigers pounce to a 13-0 lead in the top of the 5th, when 3B Harmon Killebrew boots a grounder. In the bottom of the frame, Killebrew would bat and work a 2-2 count against Detroit southpaw Billy Hoeft. Tigers catcher Frank House tells Killebrew that Hoeft’s next offering would be a fastball. Hoeft delivered that fastball and Killebrew rocketed the ball out of the park for his first major league home run. Killebrew would later say that, of all the home runs he hit at Griffith Stadium, the home run off Hoeft was the longest he ever hit in Griffith.”

6/24/1968 – In a one game series, the Twins beat the Chicago White Sox 1-0 in County Stadium in Milwaukee in a game called after 5 innings due to rain. The reason the game was played in Milwaukee was that in 1968, Bud Selig, a former minority owner of the Milwaukee Braves who had been unable to stop the relocation of his team three years earlier, contracted with the Allyn brothers who owned the White Sox to host nine home games (one against each of the other American League clubs) at Milwaukee County Stadium as part of an attempt to attract an expansion franchise to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Frank Jackson of The Hardball Times did a nice blog earlier this year on the Milwaukee White Sox that is well worth your read.

6/24/1977 – Ralph Garr of the White Sox homered off Minnesota’s Paul Thormodsgard in Minneapolis. It came in the third inning with two men on and no one out. Jim Essian, the runner on first, thought the ball might be caught by the Twins’ right fielder, Dan Ford, so he retreated towards first base. Garr was watching the flight of the ball and passed Essian after rounding the bag. He was credited with a single and two runs batted in.

6/24/1984 – 2B Tim Teufel gives the Twins a 3-2 win over the White Sox with a three-run inside-the-park walk off home run with one out in the bottom of the ninth at the Metrodome.

6/24/1989 – Twins outfielder John Moses is asked to pitch at Fenway Park in an 11-2 loss to the Red Sox. John threw one scoreless inning giving up a walk but only faced 3 batters with the team turned a double play behind him. John is the fourth Twins position player to pitch and this is the fifth occurrence of a Twins position player pitching for the Twins.

 

Not P.J. Walters day

Decker, JoeTwins starter P.J. Walters walked five batters in the first inning last night at Progressive Field against the Cleveland Indians. Walters lasted just 0.2 innings as he also hit a batter and allowed a hit.  The Twins ended up losing to the Indians by a score of 8-7. The last time a Twins pitcher walked five batters in an inning was when Paul Abbott walked five on August 10, 1991 at Seattle (bottom of the seventh). The last time the Twins had a starter last just 0.2 innings and walk five batters was June 10, 1975 when Joe Decker did it against the Indians, in fact, that was the only other time it has happened in Twins history. Additionally, Walters also joins Sid Hudson (5/17/1940) as the only starter in franchise history to allow at least five walks and six earned runs in an outing of less than 1.0 inning. Source was Twins Game Notes. Box score.

PJ Walters
PJ Walters

Here is what Elias had to say about the situation: The Indians drew five first-inning walks against Minnesota’s P.J. Walters, tying the highest total by any team this season. The Athletics had five first-inning walks against the Astros on April 15. The Indians hadn’t had such a first inning since the penultimate game of the 1990 season and the Twins hadn’t either since June 10, 1975, also against Cleveland.

This Day in Twins History – June 20, 1961

After blowing a 4-1 lead by allowing the Baltimore Orioles to score three runs in the top of the ninth on a 3-run home by Earl Robinson off Jack Kralick, the Twins come to bat in their half of the ninth inning. With the score tied 4-4, Julio Becquer is called upon by manager Sam Mele to lead off the bottom of the ninth as a pinch-hitter for Chuck Stobbs against Jack Fisher and Julio proceeds to hit a home run and become not only the first Twin to pinch hit a home run but also becomes the first Twins player in history to hit a walk-off home run as the Twins win 5-4 and 17, 851 Twins fans go home happy..

Julio Becquer 1960Becquer, born in Havana, Cuba on December 20, 1931 was signed by the Washington Senators as an amateur free agent in 1952 and played for the Senators in 1955 and 1957-1960. Primarily a utility player, Becquer was a left-handed pull hitter and was noted for his good glove at first base. Becquer played first base and some outfield during his career and he even took the mound when that was called for making him the only position player to pitch for both the Senators and the Twins. Although he played for the Senators in 1960 in their final season in Washington prior to relocating to Minnesota, he was not one of the original Minnesota Twins because on December 14, 1960 the Los Angeles Angels made Becquer the 55th selection in the 1960 expansion draft. Julio appeared in 11 games for the Angels going hitless in just 8 at bats before the Angels sold him to the Philadelphia Phillies. Becquer spent several weeks with the Phillies AAA Buffalo team before being sold again on June 2, 1960, this time to the Minnesota Twins. Julio only had 84 at bats for the 1961 Twins but a number of them were key pinch hits. As a matter of fact, Becquer was such a good pinch-hitter that he led the AL in that category in 1957 and again in 1959 as a Washington Senator. In 1962 Becquer played in Mexico and was there again in 1963 when Twins owner Calvin Griffith was informed that Becquer needed just a few weeks of big league time to qualify for a pension so Griffith re-signed Julio so that could qualify for that major league pension. Becquer appeared in just one big league game in 1963 (September 18) at Met Stadium in a 10-0 Twins win over the Detroit Tigers appearing as a pinch-runner for Earl Battey and scoring on a Bernie Allen double.

Julio Becquer lives in the Minneapolis area and can be seen frequently at Twins games at Target Field. Becquer was elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997. I did an interview with Julio on May 2010 that you can listen to at http://wp.me/P1YQUj-dE .