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This Day in Twins History – Twins beat WSOX in Milwaukee

June 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. Box score

To read more please see “A short history of the Milwaukee White Sox“

According to ELIAS

Suzuki takes lessons from Mauer

Kurt Suzuki went 4-for-5 with six RBIs in the Twins’ 14-10 victory over the Phillies on Tuesday. Suzuki is only the second catcher in the Twins’ franchise history to produce at least four hits and six RBIs in a game, joining Joe Mauer, who had five hits and seven RBIs on July 26, 2010.

Things can always be worse

Everyone is upset with the Twins poor play this season but at this stage of the season the 1982 Twins were worse. On this date in 1982 the Twins were in Chicago where they lost 5-4 to the White Sox when Harold Baines hit a double off reliever Terry Felton and knocked in the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning. Sounds just like 2016 doesn’t it? The Twins record dropped to 16-53 and 25 games behind the division leaders. Felton’s 1982 season wasn’t a good one, he finished 0-13. Box score.

The Twins of today stand at 21-48 and 18 games out of first as they prepare to take on the Phillies tonight.

According to ELIAS

Santana gets back on track

Ervin Santana was charged with two earned runs in 7 1/3 innings to earn the victory in the Twins’ 7-4 win over the Yankees at Target Field yesterday. Santana was coming off perhaps the worst five-start stretch of his major-league career (0-5 with a 7.71 ERA). He had never before lost five consecutive starts while producing an ERA that high. Santana also snapped his personal eight-game losing streak against the Yankees, which spanned 11 starts since September 2008 and was the longest current losing streak against the Bombers for any major-league pitcher entering play on Sunday. That distinction now belongs to CC Sabathia, who has lost his last seven decisions against his current team (2001 to 2008).

Twins minor league player of the week – Felix Jorge

TWINS MINOR LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Ft. Myers Miracle (High A) right-handed pitcher Felix Jorge is the Twins minor league Player of the Week. Jorge made one start for the Miracle, allowing one run on six hits in 7.2 innings pitched, with no walks and six strikeouts against Lakeland on Wednesday.

The 22 year-old Jorge has made 11 starts for the Miracle this season, going 6-3, 1.59 ERA (73.2 IP, 13 ER) with 10 walks and 61 strikeouts.

Jorge has described by a Twins source as a poor man’s Ervin Santana. He has a thin body and doesn’t throw hard, but he has a good mix of pitches and throws strikes, lending hope that he can stick as a starter. Signed by the Minnesota Twins as a non-drafted free agent on Feb. 21, 2011 for $250,000.

Twins sign Dominican right-hander Felix Jorge

Twins Minor League Report June 19, 2016

According to ELIAS – and we thought our SP was bad

Shields sets mark for futility

I am thinking that the beard is the problem.

James Shields allowed eight runs while recording only five outs in the White Sox 13-2 loss to the Indians yesterday. Shields has now allowed seven or more runs before the end of the third inning in each of his last four starts. That is the longest streak of its kind for any pitcher in major-league history.

I guess it just goes to show that anyone can have a bad game, a bad month, a bad streak, or a bad year!

Twins inside-the-park home runs are a rarity

From the time the Twins started play in 1961 through yesterday June 14 (2016) the Minnesota Twins have hit 7,462 home runs, 3,746 have been hit on the road and 3,716 have been hit at home. The Twins hit 1,872 home runs at the Metrodome, 1,424 at Met Stadium and 420 at Target Field. The most home runs the Twins have hit on the road have been at the Angels home park where they have hit 257.

Of the Twins 7,462 round-trippers only 50 of them have been inside-the-park home runs. Inside-the-park home runs are relatively rare so I am a bit surprised that when Eduardo Nunez hit the latest one back on June 2 that no one mentioned that it was number 50 in Minnesota Twins history. How rare are they? Only .0067% of Twins home runs are of the inside-the-park variety. So what Twins have hit IPHR’s? We have put together a complete list here for you with the help of Baseball-Reference.

Twins inside-the-park home runs from 1961-June 2, 2016

Date	Batter	Opp	Pitcher	Play Description
1961-07-04 (2)	Harmon Killebrew	CHW	Cal McLish	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1962-04-27	Zoilo Versalles	@CLE	Dick Donovan	Home Run
1963-09-22	Jimmie Hall	@BOS	Bob Heffner	Inside-the-park Home Run to RF
1963-09-28	Vic Power	@NYY	Whitey Ford	Inside-the-park Home Run to RF
1964-07-04 (1)	Tony Oliva	@NYY	Jim Bouton	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1964-08-04	Rich Rollins	BOS	Bill Monbouquette	Inside-the-park Home Run to RF
1964-09-04	Tony Oliva	BOS	Dave Gray	Inside-the-park Home Run to RF
1965-04-22	Zoilo Versalles	@NYY	Pedro Ramos	Inside-the-park Home Run to LF
1965-06-04	Jimmie Hall	WSA	Howie Koplitz	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1965-06-18	Rich Rollins	@NYY	Bill Stafford	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1966-06-04	Tony Oliva	CLE	Tom Kelley	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1967-05-08	Ted Uhlaender	WSA	Phil Ortega	Inside-the-park Home Run to LF
1969-05-13	Rod Carew	BAL	Mike Cuellar	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1971-07-22	Jim Nettles	@NYY	Fritz Peterson	Inside-the-park Home Run to RF
1972-10-04	Eric Soderholm	CHW	Ken Frailing	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1974-06-24	Danny Thompson	@TEX	David Clyde	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1975-06-17 (1)	Dan Ford	OAK	Vida Blue	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1975-09-07	Steve Brye	@CHW	Claude Osteen	Inside-the-park Home Run to RF
1979-05-08	Ken Landreaux	TOR	Balor Moore	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1979-05-15	John Castino	TEX	Sparky Lyle	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1980-07-11	Rick Sofield	@SEA	Glenn Abbott	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1980-08-20	Mike Cubbage	TOR	Jackson Todd	Inside-the-park Home Run to LF
1982-05-28	Tom Brunansky	NYY	Ron Guidry	Home Run
1982-07-19	Tom Brunansky	MIL	Jerry Augustine	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1982-09-10	Gary Ward	@KCR	Larry Gura	Home Run
1982-09-30	Kent Hrbek	@TOR	Luis Leal	Home Run
1983-09-25	Tom Brunansky	@KCR	Keith Creel	Inside-the-park Home Run
1984-06-23	Randy Bush	CHW	Tom Seaver	Home Run
1984-06-24	Tim Teufel	CHW	Richard Dotson	WALK-OFF:ENDED GAME:Home Run
1984-09-11	Kent Hrbek	KCR	Charlie Leibrandt	Home Run
1985-07-03	Dave Engle	CLE	Neal Heaton	Inside-the-park Home Run to RF
1986-07-03	Ron Washington	BAL	Mike Boddicker	Inside-the-park Home Run to LF
1986-10-04	Greg Gagne	CHW	Floyd Bannister	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1986-10-04	Greg Gagne	CHW	Floyd Bannister	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1987-05-31 (1)	Gary Gaetti	@DET	Jeff Robinson	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1987-09-24	Greg Gagne	TEX	Charlie Hough	Inside-the-park Home Run to LF
1988-07-08	Steve Lombardozzi	MIL	Bill Wegman	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1988-09-28	Steve Lombardozzi	OAK	Todd Burns	Inside-the-park Home Run to LF
1990-05-26	Gene Larkin	BOS	Mike Boddicker	Inside-the-park Home Run to LF
1991-05-19	Mike Pagliarulo	@DET	Dan Petry	Inside-the-park Home Run to LF
1994-05-17	Shane Mack	NYY	Jimmy Key	Inside-the-park Home Run to RF
1997-04-26	Rich Becker	TEX	Bobby Witt	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1997-05-25	Pat Meares	OAK	Ariel Prieto	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1997-08-08	Roberto Kelly	NYY	Dwight Gooden	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
1999-09-05	Todd Walker	@TBD	Ryan Rupe	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
2000-07-29	Chad Moeller	NYY	Ramiro Mendoza	Inside-the-park Home Run to LF
2001-07-26	Torii Hunter	@OAK	Mark Guthrie	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
2007-07-21	Joe Mauer	LAA	Scot Shields	Inside-the-park Home Run to LF
2014-05-20	Kurt Suzuki	@SDP	Nick Vincent	Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
2016-06-02	Eduardo Nunez	TBR	Matt Moore	Inside-the-park Home Run to RF

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/14/2016.

This Day in Twins History – has it already been 19 years?

Friday the 13th, June 1997. The Twins play their very first interleague game and beat the Houston Astros 8-1 in the infamous Astrodome. Chuck Knoblauch leads off the game with a single for the Twins getting their first hit and Brad Radke goes 8 innings for the win. Who hits the Minnesota Twins first interleague home run? That would be current Twins skipper Paul Molitor. Box score

Classic SI photo’s of the Astrodome

According to ELIAS

Max Kepler‘s first career home run–a 10th-inning three-run blast over the centerfield wall and off the batters-eye at Target Field gave the Twins a dramatic 7-4 win over the Boston Red Sox yesterday afternoon. Among the 138 players in major-league history to hit 300 career home runs, only two had their first one come as a walkoff shot in extra innings: Miguel Cabrera (in his major-league debut) and Alfonso Soriano.

Congratulations Max!

Twins minor league player of the week (again) – Daniel Palka

Chattanooga Lookouts (AA) outfielder Daniel Palka is the Twins minor league Player of the Week for the second time this season. Palka played in seven games for the Lookouts, hitting .320 (8-for-25) with two triples, four home runs, 11 RBI, six walks and eight runs scored. Palka was acquired this off-season from Arizona, in exchange for catcher/outfielder Chris Herrmann. Palka has played in 58 games this season, hitting .273 (60-for-220) with nine doubles, three triples, 15 home runs and 48 RBI.

The write-up for the first time he won the award in 2016 can be seen here.

Twins Minor League Report June 12, 2016

This Day in Twins History – Twins beat WSOX in Milwaukee

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