Michael Cuddyer homered and singled off Mark Buehrle in the Twins 1-0 win over the White Sox yesterday. Cuddyer has 33 hits in 96 career at-bats against Buehrle. That ties Cuddyer with Johnny Damon (33-for-97 vs. Roy Halladay) and Todd Helton (33-for-71 vs. Livan Hernandez) for the most hits by any current major-league batter against any current major-league pitcher. It was the second time in Cuddyer’s career that he homered in a 1-0 game. (He also did that on Aug. 19, 2007 vs. Texas.) In franchise history, only two other players have done that more than once: Harmon Killebrew (three times) and Steve Braun (twice). Source: Elias
Twins 2011 Draft Results
The Twins drafted 52 players in the 2011 First Year player draft. Picking 30th, the Twins selected Levi Michael a switch-hitting shortstop from North Carolina with their first pick. Here is how the rest of their draft selections breakdown.
| Position | College | High school | Bats right | Bats left | switch hitter | LHP | RHP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | n/a | n/a |
| 1B | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | n/a | n/a |
| 2B | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | n/a | n/a |
| SS | 5 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 1 | n/a | n/a |
| 3B | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | n/a | n/a |
| OF | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | n/a | n/a |
| P | 23 | 12 | n/a | n/a | n/a | 17 | 18 |
| TOTALS | 34 | 18 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 17 | 18 |
Twins minor league player and pitcher of the month
Ft. Myers (Single-A, Florida St. League) infielder Brian Dozier is the Twins Minor League Player of the Month for the month of May. In 27 games for the Miracle, the 24-year-old Dozier batted .337 (33-for-98) with seven doubles, three triples, 11 RBI and 14 walks while scoring 14 times. Dozier had an on-base percentage of .426 while posting an OPS of .895. Dozier was the Twins eighth round pick in the 2009 First-Year Player Draft.
New Britain (Double-A, Eastern League) right-handed pitcher Steven Hirschfeld is the Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Month for May. In five starts with the Rock Cats, he was 2-2 with a 2.93 ERA (30.2 IP, 10 ER). Hirschfel struck out 23 while walking just eight and holding opponents to a .196 batting average. Hirschfeld, 25, was drafted by the Twins in the ninth round of the 2007 First Year Player Draft out of San Diego St. University. Source: Twins Presspass
Minor league player of the week is Aaron Bates
Rochester first baseman Aaron Bates is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week for May 28-June 3. Bates hit .545 (12-for-22) with four runs scored in six games for the Red Wings. Bates, 27, was selected by the Red Sox in the 3rd round of the 2006 First-Year Player Draft out of North Carolina State and signed with the Twins as Minor League free agent on May 8. Bates has appeared in 23 games with the Red Wings this season and in 98 at bats Bates is hitting .349 with three home runs and nine RBI’s. Aaron had a cup of coffee with the Red Sox in 2009 getting four hits in 11 at bats.
Twins loss count is rising to historic levels
The 2011 Minnesota Twins‘ record fell to 17-35 and 8-18 in the month of May in a 6-5 loss at Detroit. With one more game to play this month, Minnesota will record the second-highest loss total at the end of May in franchise history, including 60 seasons as the Washington Senators. The Twins had a 12-39 mark at the end of May in 1982. Source: Elias
Liriano goes on DL and Slama is called up
The Twins placed left-hander Francisco Liriano on the disabled list, retroactive to May 23 with left shoulder inflammation after today’s 6-5 loss to the Tigers. The Twins called up right-hander Anthony Slama to replace Liriano on the roster and to pitch out of the bullpen. Anthony Swarzak will start in place of Francisco Liriano on Thursday against the Royals. Slama was drafted by the Twins in the 39th round of the 2006 amateur draft.
Slama was with the Twins briefly in 2010 and appeared in 5 games, had an 0-1 record and pitched just 4.2 innings giving up 4 earned runs with 5 strikeouts and 5 walks. This season, Slama has a 2-1 record in 16 games and 24.1 innings in Rochester, all in relief. Anthony has a 3.70 ERA and has struck out 24 and walked 11 batters.
Where is the home field advantage?
The Twins are 17 and 33 on the season and are 10-13 at home and 11-19 on the road. The overall Minnesota Twins ERA is 4.76 and is the worst of all 30 teams in major league baseball. The Twins ERA in 2010 was 3.99 and 11th overall. Target Field, is supposed to be a pitcher’s park, so I have this question for you. Why is the Twins ERA this season at home at Target Field at 5.25 and on the road the ERA is 4.41? How do you explain that? The Twins WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched) of 1.424 is the 27th worst in all of baseball, at home it is 1.449 and on the road it is 1.407, why? The Twins have allowed 5.16 runs per game and are again dead last in baseball and almost 1 run per game worse than in 2010 when they were 4.17. So again I have to ask, why do the Twins allow 5.75 runs per game at home and only 4.77 on the road? I guess if I could answer these questions I would be more than just a Twins blogger. Maybe it is a curse that someone put on the Twins after they had the trees removed from center field?
Minor League player of the week is Bruce Pugh
Ft. Myers (Single-A, Florida State League) right-handed pitcher Bruce Pugh is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week for May 21-27. Pugh pitched in two games and recorded two saves over 3.0 innings pitched. Pugh, 22, was selected by the Twins in the 19th round of the 2009 First-Year Player Draft out of Hillsborough Community College (FL). Prior to this season, Pugh posted a 3.85 ERA over 70 minor league appearances.
Swarzak throws a gem
Three Twins pitchers – starter Anthony Swarzak (8 innings and 1 hit), Matt Capps, and Alex Burnett – held the Angels to one hit in 10 innings yesterday. Since the American League adopted the designated hitter in 1973, there has been only one other game in the league in which a team had no hits or one hit in a game of more than nine innings. On June 21, 1976, the Rangers’ Bert Blyleven threw a 10-inning one-hitter in a 1-0 Texas win in Oakland. The Athletics’ only hit in that game was a fifth-inning single by Ken McMullen. The Angels have been held to one hit in an extra-inning game once previously, against the Yankees on May 22, 1962. Whitey Ford left with an injury after seven no-hit innings; Buck Rodgers had the Angels’ lone hit in the ninth inning, and the Yankees won it in the 12th inning. Source: Elias
I still can’t believe the Twins blew a 5-0 lead
Even in the era of pitch counts, few complete games and relievers used in particular roles; you don’t see many like this. Twins starter Scott Baker threw seven scoreless innings and left with a 5-0 lead, but the Angels scored five in the eighth and one in the ninth against the bullpen and defeated the Twins, 6-5. Baker became the first major-league starter in 13 years to fashion a scoreless outing of at least seven innings and leave with a lead of at least five runs, only to see his team lose. The last pitcher to be so unlucky was the Yankees’ Hideki Irabu, in a game against the Rangers on May 14, 1998; as did Baker on Friday night; Irabu turned a 5-0 lead over to the bullpen at the start of the eighth and watched his relievers implode, as Texas won, 7-5, in 13 innings. (And, yes, Mariano Rivera himself was one of the culprits: he allowed the tying run in the ninth inning.) Now here’s the moral of the story: the Yankees went on to finish the season with a record of 114 wins and 48 losses, and swept the World Series.
It’s also our unhappy duty to report that as badly as things have gone for the Twins this season, Friday night’s game set a new low. It was the only the second time since the team came to Minnesota in 1961 – and the first time in nearly 40 years – that the Twins have lost a game in which they led by five-or-more runs going into the eighth inning. Since their only previous such loss – to the Yankees on July 30, 1971 – the Twins had gone 755-0 in games in which they took a lead of five-or-more runs into the eighth inning! That was the longest winning streak in major league history in games of that type. Source: Elias