It is all uphill from here – tough starts by Twins starters

Since the Minnesota Twins started play here in 1961 they have played 9,451 games through August 31, 2020. The Twins obviously needed a starting or in recent times an opening pitcher for each of those games.

Sometimes the starts don’t go exactly as planned as the pitchers on the list included here can attest. If you watched one of these games you were probably saying “get him out of there” but did you know that you were watching something pretty rare? A Minnesota Twins starter getting pulled and sent to the showers before he hardly had a chance to work up a sweat doesn’t happen very often, as a matter of fact it hasn’t happened since 2012 when P.J. Walters was the unlucky victim. Just looking at Twins history, it has happened just 17 times in 9,451 games or in just .0017% of the starts.

If you take a closer look at the list you will see there are some pretty good starters on this list. One of these types of starts doesn’t always guarantee that the team would lose either, in four of the seventeen cases the Twins came back to win the game. In six of the seventeen cases shown here the starter didn’t walk away with the “L”.

Al Schroll
Results
Rk Player Date Opp Rslt App,Dec IP H R ER BB HR UER BF
1 Al Schroll 1961-08-26 BAL L 4-7 GS-1, L 0.0 3 4 3 2 1 1 6
2 Jim Kaat 1962-04-19 CHW L 3-10 GS-1, L 0.0 4 4 2 0 0 2 4
3 Ray Moore 1963-07-05 (1) BAL L 3-4 GS-1, L 0.0 2 4 3 2 0 1 5
4 Jim Roland 1964-08-06 BOS W 6-5 GS-1 0.0 2 4 2 2 1 2 5
5 Tom Hall 1968-08-09 NYY W 4-3 GS-1 0.0 2 3 2 3 0 1 6
6 Dave Boswell 1970-06-28 (2) CHW L 10-11 GS-1 0.0 1 2 2 1 0 0 2
7 Ray Corbin 1974-06-30 (1) CHW L 3-8 GS-1, L 0.0 4 4 4 0 0 0 4
8 Vic Albury 1974-07-19 DET W 7-5 GS-1 0.0 2 3 3 1 1 0 3
9 Ray Corbin 1975-06-30 CAL L 3-10 GS-1, L 0.0 6 6 6 0 1 0 6
10 Pete Redfern 1982-06-26 TOR W 4-3 GS-1 0.0 2 1 1 0 0 0 2
11 Bryan Oelkers 1983-06-21 TOR L 3-8 GS-1, L 0.0 4 4 4 1 1 0 5
12 Ken Schrom 1985-07-20 NYY L 3-8 GS-1, L 0.0 3 4 4 1 1 0 4
13 Frank Viola 1986-05-20 BOS L 7-17 GS-1, L 0.0 5 6 6 1 0 0 6
14 Roy Smith 1989-05-26 TEX L 3-5 GS-1, L 0.0 5 4 4 0 0 0 5
15 Kevin Tapani 1990-07-13 (1) BAL L 5-8 GS-1 0.0 2 2 2 0 0 0 2
16 Frankie Rodriguez 1996-07-30 BAL L 4-16 GS-1, L 0.0 2 5 3 2 0 2 5
17 P.J. Walters 2012-06-13 PHI L 8-9 GS-1, L 0.0 4 4 4 0 0 0 4
Provided by Stathead.com: View Stathead Tool Used
Generated 8/29/2020.

If you want to check out some Twins historically bad starts in terms of runs allowed, I did a piece on that called “Historically bad starts by Twins pitchers” back on 2015 that you can also check out.

Remembering the Twins first season from 1961 – Week 21

I have been working on a very long term project whereas I do a brief recap of Twins games on my “In This Day in Twins History Pages.” So my plan is to give you a brief recap of the Twins first season as it plays out on a weekly basis. For more info on a particular game you can also click on the date and go to the appropriate “In This Day in Twins History Page” as there you will often get to see some player pictures and supporting documentation. We will see how long I can keep up with it, no promises. So let’s see what we have for week twenty-one.

The Minnesota Twins start this week with a 56-74 record and in eighth place but miles behind the league leading New York Yankees. The end is near in more ways than one.

Continue reading Remembering the Twins first season from 1961 – Week 21

Remembering the Twins first season from 1961 – Week 20

I have been working on a very long term project whereas I do a brief recap of Twins games on my “In This Day in Twins History Pages.” So my plan is to give you a brief recap of the Twins first season as it plays out on a weekly basis. For more info on a particular game you can also click on the date and go to the appropriate “In This Day in Twins History Page” as there you will often get to see some player pictures and supporting documentation. We will see how long I can keep up with it, no promises. So let’s see what we have for week twenty.

1961 Twins coin schedule put out by Minnesota Savings and Loan (A good tree to come to for shelter)

The Minnesota Twins begin this week in seventh place with a 54-70 mark and they trail the first place Yankees by 28.5 games as they near the end of August.

Continue reading Remembering the Twins first season from 1961 – Week 20

Former Twin Carroll Hardy passes away at 87

Carroll Hardy with his baseball memorabilia in 1986. Credit Jerry Cleveland/The Denver Post, via Getty Images

Carroll Hardy passed away on August 9, 2020 in Highland Ranch, Colorado from complications of dementia. Hardy was born in Sturgis, South Dakota and after graduating from high school attended the University of Colorado.

Carroll Hardy as Colorado Buffalo

As a Colorado Buffalo Hardy was a star in football, baseball and track. In football he scored a touchdown in his first carry as a freshman in 1951 and scored three touchdowns in his final game in 1954. When his collegiate football career ended he had rushed for 1,999 yards averaging 6.87 yards a carry which is a record that still stands. In baseball his .392 average tops the leaderboard to this day and in track he excelled in the 100-yard dash and high jump. Hardy was an incredible athlete earning 10 letters at Colorado.

Continue reading Former Twin Carroll Hardy passes away at 87

Remembering the Twins first season from 1961 – Week 19

I have been working on a very long term project whereas I do a brief recap of Twins games on my “In This Day in Twins History Pages.” So my plan is to give you a brief recap of the Twins first season as it plays out on a weekly basis. For more info on a particular game you can also click on the date and go to the appropriate “In This Day in Twins History Page” as there you will often get to see some player pictures and supporting documentation. We will see how long I can keep up with it, no promises. So let’s see what we have for week nineteen.

1961-1969 Twins primary logo

Coming off a 4-3 week the eighth place Minnesota Twins begin this week with a 51-68 record and they trail the first place Yankees by 27.5 games in the dog-days of August.

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Remembering the Twins first season from 1961 – Week 18

I have been working on a very long term project whereas I do a brief recap of Twins games on my “In This Day in Twins History Pages.” So my plan is to give you a brief recap of the Twins first season as it plays out on a weekly basis. For more info on a particular game you can also click on the date and go to the appropriate “In This Day in Twins History Page” as there you will often get to see some player pictures and supporting documentation. We will see how long I can keep up with it, no promises. So let’s see what we have for week eighteen.

1961-1969 Twins primary logo

The Minnesota Twins start their week with a 47-65 record and they trail the first place Yankees by 27.5 games in the dog-days of August.

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Remembering the Twins first season from 1961 – Week 17

I have been working on a very long term project whereas I do a brief recap of Twins games on my “In This Day in Twins History Pages.” So my plan is to give you a brief recap of the Twins first season as it plays out on a weekly basis. For more info on a particular game you can also click on the date and go to the appropriate “In This Day in Twins History Page” as there you will often get to see some player pictures and supporting documentation. We will see how long I can keep up with it, no promises. So let’s see what we have for week seventeen.

The 46-57 Twins start the week on a long East coast road-trip tied for seven place with the Washington Senators The Twins have to look up a long ways, 21 games as a matter of fact to spot the league leading New York Yankees who now have a 2.5 game lead on the Detroit Tigers.

Continue reading Remembering the Twins first season from 1961 – Week 17

Remembering the Twins first season from 1961 – Week 16

I have been working on a very long term project whereas I do a brief recap of Twins games on my “In This Day in Twins History Pages.” So my plan is to give you a brief recap of the Twins first season as it plays out on a weekly basis. For more info on a particular game you can also click on the date and go to the appropriate “In This Day in Twins History Page” as there you will often get to see some player pictures and supporting documentation. We will see how long I can keep up with it, no promises. So let’s see what we have for week sixteen.

The Twins start the week in ninth place with a 41-56 record but are now 22.5 games behind the league leading Yankees who are just a 1/2 game up on the Tigers.

Continue reading Remembering the Twins first season from 1961 – Week 16

So we have baseball again

60 seasons of Minnesota Twins baseball

Prior to the New York Yankee vs Washington Nationals game just a few days ago, (July 23) Major League Baseball had not played a game since the 2019 World Series ended, a span of 266 days, the longest baseball drought in major league history. COVID-19 has caused the Minnesota Twins to miss 105 games before they opened the season on July 24 in Chicago against the White Sox in a season like none of us have ever seen before.

The 2020 MLB season will be just 60 games long, a sprint and not a marathon like we are used too watching in a season that usually lasts 162 games. The changes in MLB this season are mind boggling starting with the fact that the games will be played with no fans in the stands. The Toronto Blue Jays can’t play their home games in Toronto. There is no minor league baseball in 2020. Sixteen teams will make the play-offs. Opening day rosters have 30 players, a couple weeks later they drop to 28 and then a couple weeks after that they drop to 26. No traveling announcers, they will work out of the home ballparks, official scorekeepers will do their work from home by watching games on television with some special feed links.

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