Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins – Meyer, Polanco and Robertson

Today, June 26 we have three players making their debut as Minnesota Twins, all from this century.

 

Alex Meyer

Alex Meyer (P) – June 26, 2015 – Traded by the Washington Nationals to the Minnesota Twins for Denard Span on November 29, 2012 . No other way to say it other than it was a disastrous start to his major league career. Meyer gave up a home run to the first batter and it was kind of down hill from there. Meyer didn’t retire a batter until the seventh hitter and then was pulled after facing the number 9 hitter with but one out on the board. 5 earned runs, 6 total runs on 6 hits.

 

Jorge Polanco

Jorge Polanco (SS) – June 26, 2014 – Signed by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent in July 2009. Polanco drew a walk and later scored in his first plate appearance in which he entered the game as a pinch hitter.

 

Tyler Robertson

Tyler Robertson (P) – June 26, 2012 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 3rd round of the 2006 MLB June Amateur Draft. Now this is a stunning big league debut, Robertson entered the Twins vs White Sox game in the top of the 8th inning at Target Field with Twins trailing 3-0 and struck out the side.

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According to ELIAS – Ervin Santana’s 7th “New Millennium Shutout”

Ervin Santana’s 7th “New Millennium Shutout”

Ervin Santana

It’s 2017 and we’re realists. Although we love a complete-game shutout as much as the next fan, we don’t expect to see them very often these days. But Ervin Santana has pitched three this season, a major-league high, and on Sunday he went six innings in the Twins’ 4–0 win at Cleveland—a “new millennium shutout,” if you will.

In fact, Santana didn’t allow a run in seven of his 13 starts this season. In the live-ball era, only four other pitchers made as many as seven starts without allowing a run by the end of June: Sandy Koufax in 1963, Don Drysdale in 1968 (when he set an MLB record, since broken, with 58 2?3 consecutive scoreless innings), Jeff Locke in 2013, and Adam Wainwright in 2014. The only other pitcher to do so in Senators/Twins history was the Big Train himself, Walter Johnson, with Washington in 1913.

The 1967 AL pennant race – Part 18 – Twins fall back to .500

Twins starter Dave Boswell has everything under control as he faces the White Sox and allows but 2 hits through six innings and the home town Twins lead 1-0 on a Bob Allison home run off Gary Peters. The top of the seventh is another story as the WSox put together a rally and knock Boswell from the game with 5 runs. The Twins score a run in the eighth but come up on the short end of a 5-2 game and fall back to the .500 mark (33-33) for the last time in 1967. Gary Peters is credited with his 10th win (3 losses) of the season.

The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

According to ELIAS – Brian Dozier

Dozier hits 8th-inning HR off Cody Allen, extends streak at Progressive

 

Brian Dozier

Brian Dozier’s eighth-inning solo homer off Cody Allen put the Twins on top to stay in their 4-2 win in Cleveland. Entering Saturday, the Twins had only two go-ahead home runs in the seventh inning-or-later this season, which had been the lowest total in the majors. One of the prior late go-ahead home runs was hit by Dozier, off the Rays’ Tommy Hunter in the eighth inning on May 27; the other was a ninth-inning walk-off homer by Joe Mauer off Boston’s Matt Barnes on May 5.

Dozier entered his eighth-inning at-bat 0-for-3, but his game-winning home run extended his hitting streak at Progressive Field to 12 games, since August 1, 2016, over the course of which he is hitting .347 with six home runs. The streak is tied with teammate Joe Mauer for the longest current hitting streak at Progressive Field; Mauer went 2-for-2 and is hitting .469 over his 12-game streak there.

Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins – Serafini, Erickson, Torve and Thompson

We have four big league debuts as Minnesota Twins on June 25.

Dan Serafini

Dan Serafini (P) – June 25, 1996 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (26th pick) of the 1992 amateur draft. Started against the Yankees in the second game of a DH at the Dome but after 5 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks he found himself headed for the showers after 4.1 innings.

 

Scott Erickson

Scott Erickson (P) – June 25, 1990 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 4th round of the 1989 amateur draft. First time on a big league mound was at the Dome in a start against the Rangers. Erickson pitched 6 innings and allowed one run on four hits and two walks and earned his first big league victory. Everybody loved Scottie, especially the ladies.

Kelvin Torve (1B) – June 25, 1988 – Signed as a Free Agent with the Minnesota Twins on January 18, 1988. Pinch-hit in his first appearance in a big league, unfortunately it was against Oakland and Dennis Eckersley and he went down swinging.

 

Danny Thompson

Danny Thompson (SS/3B/2B) – June 25, 1970 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (18th pick) of the 1968 amateur draft (June Secondary). Thompson took and 0 for 4 with a strike out in his big league debut at County Stadium against the Milwaukee Brewers.

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The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 17 – Twins open 13 game home stand against division leading WSox

Joel Horlen

The 32-32 Minnesota Twins who are 7 games out of first open a 13 game home stand against the first place Chicago White Sox on Friday, June 23. A crowd of 30,100 fans, the largest since opening day show up to see the White Sox starter Joel Horlen who is 8-0 duel against the 9-5 Twins ace Dean Chance. As predicted it turns out to be a pitching duel with both teams scoreless through 6 innings, the Twins have 4 hits and the White Sox just 3. 

Chance holds Chicago scoreless in the top of the seventh while the Twins finally put a 1 on the board with a home run by Harmon Killebrew, his 12 of the month and 22 of the season. Chance finishes the shutout for his 10th win and Horlen is lifted for a pinch-hitter after 8 innings and Bobby Locker finishes up. Just one hour and 58 minutes after the game started Dean Chance retires Pete Ward for the 27th out and the game goes in the books as a 1-0 Twins win. The Twins pick up a game in the standings but still find themselves looking up at the Red Sox, Tigers and White Sox. Box Score

Star_Tribune_Sat__Jun_24__1967_

The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

According to ELIAS – Indians are hot

Indians’ offense is clicking

The Indians scored six runs on 13 hits in their victory over the Orioles on Thursday night, their ninth consecutive game with at least five runs and 10 hits. That ties the longest streak of this type for any team over the last nine seasons (since 2009). The Royals did so in nine straight games from May 23 to June 1 in the 2016 season.

Just what the Minnesota Twins need as they head into Cleveland………

Major League debuts as Minnesota Twins – Dan Masteller

Just one major league debut as a Minnesota Twins again today, June 23

Dan Masteller (1B/OF) – June 23, 1995 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 11th round of the 1989 amateur draft. Debuted at Kauffman Stadium as the Twins first baseman but took an 0-3 in a Twins 4-0 loss to the Royals.

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The 1967 AL pennant race – Part 16 – Twins and Tigers play nine and end up in a tie

The Twins had a 5-2 lead after five innings of play at Tiger Stadium but the Tigers scored one in sixth and two in the seventh to tie the game at 5 apiece. The game was finally called a draw in the top of the ninth with Harmon Killebrew at the plate with two strikes and one out after Rod Carew led off the top of the ninth with a single but was caught stealing. The game had four rain delays and was called around midnight CDT. Box Score.

The Star Tribune pages below will tell  you more about the Twins/Tigers game, a brawl in New York between the Yanks and Red Sox and more about the disagreement on the Twins bus between Tony Oliva and Ted Uhlaender that was supposedly instigated by Dave Boswell. At the end of the day the Twins were 32-31 and 6.5 games behind the high-flying Chicago White Sox.

Star_Tribune_Thu__Jun_22__1967_ P49

Star_Tribune_Thu__Jun_22__1967 P51

A nice picture of Tiger Stadium

The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.

 

Major League Debuts as Minnesota Twins – June 22 – Kyle Lohse

We have one player making his major league debut as a Minnesota Twin on June 22

 

Kyle Lohse

Kyle Lohse (P) – June 22, 2001 – Traded by the Chicago Cubs with Jason Ryan to the Minnesota Twins for Rick Aguilera and Scott Downs on May 21, 1999. Lohse’s debut was a start at Comerica Park against the Tigers and he pitched into the 7th inning but after 106 pitches and the scored tied at 4-4, Twins skipper Tom Kelly had seen enough.

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