TWINS TRIVIA is hopefully a fun and informative site that will help you to better enjoy the Minnesota Twins and their wonderful history. “History never looks like history when you are living through it” – John Gardner, former Secretary of Health
The following players made their major league debut’s as Minnesota Twins on May 26.
Jason Miller (P) – May 26, 2007 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 4th round of the 2000 MLB June Amateur Draft
Brad Thomas (P) – May 26, 2001 – Signed as a Free Agent with the Minnesota Twins on May 12, 1997. Big league debut not exactly a smooth one for Brad as a starter, Johan Santana came in to relieve him.
April 21, 1961 – The Minnesota Twins played their inaugural home game at Metropolitan stadium but came away with a loss against Joe McClain and the Washington Senators. The Senators score 2 in the top of the ninth off reliever Ray Moore and pin a 5-3 defeat on the Twins. 24,606 fans attended the Twins first home game and team ownership was disappointed that the game was not a sell-out with about 6,000 seats sitting empty. Temperature at game time was 63 degrees. There were no line-up cards available so Twins manager Cookie Lavagetto and Senators manager Mickey Vernon had to scribble their line-ups on pieces of scrap paper.
April 21, 1967 – Tony Oliva of Minnesota lost a home run due to a base running blunder. Playing in Detroit in the third inning, Cesar Tovar was the runner at first base. Oliva hit the ball out of the park off Denny McLain, but then passed Tovar between first and second. He was credited with a single and one RBI for scoring Tovar. In the ninth inning Oliva hit another home run and this one counted.
April 21, 1985 – The Twins had won the first two games of the 1985 season under manager Billy Gardner but then proceeded to lose nine in a row before John Butcher took the mound for the Twins against the Oakland A’s at Oakland-Alameda County Stadium on this day and shut out the A’s on just 3 hits facing only 28 batters and threw just 81 pitches. The game lasted just 1 hour and 55 minutes and Kirby Puckett went 3 for 5 and knocked in both runs.
April 21, 1994 – Eddie Murray set a major league record with his 11th switch-hit home run (home run from each side of the plate) game as the Cleveland Indians beat the Minnesota Twins 10-6 at the Metrodome.
April 21, 2004 – The Twins sell pitcher Brad Thomas to the Boston Red Sox.
April 21, 2007 – The Twins had started the 2007 season with 19 consecutive stolen bases before Torii Hunter gets caught in the 8th inning of their 17th game of the season. However; the Twins beat the Royals at Kauffman Stadium 7-5 and Joe Nathan performs a rarity during his 6th save of the season when he retires the Royals 1-2-3 in the ninth getting Esteban German, Tony Pena, and David DeJesus all looking at 3rd strikes. Getting the side out 1-2-3 for a save, all on called third strikes is rare feat and was last done in 2003 by Jose Valverde.
April 21, 2012 – With his leadoff single in the ninth inning, Josh Willingham extended his season-opening hitting streak to 15 games. He improved upon the record he set Friday night, the longest hitting streak by a player to start his Twins career. And he tied Kirby Puckett’s 1994 Twins record for the longest season-opening hitting streak. His streaks ended as he went hitless on April 22nd.
After yet another failed start yesterday the Twins sent Liam Hendriks back to Rochester and called up Cole DeVries to take his place in the starting rotation. The Twins staked Hendriks to a 6-1 lead in Detroit yesterday but he couldn’t hold the lead and manager Gardenhire was forced to pull Hendriks in the bottom of the fifth after he gave up a single, a walk, a double and a walk without retiring a batter.
Hendriks started four games in 2011 as a 22 year-old and eight games so far in 2012 and he is winless with a career mark of 0-7 and having given up 86 hits in 61.2 innings with a 6.71 ERA and a 1.65 WHIP. Hendriks has pitched well in AAA Rochester but he can’t seem to transfer that success to the big leagues.
No pitcher in team franchise history has started 12 games and not put up a “W” going back to 1901. Here are the pitchers that have had 5 or more career starts in a Twins uniform and have not been credited with a victory.
1. RHP Liam Hendriks signed as an amateur free agent in 2007 has pitched in 12 games, all starts for Minnesota in 2011 and 2012 and his record stands at 0-7.
2. RHP Terry Felton a Twins 2nd round pick in 1976 pitched for the Twins from 1979-1982 and appeared in 55 games with 10 starts and finished his big league career with a 0-16 record and 3 saves. Felton had a career ERA of 5.53 and a 1.52 WHIP. Felton never pitched in the big leagues again.
3. LHP Bryan Oelkers was the Twins first round pick (4th over all) in 1982 and he pitched in 10 games, starting 8 for the Twins in 1983 and he put up an 0-5 record to go with his 8.65 ERA and his 2.13 WHIP. Oelkers was eventually traded to Cleveland where he won 3 games.
4. RHP Greg W. Harris was signed by the Twins as a free agent in April of 1995 after 7 big league seasons in San Diego and Colorado and he pitched in 7 games for Minnesota with 6 starts. The Twins released him in August after Harris went 0-5 with a 8.82 ERA and a 2.02 WHIP. Harris never pitched in the big leagues again.
5. RHP Shane Bowers was the Twins 21st round pick in 1993 and he pitched in Minnesota in 1997 starting all 5 games that he pitched in and posting an 0-3 record with a 8.05 ERA and a 1.84 WHIP. Bowers never threw another inning in the big leagues.
6. LHP Brad Thomas was signed by the Twins as a free agent in 1997 after being released by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Thomas pitched for the Twins in 2001 and 2003-2004 pitching in 11 games, starting 5 and posting an 0-3 record with a 9.89 ERA and a 2.16 WHIP. Thomas went on to pitch for the Tigers in 2010-2011 and went 6-3 there.