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
After the White Sox took the first two games from the Minnesota Twins, 31, 141 fans packed White Sox Park to see the home town nine take two more from the visiting Twins. But, it was not to be, after spotting the Whitey’s a one run lead the Twins tied it in the fourth inning and then scored 2 in the 5th, 6th, and 8th innings and held on for a 7-4 win in game one. Jim Kaat hit his first home run of the season. Zoilo Versalles had 3 hits and Rich Rollins, Bob Allison and Jim Kaat each had 2 hits. Jim Kaat took home the win and Ron Kline registered the save. Box Score
In game two the Twins were out hit 8 to 6 but managed to out score the White Sox 5 to 1 and a double-header sweep was in the books. Dave Boswell was credited with the victory to even his record at 8-8 and Al Worthington notched his 12th save of the season. When the day was done the Twins still found themselves in third place but now only 2.5 games behind the league leading WSox but only a half game behind the Tigers at the All-Star break. Box Score
Pitcher Dean Chance along with Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva and Rod Carew (who missed the week-end series due to military obligations) left for the All-Star game in Anaheim after the DH was complete and were accompanied by manager Cal Ermer and owner Calvin Griffith.
The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.
The Twins eight game winning streak came to an abrupt end at White Sox Park when the Mighty Whities walked off the Twins 2-1. The Twins scored one run in the first inning when Cesar Tovar led off the game with a double and Tony Oliva doubled him home with two out. These would be the only hits the Twins would get. Starters Gary Peters and the Twins Dean Chance dueled and after 8 innings it was still one to nothing Twins. But here the game seemed to take a turn in favor of the White Sox.
In the 8th inning Sox coach Kerby Farrell seemed to notice “a black substance on Dean Chance’s pitching hand” and Eddie Stanky complained to umpire Al Salerno who told Chance to wipe his hands clean. Chance stated that it was just resin build-up but all of a sudden Chance seemed to lose his control. After walking none through 7 innings Chance walked one in the 8th and 2 in the ninth before being lifted for reliever Al Worthington who inherited a bases-loaded one out situation. Worthington retired Don Buford on a foul pop-up to third but then Ron Hansen hit a ground ball to the left of second base but shortstop Zoilo Versalles was playing deep in the hole and the ball bounced off of Versalles glove and bounced into right field allowing two runs to score. Box Score.
The Twins jumped on the Yankees scoring in each of the first five innings and held on for a 10-4 win over the Bronx Bombers. Jim Kaat pitched a complete game allowing 12 hits while striking out 6 and allowing the 4 runs. Rich Reese, Tony Oliva, and Ted Uhlaender supported Kaat with home runs. Reese (4) and Uhlaender (3) had 7 of the 10 RBI between them.
The eighth win in a row puts the Twins in lone possession of second place in the AL just 3 games back as they prepare to hit the road to play the league leading Chicago White Sox.
The rest of the stories that I have done on the 1967 AL pennant race can be found here.
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.
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
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.
Ervin Santana allowed one hit in his complete-game 6–0 home win over the White Sox. April 15 is the second-earliest calendar date on which a pitcher has thrown a complete-game no-hitter or one-hitter for the Twins franchise. Santana threw 107 pitches. Walter Johnson allowed one hit in a 3–0, season-opening win for the Washington Senators over the Philadelphia Athletics on April 14, 1910. Before that game, William Howard Taft started the tradition of the president throwing out the first pitch of the season (to Johnson, on that day.)
Ervin Santana has been lights out for the Twins to start the season. Santana allowed two hits over six scoreless innings in his win over the White Sox on Sunday, six days after allowing two hits and one run over seven innings in his Opening Day win over the Royals. Santana is the first pitcher in Twins/Senators history to win his first two starts of the season while allowing no more than two hits in either game. The last pitcher on any team to start his season in such a way was Jake Odorizzi, who allowed two hits in each of his first two starts – both wins – for the 2015 Rays. Odorizzi had just one game of that kind in his final 26 starts for Tampa Bay that year.
Like most baseball fans I can’t wait for the 2017 MLB season to begin. I have been excited for every baseball season to start for over 60 years now so that tells you that I am no rookie fan, you might compare me to the old veteran player that is looking to hang on for another season.
Spring brings hope as the weather warms, spring rains fall, the grass turns green, the leaves start to form on the trees and somewhere off in the distance you hear that yell that your ears have yearned for during the cold winter months, PLAY BALL!!
The home town Minnesota Twins ended spring training on Friday and flew to Minnesota after their final exhibition game which ended in a 3-3 tie against their AAA Rochester team. Spring training wins mean very little, in 2016 the Cubs finished their exhibition schedule with a 11-19 record and won the World Series. The 2016 Twins finished with a 19-11 record and when they looked at the standings when the season ended they saw a “59” in their W column. The 2017 Twins were 16-13 in this springs meaningless games.
This is the first season for the new Derek Falvey and Thad Levine regime and the third season as the Twins manager for Paul Molitor. Much has been said and written about Falvey and his approach to running a team and how appreciated he was in Cleveland. The consensus is that Falvey has taken over a tired old organization that time has passed by and a complete house-cleaning was in order. But Falvey and Levine have not done that, they have actually made very few moves both on the field and in the front office. I think that tells us something.
To me it sends a very clear message, the Minnesota Twins organization coming off a disastrous season in which they lost 103 games is not the pile of s*%# that everyone says it was and that the team has a bright future and all they need to do is fine tune it a bit and stay out of way to make sure they don’t screw it up. Falvey didn’t leave the Indians and Levine the Rangers to end up in some dead-end team with no hope, they came to Minnesota because they see what this team can and will be in the next few years. Believe me, the Twins organization is far from perfect and there will not be any playoff games played in Target Field in 2017 but this years team will not be the sad sack Twins of 2016.
The major weakness the Twins have is their relief pitching and Falvey and Levine did nothing to speak of to address that problem, that will come back to haunt the team this season. Can the starters be worse this year than last? I think not so I am expecting much more from that group in 2017. The young position players are just getting to the stage of realizing that they can play and compete at the big league level and they will be both fun and at times frustrating to watch. The Twins motto for this season should be “Grin and bear it cause good things are a-comin”.
My 2017 American League Central Division prediction
Here is how it is going to look after the 2017 season ends.
The 2017 American League pennant winners will be the Cleveland Indians and the National League pennant winning Washington Nationals will play in the 2017 World Series with the Indians winning in 6 exciting games. Enjoy the season.
Fifty years ago the Boston Red Sox won the American League pennant in 1967 in what many think is one of the most if not thee most exciting AL pennant races ever. The Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins finished one game back and the Chicago White Sox finished 3 games behind the Red Sox. My plan is to do some postings as the year goes along about the 1967 AL pennant race. I found an article in the April 17, 1967 Sports Illustrated called “RISING DYNASTY FOR THE BIRDS?” that does a recap on each AL team and predicts their chances for the 1967 season. Kind of a fun read. The Boston Red Sox of course played the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series and lost 4 games to 3.
Carl Yastrzemski won the triple crown in 1967 although he and Twins 1B Harmon Killebrew each had 44 home runs that year. Even though you know how the story ends, it will still be fun reliving it.
