As the Twins prepare for their 59th season of play in Minnesota we should look back and be thankful for some great seasons these players have given us in the past. I am using B-R Play Index to come up with the ten greatest seasons by Minnesota Twins players over the years and I am once again using WAR as the tool to do this. I think you might be surprised at some of these.
Tag: Doug Corbett
First big league game and first major league win
Appearing in a big league game and stepping on a major league pitching mound for the first time is something you never forget. It makes no difference if you are the starter or if you enter the game in relief, you have reached the goal that has been waiting for you since you first started playing baseball in your backyard as a child.
Many a pitcher has made his major league debut with Minnesota across his chest and some have had good games and others have not been as lucky but only 20 Twins pitchers can lay claim to the fact that they earned the “win” in their first big league game. Bill “Shorty” Pleis was the first Twins pitcher to accomplish this feat and he did so in relief.
It took more than 10 years for the Twins to have a starting pitcher start his major league career and get credited with a “W” and it was none other than Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven and as he has told us many times, the first batter he faced, Lee Maye, did indeed hit a home run off him at RFK Stadium. Bert however; maintained his composure and earned the win with seven innings of five hit ball with seven strikeouts and one walk and the Twins went on to beat the Washington Senators in a 2-1 game.
First big league game and first major league win
| Rk | Player | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | App,Dec | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | UER | Pit | Str | BF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bill Pleis | 1961-04-16 (2) | MIN | BAL | W 6-4 | 9-10, W | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | ||
| 2 | Joe Bonikowski | 1962-04-12 | MIN | KCA | W 9-5 | 4-GF, W | 5.2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 23 | ||
| 3 | Bert Blyleven | 1970-06-05 | MIN | WSA | W 2-1 | GS-7, W | 7.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 27 | ||
| 4 | Hal Haydel | 1970-09-07 (2) | MIN | MIL | W 8-3 | 2-6, W | 5.0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 19 | ||
| 5 | Jim Strickland | 1971-05-19 | MIN | CAL | W 12-6 | 3-5, W | 2.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 8 | ||
| 6 | Tom Johnson | 1974-09-10 | MIN | CHW | W 8-7 | 14-GF(15), W | 2.0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 | ||
| 7 | Pete Redfern | 1976-05-15 (2) | MIN | CAL | W 15-5 | GS-6, W | 5.0 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 21 | ||
| 8 | Paul Thormodsgard | 1977-04-10 (2) | MIN | OAK | W 7-1 | GS-7, W | 6.1 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 28 | ||
| 9 | Jeff Holly | 1977-05-01 | MIN | DET | W 6-5 | 3-GF, W | 7.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 23 | ||
| 10 | Roger Erickson | 1978-04-06 | MIN | SEA | W 5-4 | GS-7, W | 6.1 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 25 | ||
| 11 | Darrell Jackson | 1978-06-16 | MIN | DET | W 5-2 | GS-8, W | 7.1 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 31 | ||
| 12 | Doug Corbett | 1980-04-10 | MIN | OAK | W 9-7 | 8-GF(12), W | 5.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 16 | ||
| 13 | Scott Erickson | 1990-06-25 | MIN | TEX | W 9-1 | GS-6, W | 6.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 94 | 53 | 25 |
| 14 | Todd Ritchie | 1997-04-03 | MIN | DET | W 10-6 | 4-6, W | 3.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 30 | 11 |
| 15 | Eric Milton | 1998-04-05 | MIN | KCR | W 10-1 | GS-6, W | 6.0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 88 | 60 | 26 |
| 16 | Dave Gassner | 2005-04-16 | MIN | CLE | W 6-4 | GS-6, W | 6.0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 72 | 48 | 22 |
| 17 | Anthony Swarzak | 2009-05-23 | MIN | MIL | W 6-2 | GS-7, W | 7.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 98 | 64 | 27 |
| 18 | Kyle Gibson | 2013-06-29 | MIN | KCR | W 6-2 | GS-6, W | 6.0 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 91 | 64 | 26 |
| 19 | Andrew Albers | 2013-08-06 | MIN | KCR | W 7-0 | GS-9, W | 8.1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 109 | 67 | 29 |
| 20 | Felix Jorge | 2017-07-01 (2) | MIN | KCR | W 10-5 | GS-6, W | 5.0 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 85 | 54 | 21 |
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This Day in Twins History – April 27
1961 – The expansion Los Angeles Angels play their first home game bowing to the Twins at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, 4-2. The 74-year old baseball legend Ty Cobb, in his last-ever visit to a ballpark, throws out the first ceremonial pitch. This was the first American League game to ever be played in Los Angeles. Box Score
1965 – Camilo Pascual hits a grand slam home run off pitcher Stan Williams in a 11-1 Twins win over the Indians in Cleveland Stadium. Camilo pitches a complete game two hitter and strikes out five in the process. Pascual is the first and only Twins pitcher to hit a grand slam home run. Pascual had also hit a grand slam home run as a Washington Senator at Yankee Stadium I on August 14, 1960 in a 5-4 win over the New York Yankees. Box Score
1969 – Harmon Killebrew hits his 400th HR and the Twins take over first place in the AL West by beating Chicago 4-3. Box Score
1980 – The Twins score 10 runs in the first inning on their way to a 20-11 thrashing of the Oakland A’s. Minnesota starter Geoff Zahn can’t hold the 10-0 lead, allowing 8 runs in 4 1/3 innings, and Doug Corbett picks up the win in relief. Box Score
1994 – Scott Erickson, who allowed the most hits in the majors the previous season, pitched Minnesota’s first no-hitter in 27 years and the Twins third no-hitter as the Twins beat Milwaukee 6-0 at the Metrodome. Box Score
2010 – In a very unusual game at Comerica Park, the Twins beat the Detroit Tigers 2-0 as Francisco Liriano beats Justin Verlander. What’s unusual about that you ask? It was one of those rare baseball games when neither team scores an earned run. The Twins used two pitchers and the Tigers had four hurlers take the mound. Since 2001 this has occurred to the Twins just three times and two of the three occurrences were against the Detroit Tigers. Box Score
2011 – The Tampa Rays beat the Twins 8-2 in Target Field on a cold blustery night in a game that we attended. The temperature at the start of the game was 40 degrees with a stiff 17 MPH northerly wind blowing in from left field. Shortly after the game began, the snow started falling and flurries lasted the entire game making Target Field look like a giant snow globe. The Twins played Christmas carols as the game went along and a fan that came to the game dressed as jolly old St. Nick danced in the stands. It was a weird day at the old ballpark to be sure. I even over-heard some fans saying that the Metrodome wasn’t all that bad……… Box Score . Kind of like today I guess.
Don’t forget to check back on the today in Twins history page every day, there is a lot of cool info out there.
Twins pitchers with great ERA’s
The Twins finished with a 66-96 record in 2012 and the teams starting pitching was blamed for the teams poor play. The teams starting pitching had a league worst 5.40 ERA and the starters posted a 39-75 record. As a whole the entire pitching staff posted a 4.77 ERA which is the seventh worst in team history. Previous Twins teams that had higher ERA’s than the 2012 Twins were –
The 1995 team had a 5.76 ERA and finished with a 56-88 mark.
The 1994 team had a 5.68 ERA and finished with a 53-60 mark.
The 1996 team had a 5.28 ERA and finished with a 78-84 mark.
The 2000 team had a 5.14 ERA and finished with a 69-93 mark.
The 1999 team had a 5.00 ERA and finished with a 63-97 mark.
The 1997 team had a 5.00 ERA and finished with a 68-94 mark.
It is easy to forget some of the horrendous pitching staffs that Tom Kelly managed in the mid to late 90’s. But this article is not about how bad the Twins pitching has been over the years but instead is just laying some ground work to highlite some of the Twins best pitching performances over the years based simply on ERA. I know that ERA is not necessarily the best way to determine pitching quality but ERA has been around for a long time and provides us with a measurement tool of sort. The Twins have used many pitchers since the team moved to Minnesota after the 1960 season but I can only find 12 Twins pitchers, barely enough to comprise a pitching staff that have thrown 100 or more innings and posted an ERA of 2.50 or under in a single season. So lets take a look at who these pitchers were and the dominating season that they had.
1. Doug Corbett in his first season in the big leagues in 1980 pitched in 63 games, all in relief and posted a 1.98 ERA in 136.1 innings and had 23 saves to go along with his 8-6 record. Corbett was acquired by the Twins in December 1979 as a Rule 5 draftee from the Cincinnati Reds.
2. Bill Dailey in his first season in Minnesota and third in the big leagues in 1963 pitched in 66 games, all in relief and posted a 1.99 ERA in 108.2 innings and had 21 saves to go along with his 6-3 record.
3. Stan Williams in his 12 big league season and first as a Twin in 1970 pitched in 68 games, all in relief and posted a 1.99 ERA in 113.1 innings and had 15 saves to go along with his 10-1 record.
4. Jim Kaat was in his 12th season for the Twins and in 1972 had started 15 games before getting hurt in early July and sitting out the rest of the season. In this 15 games he pitched 113.1 innings and posted a 2.06 ERA to go along with his 10-2 record.
5. Ron Perranoski in his second season in Minnesota in 1969 appeared in 75 games, all in relief and posted a 2.11 ERA in 119.2 innings and had a league leading 31 saves to go along with his 9-10 record.
6. Francisco Liriano in his first full season as a Twin in 2006 appeared in 28 games starting 16 of them and posted a 2.16 ERA in 121 innings. Liriano put up a 12-3 record to go along with his first big league save.
7. Jim Perry in his 10th big league season and his 6th in Minnesota in 1968 appeared in 32 games starting 18 of them and posted a 2.27 ERA in 139 innings while notching 1 save to go along with his 8-6 record. Perry went on to win 20 games in 1969 and a league leading 24 wins in 1970 when he won the Cy Young award.
8. Ron Perranoski is the only pitcher to make this list twice. In 1970 Perranoski had a 2.43 ERA when appeared in 67 games throwing 111 innings and once again led the league in saves with 34 to go with his 7-8 won/lost record.
9. Allan Anderson had a breakout season in 1988 when he started 30 games throwing 202.1 innings and putting up a league leading 2.45 ERA to go along with his 16-9 record.
10. Camilo Pascual was in his 10th season with the Senators/Twins in 1963 when he started 31 games throwing 248.1 innings with a league leading 18 complete games and posted a nifty 2.46 ERA that went well with his 21-9 record.
11. Dave Goltz made the list in 1978 which was his 7th big league season with Minnesota when he had a 2.49 ERA when he started 29 games and pitched 220.1 innings going 15-10 and that was a season after he had won 20 games.
12. Tom Burgmeier was in his 9th big league season and third with the Twins in 1976 when he appeared in relief in 57 games when he pitched 115.1 innings posting a 2.50 ERA to go along with his 8-1 record.
So what kind of ERA did the Twins World Series teams have? The 1965 Twins pitching staff had a 3.14 ERA, the 1991 Twins put up a 3.69 ERA and the 1987 world champs had a 4.63 ERA.