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
What is dWAR? Defensive WAR (dWAR): this takes only the player’s defensive contributions and positional adjustment into account in a WAR calculation. dWAR was created by Baseball-Reference. I am using this tool to look at Minnesota Twins players from 1961 thru 2023 to see what it determines as the best defensive Twins players by position for their entire Twins career. A player has to have played at least 51% of his games at that position to qualify. According to dWAR, Greg Gagne is the best defensive player the Twins have ever had.
Minnesota Twins Greg Gagne (7) in action, 6/16/1991 CREDIT: Chuck Solomon (Photo by Chuck Solomon /Getty Images
Over the years the Minnesota Twins have hit 8,591 home runs since they started play in 1961 through the 2021 season. Let’s take a look at some milestone home runs, who hit them and where did they hit them. You might want to take note that the Minnesota Twins won 10 of these 12 games.
#1 was hit by Bob Allison on 4-11-61 at Yankee Stadium off Whitey Ford in a Twins 6-0 win in the first game they ever played.
#100 was hit by Bob Allison on 7-19-61 at Wrigley Field off the Angels Ron Kline in a 6-0 Twins win in game one of a DH.
Between 1961-2018 there have been 70 players that have played at least 10 games in left field for our Minnesota Twins. However, to qualify for this list which ranks them in Baseball-Reference WAR order the player must have played left field in at least 51% of their games while wearing a Twins uniform. This eliminates players like Harmon Killebrew, Bob Allison,Tony Oliva, Gary Gaetti, Torii Hunter and Cesar Tovar who played left field at different points in their careers. Dan Gladden is the Twins all-time leader in games played in left field.
September 3 was a busy day for big league debuts in a Minnesota Twins uniform.
Sep 3, 2014; Twins relief pitcher A.J. Achter (58) delivers a pitch in the ninth inning against the Chicago White Sox at Target Field. The Twins won 11-4. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
A.J. Achter (P) – September 3, 2014 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 46th round of the 2010 MLB June Amateur Draft. Closed out a Twins 11-4 win over the White Sox at Target Field with a perfect 9th inning on 10 pitches.
Matt Fox (P) – September 3, 2010 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (35th pick) of the 2004 amateur draft. Fox debuted at Target Field in a start against the Texas Rangers going 5.2 innings (90 pitches) and allowing 2 runs on 4 hits and a walk but got a ND for his efforts. It was his one and only game for the Twins and one of only 4 big league games he would appear in.
The only player in Twins history to make his major league debut on this day as a Twins player was…
Dan Graham (C/3B) – June 8, 1979 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 5th round of the 1975 amateur draft. Was first drafted by the San Francisco Giants in 1973, and by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1974 before being drafted by the Twins in 1975. Appeared in just 2 games with Minnesota before being traded to Baltimore.
The 1982 Minnesota Twins 60-102 season has been on the books for a long time as the Twins team with the most losses but that does not necessarily make them the worst team in Twins history. The Twins 2016 team is almost a cinch to break the record of 102 losses in a single season but like the 1982 team that does not mean they are the worst Twins team ever. Both teams had some very good players but in both cases their pitching staff was substandard or young and the position players were just starting to come into their own as major league players. The average age of the 1982 team was just barely over 25 years of age, the 2016 team by comparison has the youngest average position players in the league at 27 but the pitching staff is middle of the pack with and average age of just over 28.
Tonight the Twins are in Kansas City to play the Royals and they have a chance to lose game number 102 but the Twins will send their best pitcher (Ervin Santana) to the mound so they can put off the inevitable for another day.
The Twins loss number 102 back in ’82 took place on the final day of the season, Sunday, October 3 with White Sox starter LaMarr Hoyt facing off against Twins starter Brad Havens. The Chicago White Sox were in third place and the Twins occupied the cellar of the AL West a full 32 games out of first. Only 5,085 Twins fans paid t0 enter the Metrodome that day to watch this meaningless game but how many were actually there is probably another story.
The game was scoreless until the top of the fourth inning when the Tony La Russa led mighty whities put three runs on the board against the lefty Brad Havens on a home run by Tom Paciorek and a single by Marc Hill that scored two more. Havens day ended in the top of the sixth after he gave up a walk, a double and a ground out that scored the fourth run for the Sox. Twins manager Billy Gardner had seen enough and brought in reliever Paul Boris who got of the inning but allowed another run to score on a ground out and going into the bottom of the sixth inning the home town Twins were down 5 to zip. The Twins finally got on the board in the bottom of the sixth inning when Gary Ward had an infield single that scored Bobby Mitchell who had singled to lead off the inning. The White Sox added a run in the top of the eighth inning when Twins killer Harold Baines took Paul Boris deep to lead off the inning. Hoyt who would go on to pitch a complete game and win his league leading 19th game retired the first two Twins in the ninth before Greg Wells tripled bringing DH Randy Bush to the plate but he grounded out to the second baseman and Brad Havens and the Twins took the defeat. The game lasted all of 2 hours and 5 minutes and it was “wait until next year” for the Twins and their fans.
LaMarr Hoyt
The bearded LaMarr Hoyt was an interesting player to be sure, the following season he went on to win a league leading 24 games and take home the 1983 Cy Young award. In 1985 he found himself in San Diego where he was named the NL starting pitcher in the 1985 All-Star game at the Metrodome that the NL won by a 6-1 score and Hoyt was credited with the victory by allowing no earned run in 3 innings. By 1987 the 32-year old Hoyt was out of professional baseball due to problems with drugs. More info on Hoyt.
Rusty Kuntz who was the White Sox center fielder that day went on to play for the Twins in 1983 and tonight you will find him in Kansas City coaching for the Royals, I wonder if he remembers this day from back in 1982?
By the way, September 28 has been a very interesting day in Minnesota Twins history so please don’t forget to check it out on our This Day in Twins History page before you leave.
From the time the Twins started play in 1961 through yesterday June 14 (2016) the Minnesota Twins have hit 7,462 home runs, 3,746 have been hit on the road and 3,716 have been hit at home. The Twins hit 1,872 home runs at the Metrodome, 1,424 at Met Stadium and 420 at Target Field. The most home runs the Twins have hit on the road have been at the Angels home park where they have hit 257.
Of the Twins 7,462 round-trippers only 50 of them have been inside-the-park home runs. Inside-the-park home runs are relatively rare so I am a bit surprised that when Eduardo Nunez hit the latest one back on June 2 that no one mentioned that it was number 50 in Minnesota Twins history. How rare are they? Only .0067% of Twins home runs are of the inside-the-park variety. So what Twins have hit IPHR’s? We have put together a complete list here for you with the help of Baseball-Reference.
Twins inside-the-park home runs from 1961-June 2, 2016
With two more GIDP’s (ground in to double play) on his resume after last night’s loss to Kansas City, Twins third baseman Trevor Plouffe has the franchise record of 28 GIDP by Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew in 1970 well in his sights. Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett had 27 GIDP in 1991. With his pace of a GIDP once every five games, Plouffe should be able to set a new mark easily. Actually this list of Twins GIDP leaders has some pretty good hitters on it so Plouffe shouldn’t feel too bad. It is kind of an odd year for Plouffe from a GIDP perspective as he has 26 so far this season and in his five previous seasons combined be had only 38.
UPDATE: By hitting into his 28th double play on October 1 against the Royals in his home park, Plouffe tied the Twins record which was held by Harmon Killebrew for 28 double plays in a season. Plouffe was the league leader in hitting into double plays in 2015.
Twins rookie Eddie Rosario hit a double, a triple and a home run in Minnesota’s win over the Mariners on Thursday, six days after he recorded three doubles in a game against the Yankees. Rosario is the first Minnesota Twins rookie ever to have two games with at least three extra-base hits in one season. The only other rookie in the major leagues with two such games this season is the Cardinals’ Randal Grichuk. Source – ELIAS
Rosario went 3-5 last night, scored three times and knocked in three runs. Eddie Rosario fell a single short of becoming the 11th Twin and second Twins rookie to ever hit for the cycle (Gary Ward – 1980).
Walker dominates Twins
Taijuan Walker
Taijuan Walker, who will turn 23 years old on August 13, threw a one-hit complete game and struck out 11 batters against the Twins on Friday. Since 1969, only four other pitchers have thrown a complete-game allowing no more than one hit with double-digit strikeouts before turning 23 years old: Dennis Eckersley in his no-hitter in 1977, Dwight Gooden in 1984, Kerry Wood in his 20-strikeout game in 1998, and Shelby Miller in 2013.
4/23/1961 – The Twins play their first 1-0 game in history and come up winners at Met Stadium when Jack Kralick pitches a complete game 4 hit shutout of the Washington Senators. Kralick also knocks in the Twins lone run of the game with a fifth inning single. Box score
4/23/1980 – Angels pitcher Bruce Kison settles for a one-hitter when Minnesota’s Ken Landreaux rips a double with one out in the 9th inning of California’s 17-0 romp. For Landreaux, the hit marks the beginning of a 31-game hitting streak. Box score
4/23/1982 – The Twins beat the Seattle Mariners 12-4 at the Kingdome. Twins pitcher Roger Erickson recovers after a rough first inning where he gives up 3 runs on 5 hits and proceeds to pitch a complete game. Erickson strikes out no one and gives up 13 hits and walks two more in this unusual game. It marks the only time that Erickson pitched a complete game with no strikeouts. Twins hitters were no slouches themselves as they had 18 hits and drew 6 walks. Ron Washington had 4 hits and Bobby Mitchell and Gary Ward had 3 hits apiece.
Roger Erickson
Box score . See the table below showing all Twins pitchers that have pitched a complete game with zero strikeouts.
4/23/2011 – The Twins beat the visiting Cleveland Indians 10-3 at Target Field and in the process score more than 5 runs in a game for the first time in 2011. The Twins have not scored more than five runs in any game this season (19 games), according to the Elias Sports Bureau, it is the longest such streak to start a season in Twins history, and the longest streak in franchise history (the 1909 Washington Senators failed to score more than five runs in their first 18 games).The Twins were the only team in Major League Baseball that hasn’t scored six-or-more runs in a game in 2011. Box score
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Twins pitchers that have pitched a complete game with zero KO’s
