Tag: Harmon Killebrew

Twins walk-off wins – 1961-2017

Twins walk-off King
Harmon Killebrew

In the past 57 seasons the Minnesota Twins have walked off their opponents 403 times. Kirby Puckett leads the Minnesota Twins in career walk-off’s wins by delivering the winning run in some manner 11 times, it might have been on a hit, walk, HBP, error or a sacrifice. Second on the list is Harmon Killebrew. I guess that is why these guys are Hall of Fame players.

The Twins have walked off their opponent with a single a total of 196 times. Rod Carew  did it seven times and is the leader in this category and it has been done five times by Alexi Casilla, Harmon Killebrew, Brian Harper, Larry Hisle, Kent Hrbek and Jacque Jones.

The Twins have hit 108 walk-off home runs and Justin Morneau leads the pack here with five and is followed Gary Gaetti, Harmon Killebrew, Kirby Puckett, Tony Oliva and Kent Hrbek with four each. One was an inside the park job by Tim Teufel.

The Twins have walked off their opponents with doubles 35 times and Kirby Puckett did it 3 times, the following players each did it twice, Cristian Guzman, Rich Reese, Tony Oliva, Eduardo Escobar, Shannon Stewart, Glenn Borgmann  and Tom Brunansky.

The Sacrifice Fly has led to 25 Twins walk-off wins with only Zoilo Versalles and Cristian Guzman doing it more than once.

The Twins have walked-off opponents 12 times on an opposing team error.

The Twins have walked-off their opponent 11 times when they drew a bases-loaded walk. 

The Twins have had six walk-off triples and no one has more than one.

The Twins have celebrated a walk-off win six times after a simple ground out.

The Twins have two walk-off wins via getting hit by a pitch (Paul Molitor and Max Kepler).

The first player to deliver a walk-off win was Zoilo Versalles and the most recent to do it is Byron Buxton.

 

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 41 – Twins WIN! Up one game on the Sox

Standings and scores of the baseball wars on September 26, 1967

The Twins beat the Angels 7-3 at the Met as Jim Kaat goes the distance for win number 16 and Harmon Killebrew hits two home runs and Bob Allison one.

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The Tigers beat the Yankees 1-0 as the Red Sox lose to the Indians 6-3. The White Sox sat back and watched the action. The Twins are alone on top with a full game lead on the White Sox and the Red Sox, and are up 1.5 games on the Tigers. What a pennant race!

Graig Nettles

Make sure you follow along in our Today in Twins History.

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

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 38 – Chance pitches no-hitter in 2-1 win over Indians

The Twins swept a twin-bill from the Cleveland Indians at Cleveland Stadium in what turned out to be a very interesting day. The first game was tied at 4-4 after 9 innings and in the top of the tenth Tony Oliva singled and scored when Harmon Killebrew followed with his annual triple. Sandy Valdespino followed Harmon with a sac fly to score Killebrew and the Twins were up by 6-4. Ron Kline gave up a home run to Joe Azcue but kept Cleveland from scoring any more runs and the Twins won the game 6-5 in 10 innings.

The first game extra-innings victory was quickly put on the back burner when Twins starter Dean Chance pitched a no-hitter in the second game even though he allowed the Indians to score first in a no-hitter rarity. Chance threw 95 pitches and struck out 8 Indians but walked five and Cesar Tovar committed an error so it not like the Indians didn’t have their chances in the Twins 2-1 win. The Twins scored both of their runs without the benefit of a RBI, the first run scored on an error and the second scored on a balk. 

 

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Previous 1967 AL Pennant Race blogs can be found here.

1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 30 – Race continues, five teams within five games

In their final July game the Twins were helpless against Lee Stange, a former Twins pitcher and current Red Sox starter. Stange had a perfect game going until Harmon Killebrew singled with two out in the seventh inning at Fenway Park. The Twins final two hits took place in the ninth but Stange retired Tony Oliva and Killebrew on fly balls and he and the Red Sox closed out the 4-0 win. The Boston crew had only 4 hits themselves but three of them including a 3 run home run belonged to Carl Yastrzemski and Stange had the other Boston hit. Even though the Sox lost the five game series three games to two they held on to second place just 2 games out of the lead.

Star Tribune Aug 1 1967

With 2/3 of the 1967 season in their rear-view mirror the Twins find themselves with a 53-47 record, good enough for fourth place tie and 5 games behind the league leading White Sox. With 17 wins and 13 losses in July the Twins scored 122 runs and held the opposition to just 94 runs.

 

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

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 25 – Twins KO the Kansas City A’s 3-2 – just 1 1/2 games out of the lead

The Minnesota Twins allowed the Athletics to steal a record-breaking seven bases but yet found a way to beat the last place bunch from Kansas City. The Twins proved that at least in this game, that power beats speed. 

In the first inning the A’s scored two runs on a single hit, an error, a walk and four stolen bases. The Twins came back on a home run in the bottom of the first to cut the lead to 2-1. The score remained 2-1 until Jack Aker relieved A’s starter Lew Krausse in the ninth inning. Harmon Killebrew greeted Aker with a game tying home run, his second of the game. Tony Oliva followed with another home run off Aker and the Twins walked off the running A’s 3-2. The Twins had but six hits but three were home runs and one was a double. Box Score

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By the way, do you what a KO line-up is versus an OK line-up in Twins history?

 

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

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 24 – Twins take two from White Sox

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 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 20 – June comes to an end, Ermer, Kaat

L-R: Killebrew, Carew, Tovar and Versalles

The Minnesota Twins end June 36-34 record and in third place, 7 games behind the league leading Chicago White Sox and just one and a half a games behind the second place Detroit Tigers. Although the team has not put together any long winning streak, they have not lost back-to-back games since May 30th.

 

With the 1967 All-Star game just 11 days away, the Twins know they have a tough row to hoe before they get a few days off as they have three doubleheaders to play before taking time off for the mid-summer classic. That will be 11 games in 9 days.

New Twins manager Cal Ermer has a new plan in mind for Twins starting pitchers that maybe today’s Twins should implement. You can read about it in the Sporting News article below.

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

The 1967 AL Pennant Race – Part 19 – Twins beat Red Sox as Boswell strikes out 13, four Twins named to AS team

Dave Boswell

The Twins scored an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh inning on George Scott‘s second error of the game and went on to win 3-2 at the Met. Twins starter Dave Boswell struck out a personal best 13 batters and evened his record at 5-5 in pitching a complete game even though he gave up home runs to Jerry Adair and Reggie Smith in the fifth that tied the game at the time. The Twins took the well pitched series two games to one as no team scored more than 3 runs in any of the three games. The 36-34 Twins who are still seven games out of first now await the arrival of the 32-41 Washington Senators.

MLB announced the Minnesota Twins players Dean Chance, Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva and rookie Rod Carew had been selected for the 1967 All-Star game scheduled for July 11 in Anaheim.

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

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

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

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.

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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.