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
Dozier hits 8th-inning HR off Cody Allen, extends streak at Progressive
Brian Dozier
Brian Dozier’s eighth-inning solo homer off Cody Allen put the Twins on top to stay in their 4-2 win in Cleveland. Entering Saturday, the Twins had only two go-ahead home runs in the seventh inning-or-later this season, which had been the lowest total in the majors. One of the prior late go-ahead home runs was hit by Dozier, off the Rays’ Tommy Hunter in the eighth inning on May 27; the other was a ninth-inning walk-off homer by Joe Mauer off Boston’s Matt Barnes on May 5.
Dozier entered his eighth-inning at-bat 0-for-3, but his game-winning home run extended his hitting streak at Progressive Field to 12 games, since August 1, 2016, over the course of which he is hitting .347 with six home runs. The streak is tied with teammate Joe Mauer for the longest current hitting streak at Progressive Field; Mauer went 2-for-2 and is hitting .469 over his 12-game streak there.
Here is what the May 29 Twins GameNotes say about yesterdays game:
The Twins lost to the Rays yesterday by a score of 8-6 in 15 innings, losing the three-game series two games to one. At six hours and 26 minutes, the game marked the longest game in Target Field history and the second-longest game in the history of the Twins (longest: six hours and 36 minutes on May 7, 1995 at Cleveland). The loss to Tampa was Minnesota’s longest game by innings since April 24, 2016 at Washington (16 innings). The Twins/Rays game was the longest game in the major leagues this season (previously: 6:05 by New York-AL at Chicago-NL on May 7).
It marked the Twins first loss in which Minnesota led in the ninth inning (previously 25-0).
Twins pitchers struck out a season-high 17 batters, their most since recording 19
strikeouts August 19, 2007 vs. Texas.
Mauer
Joe Mauer drew three walks to pass Kent Hrbek for second on the Twins all-time list
(840), trailing Harmon Killebrew (1,321). Mauer hit his 133rd career home run, moving him past Jacque Jones for 11th place on the Twins all-time list. He recorded a season-high
four hits and reached base a career-high seven times, becoming the second Twin ever
to reach base seven-plus times in a game, joining Rod Carew (8 times on May 12, 1972
vs. Milwaukee).
Some other facts about the loss to Tampa yesterday:
The announced crowd for the game was 28,951, Twins manager Paul Molitor guessed about 1,500 stayed to watch what turned out to be a bitter ending for Minnesota.
Twins used nine pitchers tying a franchise record equaled on five other occasions.
The total pitch count for the Rays and Twins was 553 pitches (289 by Minnesota).
With a burnt out bullpen the Twins made two moves this morning, putting Justin Haley on the 10-day DL and sending Kennys Vargas to AAA Rochester. The Twins called up pitchers Drew Rucinski and Jason Wheeler who has yet to make his big league debut.
The Twins spotted the Orioles a 5–0 lead last night but came roaring back to win in Baltimore, 14–7. It’s the first time the Twins won a game by at least five runs after trailing by five or more runs in over 18 years, since a 13–8 win in Cleveland on April 17, 1999, in which they trailed by six runs at one point.
Sano is a bona fide slugger (you think?)
Miguel Sano
Miguel Sano slammed his 11th home run of the season and drove in three runs, bringing his season total to 37 RBIs in 40 games. The only other players in Twins history, including their days as the Washington Senators, to have as many homers and RBIs as Sano in their first 40 games of a season were Larry Hisle in 1977 (11 HR, 42 RBIs) and Joe Mauer in 2009 (13 HR, 40 RBIs).
Draft order and slot amounts can be seen by clicking on the draft logo.
Major League Baseball will hold day one of the 2017 MLB Draft on Monday, June 12th at MLB Network’s Studio 42 in Secaucus, New Jersey. This year’s Draft will begin live on MLB Network and MLB.com at 7:00 pm (ET). To the start of the Draft, MLB Network will air a Draft preview show, also simulcast on MLB.com, at 6:00 p.m. (ET).
For the third time in team history, the Minnesota Twins will have the first overall selection of the Draft. In 2001, Minnesota drafted Joe Mauer with the top overall selection. The Twins also held the first overall pick in 1983, when they selected pitcher Tim Belcher, though he did not sign. The Twins will select three times in the top 37 slots (1, 35 and 37).
The 2016 first round selection was the Phillies high school outfielder Mickey Moniak and he is currently playing in class A ball. Three of the number one overall selections (Moniak in 2016, Brady Aiken a LHP high school pitcher selected in 2014 by Houston, and Mark Appel a collegiate RHP selected by Houston but now with Philly in 2013) in the last four years have yet to reach the majors.
The Twins walked off with a victory against the Red Sox last night thanks to a game-ending home run by Joe Mauer, the first walk-off bomb of his major-league career. Mauer had three walk-off RBIs with the Twins prior to Friday, but he has generally struggled in potential walk-off situations. Before his homer, Mauer had batted .176 in at-bats with the potential to record a game-ending RBI, with no extra-base hits in 68 at-bats of that kind prior to Friday.
Miguel Sano and Joe Mauer each hit two-run doubles in the eighth inning to turn a 4-2 deficit into a 6-4 Twins’ lead, and they went on to win by that same score in Kansas City on Friday. The last time the Twins won a road game in which they trailed by two-or-more runs in the eighth inning or later was on August 21, 2015 at Baltimore. They came back from two runs down in the eighth to win, 4-3.
Joe Mauer doubled to lead off the fourth inning and came around to score on a balk to give the Twins a 1–0 lead against the Indians. It was Mauer’s first extra-base hit this season. His 52 at-bats without a double, triple or homer––before that fourth-inning two-bagger––were by far the most into a season he has ever gone without an extra-base hit. His previous longest extra-base hit drought to begin a campaign was 37 at-bats in 2015.
Twins walk to a 7-1 Opening Day win at Target Field over the Kansas City Royals
Joe Mauer
Robbie Grossman, Joe Mauer and Miguel Sano each drew bases loaded walks in the Twins’ six-run seventh inning in their win over the Royals. It was the first time since September 25, 2009 that the Twins drew three bases loaded walks in the same inning. That game was also against the Royals and the Twins players who did it were Joe Mauer, Jason Kubel and Michael Cuddyer.
The Twins drew only seven bases loaded walks all of last season.
What is going on here? L-R – Jim Pohlad, Michael Cuddyer, Derek Falvey, and ?
The Minnesota Twins find themselves in a strange position this spring. The team is coming off a record-setting 59-103 season and yet there are really no position battles waging in Ft. Myers this spring. All the starting position players are pretty much the same as last season except for the catcher Kurt Suzuki who left via free agency and the Twins signed free agent Jason Castro to replace him and handed him the starting job.
How often does that happen? Usually you lose 103 games and everyone is fighting for a job but that is not the case in the spring of 2017 at the CenturyLink Sports complex where the Twins are preparing for the 2017 season. As I watch the team go through its spring routines there doesn’t seem to be much urgency and the players are acting as if they are all veterans just waiting for the bell to ring in a new season. I can see the players going through the drills but I just don’t see that they are working hard to get better. This team is young, and talented but have they had enough sand kicked in their face yet to really want to win? I hope so.
I am still convinced that Joe Mauer playing first base limits the Twins from taking that next step. Mauer is the grey-beard among the position players at 33 and then Brian Dozier and Jason Castro follow at 29 and the rest of the starting line-up is 25 or under.
If you look at the spring training stats and I know they don’t mean a hill of beans when the season starts BUT this team appears to be a team that can score some runs but will hit for a lower average than what fans might expect. Mauer’s .300 plus days are in his rear view mirror and I am not expecting Jason Castro, Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, Miguel Sano, Jorge Polanco, or Brian Dozier to hit .260 or above. I expect a higher average from Eddie Rosario this year but he too is still unproven.
In spite of what I have written this team should be fun to watch but you must be prepared for those “what the hell just happened” moments. This team will continue to improve as the season progresses and but so much will depend on the teams pitching staff both from the starters and the relievers.
I was used to seeing GM Terry Ryan out next to the fields checking out the action but this year I have not seen Thad Levine at all and Derek Falvey just once and that was this morning. A different style I guess, particularly since all I heard early on about Falvey was how closely he worked with his manager. But you are right, it is still early.
After horrible starts to the season the last two years, how will the Twins leave the starting gate in 2017? Another bad start could would be a serious problem for Paul Molitor and his boys.
I was back out at the ballpark to check on the Twins yesterday to see what the rest of the team was up to when the Twins had a game in Jupiter, Florida scheduled for that afternoon. Jupiter is almost due east of Ft. Myers across the state and although it is only about 140 miles it takes almost three hours to get there. Lake Okeechobee is between Ft. Myers and Jupiter so you end up going around it to the north as you head towards the Atlantic ocean.
Apparently skipper Paul Molitor felt that drive is way too much for most of the Minnesota Twins regulars so he sent the following line-up to play the game at Roger Dean Stadium.
Granite – RF
Santana – LF
Paulsen – 1B
Hague – DH
Shuck – CF
Fields – 2B
Escobar – SS
Murphy – C
Adrianza – 3B
Gibson – P
Not exactly the 1965 Twins but they did manage to keep the game interesting until they allowed the Cards to score the winning run in the bottom of the ninth in a 2-1 loss. Ticket prices for the game on the internet were between $46 and $180. Fans pay prices like this to see a spring training game and the Twins send zero starting position players. CRAZY! Both the Cardinals and the Twins should be embarrassed and MLB should start fining these teams for this kind of behavior.
