Jose Reyes snapped a scoreless tie with his RBI double off Jared Burton in the eighth inning and he came around to score an insurance run in the Blue Jays’ 2-0 win at Minnesota yesterday. With his loss on Sunday, Burton’s record fell to 2-9 this season, a major-league high for losses by a reliever. Burton’s nine losses match the most for a Minnesota reliever in any of the last 29 years. Two other Twins absorbed nine losses out of the bullpen in one season since 1985: Rick Aguilera (4-9 in 1998) and Matt Guerrier (6-9 in 2008).
If you look back through the Twins entire history going back to 1961 you will find that “Iron Man” Mike Marshall hold the Twins record for most losses by a reliever not starting a single game with 12 in the “L” column. There are some pretty good relievers on this list and it goes to show that won/lost records for relievers mean very little. The list below reads like a list of “Whose Who” of Minnesota relievers.
Twins relievers with 8 or more losses in a season
| Rk | Player | L | Year | Age | G | GS | GF | W | SV | IP | H | SO | HR | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mike Marshall | 12 | 1978 | 35 | 54 | 0 | 51 | 10 | .455 | 21 | 99.0 | 80 | 56 | 2.45 | 3 | .225 |
| 2 | Ron Davis | 11 | 1984 | 28 | 64 | 0 | 57 | 7 | .389 | 29 | 83.0 | 79 | 74 | 4.55 | 11 | .253 |
| 3 | Ron Perranoski | 10 | 1969 | 33 | 75 | 0 | 52 | 9 | .474 | 31 | 119.2 | 85 | 62 | 2.11 | 4 | .205 |
| 4 | Jared Burton | 9 | 2013 | 32 | 65 | 0 | 12 | 2 | .182 | 2 | 61.1 | 57 | 56 | 3.96 | 6 | .243 |
| 5 | Matt Guerrier | 9 | 2008 | 29 | 76 | 0 | 15 | 6 | .400 | 1 | 76.1 | 84 | 59 | 5.19 | 12 | .275 |
| 6 | Rick Aguilera | 9 | 1998 | 36 | 68 | 0 | 64 | 4 | .308 | 38 | 74.1 | 75 | 57 | 4.24 | 8 | .262 |
| 7 | Ron Davis | 9 | 1982 | 26 | 63 | 0 | 53 | 3 | .250 | 22 | 106.0 | 106 | 89 | 4.42 | 16 | .261 |
| 8 | Al Worthington | 9 | 1967 | 38 | 59 | 0 | 44 | 8 | .471 | 16 | 92.0 | 77 | 80 | 2.84 | 6 | .229 |
| 9 | Mike Trombley | 8 | 1999 | 32 | 75 | 0 | 56 | 2 | .200 | 24 | 87.1 | 93 | 82 | 4.33 | 15 | .272 |
| 10 | Jeff Reardon | 8 | 1987 | 31 | 63 | 0 | 58 | 8 | .500 | 31 | 80.1 | 70 | 83 | 4.48 | 14 | .232 |
| 11 | Keith Atherton | 8 | 1986 | 27 | 47 | 0 | 31 | 5 | .385 | 10 | 81.2 | 82 | 59 | 3.75 | 9 | .264 |
| 12 | Ron Davis | 8 | 1983 | 27 | 66 | 0 | 61 | 5 | .385 | 30 | 89.0 | 89 | 84 | 3.34 | 6 | .266 |
| 13 | Tom Burgmeier | 8 | 1975 | 31 | 46 | 0 | 37 | 5 | .385 | 11 | 75.2 | 76 | 41 | 3.09 | 7 | .265 |
| 14 | Ron Perranoski | 8 | 1970 | 34 | 67 | 0 | 52 | 7 | .467 | 34 | 111.0 | 108 | 55 | 2.43 | 7 | .259 |