Tag: Milwaukee Brewers

The Minnesota Twins and Two Longstanding Streaks That Ended in 2023 – And Two More That May End in 2024

The year 2023 was a landmark year for breaking long-standing streaks in the world of American sports. Two of the most talked-about streaks that ended were the Minnesota Twins’ 18-game MLB playoffs losing streak and the Detroit Lions’ 32-year drought without an NFL postseason victory. As we look forward to the 2024 baseball season and beyond, fans are wondering which long-standing records may yet tumble.

When it comes to the Twins and the MLB in particular, expectations have already reached a fever pitch ahead of the new season getting underway. The Texas Rangers head into the season as the reigning champions after their fairytale campaign last year culminated with a first World Series in franchise history. The Lone Star State side headed into the postseason as rank outsiders after securing a mere fifth seeding in the American League. However, victories against the Tampa Bay Rays, the top seed Baltimore Orioles and the heavyweight Houston Astros secured a trip to the championship series for the first time since they lost back-to-back World Series in 2010 and 2011.

Continue reading The Minnesota Twins and Two Longstanding Streaks That Ended in 2023 – And Two More That May End in 2024

Former Twins pitcher George Frazier passes away at the age of 68

George Frazier

George Frazier was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on October 13, 1954 and passed away on June 19, 2023 in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the age of 68 from an undisclosed illness.

The lanky, 6-foot-5 right-hander, Frazier was a star at Hillcrest High School in Springfield, Missouri where he played alongside two other future major leaguers in Bob Detherage and Keith Drumright. before attending the University of Oklahoma from 1973-76. 

Frazier was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 13th round of the 1972 June free agent draft but turned that offer down to attend the University of Oklahoma. George Frazier, who was a member of two College World Series teams in the 1970s playing at Oklahoma in 1975 and ’76 for legendary coach Enos Semore and was a member of the final two of five straight CWS appearances from 1972-76. After completing his college career Frazier was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 9th round of the 1976 MLB June Amateur Draft.

Continue reading Former Twins pitcher George Frazier passes away at the age of 68

According to ELIAS – the agony of defeat

Brewers lose after leading, 6-0, ceding last playoff spot to Rockies

The heartbreak of two extra-inning losses to the Cubs last weekend turned out to be an appetizer of the agony that Brewers fans felt on Saturday. Milwaukee’s 6-0 lead evaporated and its 7-6 loss at St. Louis eliminated Craig Counsell’s squad from playoff contention, allowing the Rockies to claim the final invitation to MLB’s postseason party. Milwaukee became the first major-league team to hold a lead of six-or-more runs but then to lose its 161st or 162nd decision of the season, with that loss resulting in its elimination from playoff contention.

In its final game of the 2006 season, the Tigers blew a 6-0 lead and lost to Kansas City, 10-8, with that result costing them the American League Central title, which went to the Twins. Nevertheless, Detroit reached the playoffs as a wild card and went on to reach the World Series. And back in 1984, on the final Friday of the season, it was the Twins who frittered away a 10-0 lead and lost, 11-10, at Cleveland. Coupled with a victory by the Royals later that night, Kansas City won the A.L. West title and the Twins were eliminated. But Minnesota’s loss came in its 160th decision of the season, as opposed to the 161st-game loss by the Brewers on Saturday in St. Louis.

According to ELIAS – Max Kepler, Eddie Rosario & Brian Dozier

Kepler and Rosario are twins in home run column

Eddie Rosario

Max Kepler

The Twins powered up against Matt Garza and company, slamming five home runs in their 11–4 victory over the Brewers. Max Kepler and Eddie Rosario, who each homered twice for Minnesota, became the first Twins duo in just over six years to hit multiple homers in the same game. Michael Cuddyer and Delmon Young each hit a pair of four-baggers for Minnesota on August 3, 2011 at Angel Stadium.

Clutch grand slams for both Dozier and Lamb

 

Brian Dozier

Brian Dozier also homered for the Twins on Tuesday, with his grand slam turning a one-run deficit into a three-run lead for Minnesota. Jake Lamb replicated that feat for the Diamondbacks later in the night, homering off Dodgers reliever Tony Watson with the bases loaded to give Arizona a 6–3 lead (the D-Backs won by that same score). There was one other day this season in which multiple players hit a go-ahead grand-slam home run with his team trailing at the time. And on that day – June 3 – there were four players that hit home runs of that kind! Those trailing-to-leading salamis were produced by Matt Adams, Kyle Schwarber, Travis Shaw, and Chris Taylor.

According to ELIAS – Eddie Rosario

Twins top Brewers on balk

Eddie Rosario

Eddie Rosario scored the go-ahead run in the seventh inning on a two-out balk by Oliver Drake, and Ryan Pressly and Matt Belisle kept the Brewers off the board as the Twins took a 5-4 decision in Minneapolis. This was the first time since the franchise moved from Washington to Minnesota in 1961 that the Twins won a game with the go-ahead and final run coming home on a balk in the seventh inning or later. The last such win by any major-league team came on July 16 of last year, when the Padres won, 7-6, in 10 innings on a walk off balk by Giants reliever Santiago Casilla.

Do you remember Twins All-Star catcher Dave Engle?

Dave Engle was drafted in 1978 by the California Angels in the third round (66 over all) as a third baseman out of USC. His stay in his home state however; was short-lived as he was traded on February 3, 1979 with pitchers Paul Hartzell and Brad Havens and outfielder Ken Landreaux to the Minnesota Twins for Rod Carew who wanted out of Calvin Griffiths Minnesota Twins organization.

Engle spent 1979 in AAA Toledo as a third baseman and in 1980 he again found himself in Toledo but that year he played in the outfield. Engle made the 1981 Twins team out of spring training and debuted on April 14, 1981. Engle was always first a hitter and finding a position for him was a struggle for Minnesota and they decided to turn him into a catcher. Engle must have been a quick study because by 1983 he was catching for Minnesota. In 1984 he was the Twins lone representative to the All-Star game but did not get a chance to play in the game at Candlestick Park. In 1984 Engle started having more issues throwing the ball back to the pitcher although he had no problems throwing to second or third base if needed. The problem continued to plague him in 1985 and he soon found himself a part-time player. In January of 1986 he was traded by the Twins to the Detroit Tigers for Chris Pittaro and Alejandro Sanchez in one of those “I’ll take yours if you take mine” trades. 

Dave Engle stay in Minnesota lasted 439 games, 176 of them behind the plate. Engle hit .268 as a Twin with 28 home runs and 13 triples which is not too shabby for a catcher. The Tigers released Engle in August of 1986. Engle went on to play for Montreal in 1987-1988 and finished out his big league career in 1989 with Milwaukee.

Did you know that Dave Engle hit the first home run at the Metrodome and that he is Tom Brunansky‘s brother-in-law?

 

Catcher Dave Engle’s ‘stardom’ with Twins was short-lived

Q&A: Engle reflects on childhood with Ted Williams

 

According to ELIAS

Twins win first road game in 2016

Brian Dozier and Miguel Sano each hit solo home runs as the Twins picked up their first road victory of the season, an 8-1 triumph over the Brewers. Minnesota started the season 0-7 away from home; that was their longest road losing streak to start a season, surpassing the previous mark of six in 1904, when the team was known as the Washington Senators. Over the last five years (since 2012), one other team started a season 0-7 on the road, the 2014 Marlins (lost first seven).

The Twins have hit two home runs in each of their last four games, their longest streak of games with multiple homers since September 2013 (also a four-game streak).

Twins bonus baseball – long extra inning games

extra inningsStarting with the 1961 season the Minnesota Twins have been scheduled to play about 8,912 games give or take a couple and only 33 of those games went 15 or more innings, a pretty small (less than 4 tenths of 1 percent) percentage. So if you attended one of these games you were a lucky son of gun. The Twins record in these games is 17-16 and as it turns out 17 games were at home and 16 on the road. Seven took place at Met Stadium, 9 took place at the Metrodome and 1 has taken place at Target Field. If you enjoy baseball you can’t help but enjoy bonus baseball, here is a chance to relive those games. Those pesky Cleveland Indians participated in their share of these games.

Rk Date Tm Opp Rslt IP H R SO HR Pit BF # Attendance GmLen
1 1993-08-31 MIN CLE W 5-4 22.0 16 4 8 0 288 85 7 17,968 377
2 1972-05-12 MIN MIL L 3-4 22.0 13 4 13 0 86 7 8,628 347
3 1967-08-09 MIN WSA L 7-9 20.0 14 9 16 2 79 5 16,901 340
4 1976-08-25 MIN NYY L 4-5 18.2 16 5 5 1 73 4 24,351 326
5 2004-08-08 MIN OAK L 5-6 18.0 16 6 13 0 251 71 7 25,976 297
6 1969-09-06 MIN OAK W 8-6 18.0 16 6 12 1 78 4 17,599 317
7 1969-07-19 MIN SEP W 11-7 18.0 20 7 9 1 82 5 12,069 341
8 1967-07-26 (2) MIN NYY W 3-2 18.0 10 2 7 0 65 4 21,927 264
9 1976-08-28 MIN CLE L 3-4 16.2 13 4 6 0 62 6 6,071 295
10 1969-04-09 MIN KCR L 3-4 16.2 11 4 8 0 64 5 13,731 272
11 1995-05-07 MIN CLE L 9-10 16.1 26 10 9 3 322 82 9 39,431 396
12 2009-07-03 MIN DET L 9-11 16.0 17 11 12 2 218 69 7 33,368 307
13 2005-08-16 MIN CHW W 9-4 16.0 12 4 12 1 204 63 6 34,533 309
14 1986-06-11 MIN TEX L 2-6 16.0 16 6 7 1 66 5 11,506 272
15 1977-09-17 MIN TEX L 4-5 16.0 12 5 10 2 65 5 13,163 312
16 1969-07-25 MIN CLE W 4-2 16.0 8 2 14 1 57 3 8,959 266
17 1982-04-20 MIN OAK L 3-4 15.2 14 4 10 0 66 3 12,488 303
18 1975-07-12 MIN NYY L 7-8 15.2 18 8 7 1 70 5 13,573 311
19 2012-06-17 MIN MIL W 5-4 15.0 15 4 7 1 250 66 7 39,206 290
20 2004-06-10 MIN NYM W 3-2 15.0 8 2 13 1 231 59 6 16,706 246
21 2004-05-04 MIN SEA L 3-4 15.0 13 4 14 1 245 65 8 32,727 288
22 2004-04-06 MIN CLE W 7-6 15.0 12 6 10 1 223 59 8 19,832 300
23 2002-06-10 MIN ATL W 6-5 15.0 11 5 6 1 209 58 5 24,534 263
24 1999-05-21 MIN OAK W 2-1 15.0 8 1 9 0 225 59 5 14,433 295
25 1992-07-04 MIN BAL W 3-2 15.0 12 2 8 0 250 64 6 48,028 280
26 1980-08-28 MIN TOR W 7-5 15.0 13 5 9 1 60 4 14,035 264
27 1980-06-20 MIN CLE L 3-4 15.0 14 4 6 1 63 6 7,668 268
28 1974-09-10 MIN CHW W 8-7 15.0 19 7 9 1 62 4 3,285 247
29 1973-06-06 (1) MIN CLE W 7-3 15.0 10 3 8 1 66 3 254
30 1972-06-06 MIN BAL W 5-4 15.0 11 4 14 0 63 4 6,203 265
31 1972-05-13 MIN MIL W 5-4 15.0 10 4 12 2 54 3 7,871 216
32 1964-09-29 MIN KCA L 6-7 15.0 10 7 13 3 61 8 2,999 290
33 1961-05-22 MIN CLE L 5-7 15.0 17 7 7 2 63 4 5,425 248
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 3/9/2016.

 

According to Wikipedia

The longest game by innings in Major League Baseball was a 1-1 tie in the National League between the Boston Braves and the Brooklyn Dodgers in 26 innings, at Braves Field in Boston on May 1, 1920. It had become too dark to see the ball (fields did not have lights yet and the sun was setting), and the game was considered a draw. Played rapidly by modern standards, those 26 innings were completed in 3 hours and 50 minutes.

The longest American League game, and tied for the longest major league game by innings which ended with one team winning, was a 7-6 victory by the Chicago White Sox over the Milwaukee Brewers in 25 innings, at Comiskey Park in Chicago in 1984. The game began at 7:30 p.m. on the evening of May 8, 1984, and after scoring early runs both teams scored twice in the 8th inning; but the game was suspended after 17 innings with the score tied 3-3 due to a league curfew rule prohibiting an inning from beginning after 12:59 a.m. The game was continued the following evening, May 9, 1984, and both teams scored three times in the 21st inning to make the score 6-6; finally, in the bottom of the 25th, the White Sox’ Harold Baines hit a home run to end the contest. Tom Seaver was the winning pitcher in relief.[5] A regularly scheduled game followed, meaning both nights saw 17 innings played; Seaver also started, and won, the second game. The official time of the entire 25-inning game was 8 hours, 6 minutes, also a major league record

This Day in Twins History – June 22

Carew, Rod 166/22/1970 – In the fourth inning of the Twins game against the Milwaukee Brewers in County Stadium Rod Carew suffers a serious knee injury with torn cartilage and torn ligaments when Brewers 1B Mike Hegan rolls in to Carew at 2B trying to break up a double play. According to Rod Carew in his book “Carew”, my leg snapped back and went crack! He goes on to say that 2B umpire Jake O’Donnell had heard the crack and vomited. Carew was hitting .376 at the time underwent surgery and ended up in essence missing the rest of the season. Rod did return for 5 at bats late in September but did not get a hit. Carew had only 2 plate appearances against the Orioles in the ALCS with no hits.

6/22/1984 – In a teary home plate ceremony before the Twins-White Sox game at the Metrodome, Calvin Griffith and his sister, Thelma Haynes, sign a letter of intent to sell their 52 percent ownership of the Twins to Minneapolis banker Carl Pohlad for $32 million (some reports state it was $36 million) ending the longest family ownership of a team in baseball history. Griffith and his sister had been involved with the franchise since 1922, when they were adopted by owner Clark Griffith when the team was the Washington Senators.

Twins have easy travel schedule in 2015

AirplaneUnless something unforeseen happens the Minnesota Twins will not be booking a lot of frequent flyer miles in 2015 as they will only have to fly 23,866 miles this coming season. Only seven teams, the Indians with 23,499, the Brewers with 23,429, the White Sox with 23,180, the Tigers with 22,508, the Cubs with 20,953, the Cardinals with 20,875 and the Reds with 20,612 will fly fewer miles than our home town boys. The Mariners on the other hand will be on the other end of the spectrum and will need to fly 43,281 miles to play out their schedule of games in 2015.

The site I used to look up this information has information going back to 2009. Based on their numbers the 2015 Minnesota Twins will fly fewer miles than any Twins team has flown from 2009 through 2014.

Miles flown by the Minnesota Twins

2014 – 29,532

2013 – 29,043

2012 – 25,546

2011 – 32,199

2010 – 27,398

2009 – 25,315

So when you hear those Minnesota Twins radio and television announcers talk about the teams grueling travel schedule you can say, “what a bunch of BS”, they got it easy.