Tag: Toby Harrah

Opening Day Complete Games

Bert Blyleven

As you watch the 2021 MLB Opening Day games tomorrow one of the things that you are unlikely to see is a complete game win by a starting pitcher. Back in the day, it was normal to see starting pitchers throw complete games in their final one or two spring training exhibition starts and complete games on OD were a normal occurrence. Not so in todays baseball.

Last year Chicago Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks pitched a complete game throwing 103 pitches as he shutout the Milwaukee Brewers 3-0 on July 24. It was the first complete game on OD (not counting a five inning effort by Gerrit Cole in 2020) since April 1, 2013 when Clayton Kershaw shutout the San Francisco Giants 4-0. The last complete game on OD in the American League goes back even farther, back to April 1, 2011 when Felix Hernandez got a CG 6-2 win against the Oakland A’s. The last pitcher to pitch a complete game against the Twins was Rick Rhoden when he was pitching for the New York Yankees on April 5, 1988 after the Minnesota Twins won the 1987 World Series.

The Minnesota Twins OD complete games are documented below.

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This Day in Twins History – August 7, 1976

Steve LuebberSteve Luebber‘s Twins pitching career was relatively short, just 58 games with 24 starts in parts of three seasons (71, 72, and 76). But on this day Luebber felt confident, he was facing the Rangers for the second time in a two-week period and he was coming off of a complete game shutout of the Oakland A’s. After 6 perfect innings, Luebber had faced 18 batters and retired everyone one of them and the Twins had staked him to a 3-0 lead. In the 7th the Rangers loaded the bases with 2 walks and an error but Luebber buckled down and retired Toby Harrah for the final out of the inning and the no-hitter was still in play. Luebber retired the Rangers 1-2-3 in the 8th inning and went on to retire the first two batters in the ninth inning and was one batter away from a no-no. Roy Howell was the Texas batter and Lubber had him 2-2 and threw what he thought was strike 3 but umpire Art Frantz didn’t see it that way and the count went full. Luebber tried a fastball again but this time Howell hit a sharp single to center and the normally slick fielding Lyman Bostock let the ball get past him and Howell ended up on third base. The next batter, Mike Hargrove followed with a single and Howell scored and Luebber had lost both his no-hitter and the shutout. At this point manager Gene Mauch had seen enough and brought in reliever Bill Campbell who struck out Jeff Burroughs to end the game, preserve the victory for Luebber and the Twins were 3-1 winners in Arlington Stadium.

Luebber is and has been the pitching coach for the Wilmington Blue Rocks since 2007. Wilmington is an “A” ball affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. He has also coached in the Padres, Orioles, Rangers and Marlins organizations.

Although several Twins pitchers have come close on a couple of occasions the Twins still have not had one of their pitchers throw a perfect game.