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2023 – The Twins lost to the Tigers by a score of 6-4 as their rally in the bottom of the eighth fell short. They scored three runs in the eighth inning but left the bases loaded, shocking, I know. Louie Varland (3-3) was the starter and loser, allowing six runs on nine hits in 4.1 innings pitched. The next day Varland was headed for AAA St. Paul. Jordan Balazovic made his major league debut with 3.2 scoreless innings of relief, allowing two hits with one walk and two strikeouts. He fanned Spencer Torkelson in the sixth inning for his first career strikeout. The anemic offense recorded seven hits and struck out 14 times. Carlos Correa went 2-for-3 with one walk. Balazovic and Edouard Julien are the second pair of Canadian-born players to debut in the same season for the Twins, joining Rene Tosoni (first game of the doubleheader on April 28) and Scott Diamond (second game of the doubleheader on July 18), who both debuted for Minnesota in 2011. Michael A. Taylor was hit in the back of his head by Alex Lange but was able to walk off the field. Box Score
2022 – The Twins beat the D-Backs at Chase Field by a score of 11-1, matching their largest margin of victory so far this season (14-4 on May 18 at OAK). Dylan Bundy (4-3) was the starter and winner, allowing one run on four hits, with no walks and seven strikeouts in a season-high 8 innings pitched. 8 innings marked the most by a Twins starter so far this season and most for Bundy since his 9 inning complete game on August 6, 2020 at Seattle. It also marked the longest outing for a Twins starter since José Berríos pitched 8 innings on May 31, 2021 at Baltimore. The offense recorded 14 hits, two shy of their season high of 16, done on June 5 at Toronto. Every hitter in the starting lineup recorded at least one hit, while five players had multiple hits. Gary Sánchez (8) and Ryan Jeffers (5) each homered The win snapped a five-game losing streak at Chase Field and marked their first win in Phoenix since June 8, 2005. Box Score
2021 – The Twins scored three times in the top of the first and the Rangers came back with two in their half of the inning and each time the Twins took a lead the Rangers tied it up, the last time in the seventh inning and it stayed 4-4 in regulation. The Twins beat the Texas Rangers 7-5 in 10 innings in their first game at Globe Life Field. José Berríos was the starter but took aa ND for his work, allowing three runs on six hits in 6 innings pitched, for his team-leading fifth quality start this season. The bullpen combined to allow one run on three hits in 4 innings as Hansel Robles (3-3) picked up the win, while Tyler Duffey earned his second save of the season and third of his career. The Twins recorded 10 hits, two from both Nelson Cruz and Nick Gordon. Trevor Larnach hit his fourth home run of the season. Luis Arraez hit a tie-breaking triple in the top of the 10th inning, marking the Twins’ first triple in extra innings since Joe Mauer’s two-run triple in the 11th inning on April 26, 2015 at Seattle. The Rangers used seven pitchers in the game. Box Score
2020 – The New York Yankees come to town for a four-game week-end series, until you remember that nothing has changed, all the games this season have been postponed/cancelled due to COVID-19. 76 games missed so far.
Rumors continue to swirl about Miguel Sano and a kidnapping plot. Sano claims he’s being blackmailed after kidnapping accusation – StarTribune.com.pdf
2019 – The Twins beat the Red Sox last night at Target Field by a score of 4-3 in 17 innings, marking the longest extra-innings game in Target Field’s history. The game was the thirteenth 17-plus inning game in club history and tied for fourth-longest game in terms of time (5:45). Eight pitchers relieved starter Michael Pineda and they combined to allow just two runs in 11 innings with one walk and 12 strikeouts. Zack Littell earned his first career win with two scoreless innings. Max Kepler, who didn’t even start the game hit the game-tying home run in the 13th and the walk-off single in the 17th, becoming the first player to have a game-tying RBI and a walk-off RBI in the 13th inning or later in the same game since Milwaukee’s Willie Randolph on May 1, 1991. The nine Reds Sox pitchers threw 259 pitches and the nine Twins pitchers threw 228 pitches in the game. Eddie Rosario was 4 for 8 with 3 doubles and Max Kepler was 3 for 5 with a home run and 3 RBI. On the other end of the spectrum Miguel Sano was 0 for 7 with 5 strikeouts. The walk-off win was the Twins first of the season, they have no walk-off losses so far this year. Box Score
2018 – No Game Today
2015 – With the scored tied 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth with two outs first baseman Kennys Vargas hits the 100th walk-off home run in Twins history and the Twins beat the Cardinals 2-1. Joe Mauer hit a home run for the Twins first run. Mike Pelfrey pitched eight very good innings allowing just 4 hits and 1 run but Blaine Boyer who pitched the ninth got the win. Carlos Villanueva is the unfortunate victim but 34,648 Twins fans go home happy. Box Score
2013 – The Twins beat the White Sox 7-5 at Target Field behind Joe Mauer and Ryan Doumit who each had 3 hits and 2 RBI. It was one of those games where the reliever blows the save but gets the win, in this case it was Jared Burton. Paul Konerko as always had a good game against Minnesota going 4 for 4. Box Score
The Twins’ Rookie level Elizabethton’s team bus was involved in a fatal crash early this morning in Jacksonville, Fla., but no one on the bus was injured, the club announced Tuesday. The bus was taking minor league players and coaches from Fort Myers, Florida to Elizabethton, Tenn., when a car crossed onto the wrong side of Interstate Highway 295 and struck the bus, authorities said. The driver of the car, Corshane Brown, 28, was killed as a result of the crash, according to the Florida Times-Union. Everyone on the bus was unharmed and a second bus was able to take them safely to Elizabethton.
2012 – No game today, scheduled day off.
1981 – MLB on strike.
1980 – No game today. Today’s game at the Met against the Tigers was rained out and was played on August 21 as part of a DH.
1979 – No game today, scheduled day off.
1970 – No game today, scheduled day off.
1961 – Twins starter Bert Cueto (pronounced Cute-O) made his major league debut in the first MLB game that he had ever seen in person. Dagoberto (Bert) Cueto, a pitching disciple of Camilo Pascual and Pedro Ramos started game one for Minnesota and held the White Sox to just one run for eight innings but in the ninth he gave up a single to Andy Carey but then retired J.C. Martin on a fly to center for the first out of the inning. The White Sox sent up pinch-hitter Billy Goodman to hit for the pitcher and he took Cueto deep to tie the score at 3-3. The 35 year-old Goodman was not exactly a home run hitter, his previous home run was in 1959, this would be his only home run in 1961, as a matter of fact it was his last big league home run. Lavagetto brought in Pedro Ramos who retired Luis Aparicio for out number two and that brought up Nellie Fox. Ramos got two strikes on Fox before Fox cranked one out to right field just 352 feet away where a fan caught the ball in the first row. The paper reported that the ball might have hit the wall had the fan not intervened but instead the exploding scoreboard at Comiskey Park signaled a walk-off win for the home town boys. Turk Lown who relieved starter Cal McLish in the eighth inning and left the game down 3-1 in the ninth ended up with the win. Pedro Ramos took the loss and his record dropped to 4-9. Billy Martin had two hits for Minnesota and one RBI. Dan Dobbek hit the Twins only home run. Box Score game one
Game two saw the Twins send their ace Camilo Pascual to the mound and the cuban curve-baller was looking to end a personal five game losing streak. It was not to be, Pascual’s problems started in the second inning when Minnie Minoso’s short fly to right dropped in when 2B Billy Martin and RF Dan Dobbek couldn’t agree on who should catch it and Minoso ended up with a double. Three singles and ground out later the score was 3-0 for the Sox. In the fourth inning Pascual and Bob Allison got into a scuffle but supposedly no punches were thrown. A bat was thrown by Pascual that hit a coach in the stomach but cooler heads prevailed. The Twins scored a couple runs in the top of the fourth to make it 3-2 for the Whitey’s but in the fifth Pascual started getting hit again and Lavagetto brought in reliever Ray Moore. On his way to the showers Pascual had words for home plate umpire Joe Paparella and it turned into a shoving match before the two were separated. “Farmer” didn’t fare much better giving up a cycle, a home run, triple, double and single in that order with two outs sprinkled in and Lavagetto again had to make a trip to the mound and brought in Danny McDevitt to finally get the third out of the inning but by that time six White Sox runners had crossed the plate and it was a 9-2 rout for the home town Sox. The Twins ended up scoring five more runs as the game progressed but the final score ended up 10-7 and the seventh place mighty whitey’s had a DH sweep over the ninth place Twins who were now just two games ahead of the last place expansion Los Angeles Angels. Pascual took the loss and his record dropped to 4-9. Bob Allison hit the only long ball for the Twins. The Twins had 11 hits but their pitching gave up 14 hits and two walks and the Twins headed for home with their tails between their legs and a 24-39 record. Box Score game two
