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2023 – No Twins game today, scheduled day off.
2022 – The Twins beat the Blue Jays on Sunday afternoon at Rogers Centre by a score of 8-6, winning the three-game series. Devin Smeltzer was the starter but did not factor into the decision, allowing two runs on four hits in 4 innings pitched. Jharel Cotton (2-1) got the win. Six relievers were used, highlighted by Jovani Moran earning his first career save, securing the final out. The offense recorded a season-high with 16 hits. Luis Arraez reached safely five times, going 4-for-4 with a walk. Gilberto Celestino went 3-for-5. The win made them 9-4-4 in series play this season, 4-2-2 on the road. The Twins completed their eight-game, seven-day roadtrip with a record of 3-5 and now head home for a day off and then the New York Yankees come to town. Box Score
2021 – The Twins beat the Royals by a score of 5-4, snapping their four-game losing streak. José
Berríos (6-2) was the starter and winner, allowing four runs on six hits in 6 innings pitched. Tyler Duffey, Taylor Rogers and Hansel Robles combined for three scoreless innings of relief as
Rogers appeared in his 300th career game. The offense recorded seven hits, two from Nelson
Cruz, who doubled and stole a base. Kyle Garlick hit his fifth home run, Ryan Jeffers hit his
second and Miguel Sanó hit his 11th, a two-run shot to give the Twins the lead in the sixth inning, a lead they would not relinquish. The Twins have homered in 16-straight games, matching the longest such streak in Twins/Senators franchise history for the fourth time. Box Score
2020 – The Twins are home against the Angels for a four-game set. Nothing has changed, all the games this season have been postponed/cancelled due to COVID-19. We have now missed 65 games.
2019 – The Twins play their 60th game of the season and lost to the Cleveland Indians 9 to 7. Martín Pérez (7-2) was the starter but did not factor into the decision, allowing five runs (2 earned) on six hits in 4.2 innings pitched. The Twins had a 6-5 lead after six innings but then the rain came and the game didn’t resume for one hour and 43 minutes. The Twins added to their lead in the top of the seventh making it 7-5 but Blake Parker (0-2) gave up three runs on two home runs in the bottom of the inning blowing his first save of the season and the Twins found themselves trailing 8-7. Tyler Duffey then followed Parker’s lead and allowed a home run in the eighth inning and the Twins were 9-7 losers. The Twins only had seven hits but three of them were home runs by Byron Buxton (7), Jorge Polanco (10) and the recently activated from the IL Nelson Cruz (8). The Twins record is now 40-20 and their lead over second place Cleveland has dropped to 9.5 games. Box Score
2018 – The Twins played the Chicago White Sox at Target Field in a traditional doubleheader because inclement weather caused a postponement of the April 13 Twins versus White Sox game. The Twins trailed most of game one but scored four runs, three of them coming on an Eduard Escobar 3-run home run in the eighth inning off reliever Nate Jones to steal a 4-2 victory. Tyler Duffey got his first win of the season in relief of starter Fernando Romero. Twins bats were quiet most of the game and they were out hit by the White Sox 8 to 4 but the final score said 4 to 2 for the home town Twins.
Game two did not go as well for Minnesota with the mighty whitey’s winning 6-3. The White Sox jumped on Twins rookie Zack Littell who was making his major league debut for four runs in the first inning on five hits including a Jose Abreu home run and held on from there. Littell’s first big league out lasted 3 innings (86 pitches) in which he walked 4 batters and allowed 6 hits and 6 runs and took the loss. Eduardo Escobar was 3 for 4 with 2 doubles and 2 RBI.
2014 – The Twins selected infielder Nick Gordon with the fifth overall pick in the MLB First-Year Player Draft.
2012 – The Twins get shut out by the Kansas City Royals 1-0 in Kauffman Stadium. Twins starter Francisco Liriano who is having a miserable season ties a major league record when he strikes out four Royals (Mike Moustakas, Jeff Francoeur who reaches on a wild pitch, Eric Hosmer, and Brayan Pena) consecutively in the fourth inning, all swinging. Liriano is only the 2nd Twins pitcher to strike out four batters in a single inning. The Twins only get five hits, with Brian Dozier getting two of them, against three Royals pitchers. Bruce Chen gets the win for KC and Liriano’s record drops to 1-6 with the loss. Box Score
2009 – Target Field’s structural construction is complete.
2006 – No game today, scheduled day off.
2001 – Four Cleveland Indians pitchers shut out the Twins 5-0 at the Metrodome holding the home-town Twins to just six hits, two of which belonged to Twins DH Quinton McCracken. J.C. Romero started for Minnesota and was relieved by Hector Carrasco and Johan Santana. Seems backwards doesn’t it? Box Score
The Minnesota Twins had to look no further than their own backyard to find the first overall pick in Tuesday’s 2001 First Year Player Draft, catcher Joe Mauer. The three-sport star from Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul, Minn., was selected over USC pitcher Mark Prior, Georgia Tech first baseman Mark Teixeira and Middle Tennessee State pitcher Dewon Brazelton. Other players drafted by Minnesota that played for the Twins were third round pick Jose G. Morales who played in 74 games, seventeenth round pick Matt Macri who appeared in 18 games, 29th round pick Nick Blackburn who posted a 43-55 record in six seasons with Minnesota. Jason Vargas was a 43rd pick but did not sign and went on to pitch in the big leagues.
1994 – In Detroit, the Twins’ Chuck Knoblauch leads off the game with a homer off Mike Moore, then adds a second long ball in the 7th. Not to be outdone, the Tigers’ lead-off hitter, Tony Phillips goes deep against Scott Erickson in his first at-bat, and also add a second homer, in the 8th inning. It is the first time in major league history this has happened. A 3-run Tigers eighth does the Twins in and they lose by a score of 5-3 at Tiger Stadium. Knoblauch hit two home runs and Pedro Munoz added one home run in a losing cause. Scott Erickson was the losing pitcher and Mike Moore pitched a complete game for the Tigers win. Box Score
1980 – No game today. Twins versus Blue Jays at Met Stadium was rained out and was played as part of a DH on June 8.
1978 – No game today, scheduled day off. The Twins did however; play their AAA Toledo Mud Hens team and the minor leaguers got the best of the Twins by a score of 10-2 in front of 4,462 fans.
Twins_versus_AAA_Toledo__June5_1978.pdf
1973 – No game today. Twins versus Cleveland Indians game called on account of rain at Cleveland Stadium and rescheduled as part of a DH tomorrow.
1970 – Staked to a 1-0 lead against the Washington Senators in RFK Stadium in his major league debut, Bert Blyleven gives up a home run to the first batter he faces in the big leagues, Lee Maye, but that is the only run that Bert gives up as he pitches 7 innings of 5 hit ball while striking out seven and notching the first of his 287 career wins in a 2-1 Twins win. Ron Perranoski retires the final six batters to preserve the victory. Box Score
1969 – No Game Today – but the Twins did play their AAA Denver Bears team in an exhibition game in front of 6,565 fans in Denver and the Twins ended up winning 4-3. Twins manager thrilled the Bears fans when he inserted 46-year old Twins pitching coach Art Fowler into the game with two out in the ninth inning. Fowler walked Frank Kostro but struck out Herman Hill for the final out to earn the save.
In the 1969 June amateur draft the Minnesota Twins had the seventh overall selection and used it to take outfielder Paul Powell from Arizona State University. Powell appeared in just 20 games for the Twins in 1971 before being traded to the Dodgers in the Fall of 1971. The Twins third round selection and number 55 overall was RHP Bert Blyleven out of Santiago High School who debuted exactly one year later for the Twins and went on to a Hall of Fame career. The Twins selected shortstop Rick Burleson in round eight but could not sign him, he went on to have a nice career for the Red Sox. The only other Twins draft pick out of the 69 draft that made it to the big leagues was RHP Jim Hughes who was selected in round 33 and went on to have a 25-30 record in four years with the Twins from 1974-1977.
1961 – The Twins are in New York to take on the Bronx Bombers and will play their second DH in two days. The first game today is a make-up game for the April 13 game that was rained out. The Twins jumped out to a quick lead in the first inning when Zoilo Versalles singled and went to third on a throwing error and scored on a Bill Tuttle’s ground out to second. Lenny Green followed that with a home run off Yankee starter Jim Coates and the Twins had a quick 2-0 lead. Don Lee started for Minnesota and held the Yanks to just two hits through the first six innings. Things went to pot for Lee with one out in the seventh inning when the Twins committed their third error of the game behind him allowing Bill Skowron to reach first. Elston Howard then singled putting runners at first and second and Minnesota native Johnny Blanchard stepped up to the plate as a pinch-hitter. Blanchard was in an 0 for 11 slump as a pinch-hitter and Lee had him down 0-2 before trying to throw another fastball past Blanchard who quickly deposited the ball 360 deep in the right field stands. Lee quickly dispatched the next Yankee hitters but the Twins and Lee found themselves down 3-2. In the eighth inning the Yankees kept the peddle to the metal and scored three insurance runs with two runs coming off a Mickey Mantle home run off Twins reliever Ray Moore. The Twins tried to mount a rally in the ninth inning of Coates with singles by Jim Lemon and Julio Becquer but the Yankees brought in reliever Luis Arroyo who got Billy Martin to hit a ground ball that forced Becquer at second laving the Twins with runners at the corners. That brought up Billy Gardner who was not having a great game with two errors in the field and a 0 for 3 day with the bat and he added to his bad day by hitting into a game-ending double play and the Twins losing streak reached double figures (10). Lee went 7 strong innings allowing just four hits and one walk but all he got for his efforts was his second loss of the year. Lenny Green who got himself ejected in the fifth for arguing a third strike call had two hits including his home run, and Bill Tuttle also chipped in two hits, one of which was a double. Box score game one
In game two the Twins faced 24 year old rookie right-hander Rollie Sheldon who was pitching in his eighth big league game and making just his fourth start in the majors. What was “crazy” about Sheldon was that he spent the previous season, his first in pro ball with class D Auburn in the New York-Pennsylvania League where he made 17 starts, completing 15 of them going 15-1. In 150 innings he struck out 127 and posted a 2.88 ERA. The Twins drew first blood in this game when Twins starter Chuck Stobbs doubled in Billy Martin who had singled earlier and after 3 innings the Twins had a 1-0 lead. Things started unraveling for Stobbs in the fifth when he gave up 3 runs on 4 singles. The Yanks knocked Stobbs out of the game in the following inning and after six innings the Twins found themselves down 4-1. The Yankees added on two more insurance runs and when the final score was posted, it said Yankees 6 and Twins 1. Sheldon had pitched his first big league complete game allowing just 6 hits and upped his record to 2-2. Twins hitting woes continued as Billy Martin had two of the Twins 6 hits. Things were looking bleak for Minnesota who have now lost 16 out of their last 17 and 11 in a row and Whitey Ford couldn’t wait to take the mound for the Yankees the following day. Box Score
