May 28 – This Day in Twins History
(click on images once or twice to make them larger)
2023 – Playing poorly in the field and on the base paths the Twins were shut out by Jose Berrios and the visiting Toronto Blue Jays 3-0 at Target Field, suffering their fourth-consecutive series loss. They were shut out for the fourth time this season and first time at home. Bailey Ober (3-2) was the starter and loser, allowing two runs on five hits in 5 innings pitched, with one walk and seven strikeouts. The offense recorded five hits, two from Matt Wallner, who also drew two walks. After going 4-for-4 on Saturday afternoon, Wallner extended his on-base streak to eight-straight plate appearances, tying a club rookie record, held by Dan Ford (7/1-2/75), Denard Span (7/9-11/08) and Danny Valencia (7/26-27/10) (credit Elias). The Twins completed their six-game, seven-day homestand with a record of 2-4, going 1-2 against the Giants and 1-2 vs. the Blue Jays. Minnesota will now begin a short three-game
roadtrip to Houston. Box Score
2022 – The Twins lost to the Royals at Target Field by a score of 7-3. Chris Archer (0-2) was the starter and loser, allowing five runs (3 earned) on seven hits in 4 innings pitched. Archer has recorded just one out after the fourth inning in his nine starts this season. Juan Minaya made his 2022 debut, allowing two runs on two hits in 2.1 innings of relief. Each team had 11 hits but the Twins had 11 LOB. Luis Arraez and Carlos Correa each had three hits and Trevor Larnach hit his second home run of the season and second in his last four games. Max Kepler left the game with right leg tightness while Gary Sánchez left with heat-related illness. Bobby Witt Jr. had three doubles for the Royals. Box Score
2021 – The Twins four-game winning streak came to an abrupt end with an 8-3 loss at the hands of the visiting Kansas City Royals. Randy Dobnak (1-4) was the starter and loser, allowing six runs on nine hits in six innings pitched. The Twins went 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base. The Twins had just six hits with Jorge Polanco getting two. Mitch Garver’s lone hit was a home run, his eighth. The attendance was 14,260. The Star Tribune reported that to this point in the season the Twins have let 67% of inherited runners to score as compared to a league average of 35%. I guess that helps explain the Twins dismal 20-30 record. Box Score
2020 – The Twins probably would have put on another beating on those damn Yankees today IF all the games this season had not been postponed/cancelled due to COVID-19. We have now missed 57 games.
2019 – It was a scoreless pitching duel between the Brewers Zach Davies and the Twins Devin Smeltzer, who was acquired in the Brian Dozier trade last July, and was making his major league debut tonight at Target Field and it was a doozy. Smeltzer pitched 6 shutout innings on 69 pitches with three hits allowed, no walks and seven strikeouts, becoming the fourth Twins starter to throw 6.0-plus shutout innings in his debut, joining Andrew Albers (8.1, 8/6/13 at KC), Anthony Swarzak (7.0, 5/23/09 vs. MIL) and Eric Milton (6.0, 4/5/98 vs. KC). The game was scoreless until a five-run bottom of the seventh for the Twins, highlighted by an Eddie Rosario two-run homer (17). The Brewers came back with two in the eighth and one in the ninth but Taylor Rogers and Ryne Harper got the final three outs with Harper getting his first big league save. Harper had made his major league debut on March 31 of this year at the age of 30. The Twins hit the road with a 37-17 record and a ten game lead and will take in the Rays, Indians and Tigers. Box Score
Buxton tries but comes up a bit short
2018 – The Twins beat the Royals last night by a score of 8-5, snapping their four-game losing streak. Lance Lynn was the starter and winner, allowing two runs in 6.0 innings pitched for his second consecutive victory. Fernando Rodney earned his 11th save, getting the final four outs. The offense recorded 12 hits after totaling 16 hits over their previous three games combined. 12 hits were their most since they also had 12 hits on May 4 against the White Sox. Brian Dozier had three hits and Miguel Sanó hit his sixth home run of the season and his first since he came back from the DL. Box Score
2017 – The Twins lose to the Tampa Bay Rays by a score of 8-6 in 15 innings. At six hours and 26 minutes, the game marked the longest game in Target Field history and the second-longest game in the history of the Twins (longest: six hours and 36 minutes on May 7, 1995 at Cleveland). The total pitch count for the Rays and Twins combined was 553 pitches with nine Twins pitchers throwing 289 of them. Hector Santiago is brought in to face the Brew Crew in the 15th inning and immediately gives up back-to-back homers to Evan Longoria and Logan Morrison and the Rays hold on for the victory. Joe Mauer was 4 for 5 with a home run and a double, a run scored and 2 RBI in a losing cause. Box Score
2015 – No game today, scheduled day off.
2013 – The Twins blow a 4-0 lead but come back to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-5 in 14 innings at Miller Park. In the 14th inning Twins outfielder Aaron Hicks gets a ground-rule double and is sacrificed to third by Pedro Florimon bringing up pinch-hitter Eduardo Escobar who delivers a sac fly to score Hicks. Brian Duensing is brought in for the save. The Twins only had 8 hits in the game and Brian Dozier had 3 of them. Brewers shortstop rookie Jean Segura goes 6 for 7 in the game with a RBI and two runs scored. Box Score
2011 – In a spot start, Twins long-man Anthony Swarzak pitches no-hit ball at Target Field against the Los Angeles Angels for 7 1/3 innings before giving up a double to Angels outfielder Peter Bourjos. Swarzak ended up throwing 105 pitches in his 8 innings of work and struck out four batters and walked two and left with the game tied at 0-0. Twins relievers Matt Capps pitched a hitless 9th and Alex Burnett pitched a hitless 10th and picked up the victory. The Twins won the game 1-0 on 4 consecutive singles (Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer, Delmon Young, and Danny Valencia) in the bottom of the 10th inning off Hisanori Takahashi and Kevin Jepsen. This was the 16th one-hitter in team history but it was the first time that the Twins won a one-hitter that went into extra innings. This was the first one-hitter to be pitched in Target Field. Box Score
2009 – In the seventh inning of a Twins versus Red Sox game at the Metrodome that we attended, home plate umpire Todd Tichenor throws out Twins catcher Mike Redmond (first ejection in 12 major league seasons) after a close call at the plate and proceeds to throw out Twins manager Gardenhire after a brief “discussion” of the issue. In the bottom of the same inning, Tichenor ejects Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek (who had hit two home runs earlier) for arguing ball/strikes. Red Sox manager Terry Francona runs out to protect his player and promptly becomes the fourth ejection of the game. The Twins and Anthony Swarzak end up losing the game 3-1 after going 0 for 6 with RISP. Box Score
2008 – The Kansas City Royals who had lost nine games in a row took a 6-2 lead at Kauffman Stadium thanks to sloppy play by Twins outfielder Delmon Young and 12 hits off Twins starter Livan Hernandez and were ready to finally put up a “W”. After eight innings the Royals led 8 to 3, but the Royals burned out bullpen that had pitched 12 innings just yesterday in a 12 inning loss to Minnesota didn’t have it and the Twins scored five times in the top of the ninth to tie the game at 8-8. The big blow came from pinch-hitter Craig Monroe who was 0 for his last 17 at bats when he delivered a three-run blast with two on and two out on a full count from Royals reliever Joel Peralta who had just entered the game to pitch to Monroe. Bobby Korecky, Dennys Reyes and Jesse Crain kept KC from scoring in the ninth. Justin Morneau then hit a lead-off home run in the tenth off Peralta and the Twins took a 9-8 lead and Joe Nathan retired the Royals in the tenth 1-2-3 and Minnesota had a sweet come from behind win and the Royals losing streak reached ten. Crain (3-2) got the win. Mike Lamb had a nice day with the bat going 3 for 4 with 2 RBI and 2 runs scored. The Twins are now 4-1 on their roadtrip with one game to play. Box Score
May 28, 2008: Twins cause a Royal ruckus with large comeback win by Andrew Stockmann
1998 – No game today, scheduled day off.
1969 – The Twins come up on the short end of a 4-3 score when they get walked off by Senators outfielder Frank Howard’s single off Jim Kaat. Twins starter Jim Kaat was still pitching in the ninth when Howard singled to left with two outs and runners at the corners and pinch-runner Ed Stroud scored the winning run. Bob Allison who has struggled of late had two hits including a double and two RBI and Rod Carew had his normal two hits and a double as well. Losing two of three to the 22-26 Washington Senators didn’t make manager Billy Martin a happy man but neither did the article in the paper that quoted things that he said about Senators manager Ted Williams. Martin said that he was talking with Twins reporters in confidence and didn’t think they would be published. Forty year old reliever Al Worthington who had retired after last season arrived and is beginning workouts to make a come-back. Box Score
Martins remarks about Ted Williams.pdf
1968 – Cleveland jumped on Twins starter Jim Perry for a run in the first at Met Stadium but it was the first and only run the Indians would get off Perry and Al Worthington . When the Twins batted in the bottom of the first they bunched the only 3 hits they would get in the game and scored three times. Even though the Indians out hit Minnesota 7 to 3 they lost where it counted, as the Twins won the game 3-1. Box Score
The American League announced that the league will be split into two divisions: an East division of Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, New York and Washington; and a West division of California, Chicago, Kansas City, Minnesota, Oakland and Seattle.
1961 – The Twins and starter Jack Kralick could not hold a 4-1 lead and the Twins got beat 6-4 by the expansion Washington Senators. Much to the delight of the Senators and their fans, the Minnesota Twins got swept at Griffith Stadium in their first visit there since leaving the city after the 1960 season and becoming the Minnesota Twins. Twins fans had little to cheer about other than Harmon Killebrew’s 12th home run of the season and the fact that Lenny Green extended his hitting streak to 24 games with a bunt single. Killebrew also had a double, two walks, scored twice and had 2 RBI. Marty Kutyna upped his record to 3-0 with 3 innings of relief. The Twins third straight loss dropped them to seventh place in the standings and 8.5 games behind the first place Detroit Tigers. The Twins will enjoy a day off before facing the Cleveland Indians in a Memorial Day twinbill. Box Score
