(click on images once or twice to make them larger)
2023 – Time to celebrate. The Twins beat the Angels at Target Field by a score of 8-6 and clinch the AL Central title for the ninth time in their history and qualify for the playoffs for the 15th time. The win secured a winning season for the 29th time in Minnesota’s history (since 1961) and fourth time in their last seven seasons. Pablo López (11-8) was the starter and winner, allowing three runs on five hits in 6 innings pitched, with one walk and seven strikeouts. Jhoan Duran earned his 27th save (32nd opportunity), throwing 34 pitches, tied for third most in his career. The offense recorded seven hits, two from both Jorge Polanco and Kyle Farmer. Alex Kirilloff hit his 10th home run of the season and drove in three runs giving the Twins 12 players with double-digit home run totals, which marks a club record. They previously had 11 players with 10-plus homers in 2016 and 2019. Michael A. Taylor also had two RBI. Box Score
2022 – IT’S A ROYALS FLUSH as the Twins lost to the Royals at Kauffman Stadium by a score of 4-1, suffering their seventh sweep of the season. Josh Winder (4-5) was the starter and loser, allowing three runs on six hits in 6 innings pitched, his fourth quality start of the season. The offense recorded just two hits, both singles from Luis Arraez and Carlos Correa. Caleb Hamilton reached twice, drawing two walks on the day. The Twins completed their eight-game, seven-day roadtrip with a record of 1-7 mark. This team is not worth watching right now, they have folded their tent and just quit. Too busy now making their winter plans as we all probably should. The Twins now head home for their final homestand against the Angels and White Sox and then they close on the road with games against the Tigers and White Sox. Box Score
2021 – The Twins beat the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field by a score of 5-4, recording just their fourth sweep of the season. With the win the Twins have gone 10-10 in Interleague Play this season. All-time the Twins are 242-220 all-time in IL Play, fifth-most wins in baseball. Rookie Joe Ryan (2-1) was the starter and winner, allowing two runs on three hits in five innings pitched with a career-high 11 strikeouts. Ryan was making his first start since he took a ball off his pitching in his last outing. Ryan became the first pitcher in Twins/Senators history to strike out 11 batters in a start of five innings-or-less. In his final at bat Ryan may go down in history as the final Twins pitcher to step up to the plate to hit as the NL is expected to have a designated hitter starting in 2022. Ryan struck out on 3 pitches and in doing so became the 1,914 Twins pitcher to strike out at the plate. Twins closer Alex Colome made it exciting just like he has all season when he had to face 7 batters allowing 3 hits, a walk and 2 runs before nailing down the save and the Twins win. The offense recorded nine hits, seven going for extra-bases. Max Kepler went 3-for-4 with one double (21) and two home runs (18, 19), marking his 11th career multi-homer game and fourth career game with three extra-base hits. The 67-85 Twins are now going home to play their final homestand of the season against the Toronto Blue Jays and Detroit Tigers. Box Score
2020 – The Twins open their final homestand of the season in which they play the Tigers in two games and then close the season with three games against the Cincinnati Reds. Prior to the game against the Detroit Tigers this evening the Twins recognized former manager Ron Gardenhire, who stepped down as the Tigers manager over the week-end because of health issues. The video board flashed a picture of Gardenhire along with the message, “Thank you, Gardy”. Gardenhire was a coach under Tom Kelly from 1991 to 2001 who then managed the Twins from 2002 to 2014, reaching the post-season six times. The starters were Tarik Skubal for Detroit and Homer Bailey for Minnesota. The Twins scored first when Byron Buxton led off the bottom of the first with a homer deep to left. The Tigers tied it up in the fourth inning but a Mitch Garver home run in the bottom of the inning put the Twins back on top 2-1. The Tigers tied it up again in the sixth and a run in the seventh put Detroit up 3-2 only to have a Max Kepler home run in the eighth tie the game at 3-3. The game remained tied so bonus baseball ensued. The Tigers placed a runner on second to start the tenth inning and Taylor Rogers retired the first batter but then allowed two singles which scored a run before he retired the side. The Twins started their portion on the tenth with Jake Cave on second running for Josh Donaldson. Eddie Rosario singled to center scoring Cave and the game was knotted at 4-4. Miguel Sano and Mitch Garver struck out leaving it up to Kepler who had tied the game with his long ball in the eighth inning. With Rosario on second after stealing a base during the Garver at bat, Kepler’s bloop single to left easily scored Rosario and the Twins walked-off the Tigers 5-4. It was Kepler’s fifth career walk-off hit and the Twins fourth walk-off win of the season. The extra-inning game was the Twins third of the season and they have won all of them. Homer Bailey returned from the 45-day Injured List to start the game and allowed one run on two hits in 3 innings pitched, six relievers followed Bailey, matching a season-high for pitchers used in a game this season with seven. With the win the Twins trail the White Sox by just half a game but the White Sox own the tie-breaker and have a game in hand. Box Score
2019 – After allowing 12 runs in yesterday’s loss to the Royals the Twins turn it around and score 12 runs of their own in a 12-8 win over the Royals in the regular season home finale. Martín Pérez was the starter but didn’t have it, allowing five runs on eight hits in just 2.1 innings pitched and almost gave away a 6-0 lead. Zack Littell was credited with the win bringing his record to 6-0. The Twins needed 8 pitchers to nail down the game. The offense banged out 12 hits, led by Miguel Sanó who clubbed two home runs, marking his fifth multi-homer game of the year. Nelson Cruz became the 57th player in baseball history to reach the career 400 home run plateau with a solo shot in the fourth, his 40th of the season. The attendance was 31,628, bringing the Twins season total to 2,294,152 at Target Field, the most since 2013. The Twins completed their final homestand of the season with a record of 5-2, finishing their regular season home slate with a record of 46-35. The Twins will begin a six game roadtrip to end the 2019 regular season. The Twins open the roadtrip with a magic number of three to clinch their first American League Central Division title since 2010. Box Score
2018 – The Oakland Athletics recorded their second consecutive walk-off win, scoring the game-ending run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning on a wild pitch by Minnesota Twins reliever Trevor Hildenberger in a 3-2 win at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. The walk-off loss for the Twins was their 15th of the season, this tied the Twins team walk-off loss record of 15 which was first set by the 1964 Twins who finished with a 79-83 record. The result lowered Oakland’s magic number for clinching an American League playoff spot to one, for the Twins it was just one game closer to the end of a miserable season. Willians Astudillo was 3 for 4 with a double and a RBI. Chase De Jong started for Minnesota and threw 58 pitches allowing two runs on five hits in 4.1 innings. Trevor Hildenberger the seventh pitcher used by the Twins took the defeat. Box Score
2011 – In a game that we attended, the Twins break an 11 game losing streak with a 3-2 win over the Mariners at Target field. The game was tied 2-2 going into the bottom of the ninth inning. It seemed like they were trying to lose when they started the inning with a walk, the next batter forced him at second base making it a runner on first with one out but then the runner tried to steal second and he was thrown out making it two out and no one on. Then shortstop Trevor Plouffe walked and was doubled home by DH Rene Tosoni and the Twins had a 3-2 walk-off win ending their long losing streak. Joe Nathan picked up the win. After the game the Twins were due to fly to Cleveland and on their way to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, outfielder Denard Span and Danny Valencia were involved in a fender-bender. In a season where the Twins are struggling to avoid a 100 losses, the bad injury karma continues. Span, driving his Range Rover, was following Valencia, the passenger in his Range Rover Sport, with his fiancee driving when they encountered stopped traffic while turning from I-35 onto Highway 62 West. Span didn’t stop, and rear-ended Valencia’s car. Both sustained whiplash and complained of headaches, and were held out of the lineup the next day as a result. Box Score
2010 – The day after winning the Central division title, the Twins beat the Cleveland Indians 5-1 at Target Field. Alexi Casilla was 3 for 4 with a triple, a stolen base and 2 runs scored. First baseman Jose G. Morales was 2 for 3 with a double a run scored and 3 RBI. Nick Blackburn won his 10th game of the season, giving the Twins six players in double-digits in wins this season. The only other major-league team to have six different 10-game winners over the last 10 seasons was the 2008 Angels. It’s the first time in Twins history that they’ve had six 10-game winners in one season. Box Score The Twins also announced that they have surpassed their all-time annual attendance record during the inaugural season at Target Field. After today’s game, the Twins single-season attendance record stands at 3,063,327 with four games left in the regular season schedule.
2008 – No game today, scheduled day off.
2003 – No game today, scheduled day off.
1990 – Gary Gaetti hits a grand slam off the Rangers Charlie Hough for his 200th career home run, as the Twins won, 6-4; it came nine years and four days after his first major league homer, also off Hough.
1977 – No game today, scheduled day off.
1971 – No Game Today
1970 – The Twins clinch the division for the second year in a row when they beat the Oakland A’s 5-3 in Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in game number 154. Tony Oliva had a big day going 3 for 5 with a home run and a double, a stolen base, scored three times and had two RBI. Jim Kaat allowed one run over five inning and it gave him the win. Ron Perranoski pitched 3.2 innings allowing a run for his 32nd save of the season. Perranoski pitched 111 innings that year, pretty much what starters throw now days and appeared in 67 games. Box Score
1969 – The Minnesota Twins win the American League Western Division title when they defeat the Kansas City Royals 4-3 at Municipal Stadium. Cesar Tovar was 3 for 5 with a stolen base and two RBI and Harmon Killebrew provided the power with a home run, his 47th of the season. Bob Miller, who started now and then went 8 innings for the win allowing three runs and striking out six. Box Score
1968 – Cesar Tovar played one inning at each position for the Minnesota Twins at the Met in front of 11,340 Twins fans against the Oakland A’s becoming only the second major leaguer in history to do it. Bert Campaneris of the Oakland A’s was the first. Tovar became the first and only Twins position player to be a starting pitcher in Twins history, as he tossed a scoreless first inning and struck out future Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson along the way. Cesar went on to play C-1B-2B-SS-3B-LF-CF-RF. This was the only occurrence of a Twins position player pitching at Met Stadium. This is also the first and only time that the Twins have won a game when one of their position players has pitched. Owner Calvin Griffith was appreciative of Tovar’s effort and gave him a new color TV as a gift. Rod Carew had two hits and a RBI and Cesar Tovar was 1 for 3 with a walk, a stolen base and a run scored on the day. I suppose you want to know who won the game? The Twins beat the Oakland A’s 2-1 as Twins “reliever” Tommy Hall went 6.1 innings allowing just three hits and one unearned run for the win while A’s starter Blue Moon Odom took the loss. Box Score
The search for the lost tapes of Cesar Tovar’s grand Sunday
The recording below is an 8 minute 47 compilation of Herb Carneal and Halsey Hall broadcasting the Twins game and Cesar Tovar playing all nine positions. Recording provided by WCCO radio.
1967 – The Twins win their fifth game in a row and Jim Kaat goes the distance again winning his fifteenth game of the season, this time in a 8-2 win over the Yankees. Both Yankee runs were unearned. Cesar Tovar hit two home runs and Zoilo Versalles hit one to power the Twins as they fight for the pennant. Both Tovar and Versalles had three hits each. Box Score
1966 – No Game Today
1961 – The Twins game versus the Washington Senators at the Met today was rained out and rescheduled as part of a DH tomorrow.