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This Date in Twins History: April 17

1965 Jim Kaat pitched a seven-hitter in a 3-0 Twins victory against the visiting Indians despite Kaat recording no strikeouts. Kaat coaxed 16 groundouts, including one double play, from the Indians and also got some help from left fielder Bob Allison. Trailing 2-0 in the fourth, the Indians put the first two batters on base before Rocky Calavito lined out to Allison, who then doubled up Chuck Hinton off second base. Allison then led off the bottom of the inning with a home run (How many times do you see ...).
1987 The Angels' Mike Witt out-dueled the Twins' Bert Blyleven 2-1 as both pitchers pitched complete games. The loss dropped the visiting Twins (7-3) into a tie for first place in the AL West with the Angels.
2001 The Twins' Corey Koskie singled off the Royals' Jason Grimsley to drive in Chad Allen and Cristian Guzman with the tying and winning runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to give Minnesota a 6-5 victory. This game featured J.C. Romero as a starting pitcher and Johan Santana as a long reliever.
2007 The Twins' Joe Mauer had three doubles and a sacrifice bunt in an 11-2 victory over the Mariners at Safeco Field in Seattle. The Twins put the first two batters on base in the fifth inning and led 3-1 when Mauer, facing right-hander Jeff Weaver, sacrificed the runners to second and third. After a strikeout of Michael Cuddyer and an intentional walk to Justin Morneau, Torii Hunter hit a grand slam to break the game open. At some point after the homer, a Twins broadcaster said the key to the inning was the bunt.
This entry was posted by socaltwinsfan on Friday, April 17th, 2009 at 10:09 am and is filed under MLB, Minnesota Twins, This Day in History categories and tags. It is one of 203 entries by the author. We are no longer accepting Letters to the Editor on this post.

9 LTEs in response to This Date in Twins History: April 17

  • SBG
    April 17, 2009 at 10:17 am

    This game feature J.C. Romero as a starting pitcher and Johan Santana as a long reliever.

    If J.C. Romero is starting, somebody is going to have to pitch in long relief.

    At some point after the homer, a Twins broadcaster said the key to the inning was the bunt.

    It always is.

    • Jobu
      April 17, 2009 at 10:44 am

      you took both those points right out of my mouth. i kind of want to know which broadcaster it was. all four are just as capable of making that statement.

      • socaltwinsfan
        April 17, 2009 at 11:40 am

        I have no proof of the statement by the broadcaster, but we all know someone said it.

        • SBG
          April 17, 2009 at 11:54 am

          Yeoman's work again today. I suppose that Jeff A's Baker-straight-to-majors bit put the pressure on you to deliver a little snark.

        • ubelmann
          April 17, 2009 at 1:04 pm

          I would like to enter Exhibit A:

          SBG replied on April 17, 2007 at 11:10:39 pm

          Yep, that bunt was the key at bat. Heh.

          I guess we can't know for sure, but I'm 99% certain that this was SBG repeating something that the broadcasters (almost certainly Bremer) asserted. I also made some snarky comment about it earlier in the game, but I'm less sure if that was in response to what the broadcasters had said that day, or their general pattern of attributing all good things to the bunt.

          • SBG
            April 17, 2009 at 1:09 pm

            This all but proves that it was said. We knew it to be true, anyway.

          • SBG
            April 17, 2009 at 1:18 pm

            I clicked on the link and this was a game played in Seattle. The Twins won 11-2 and the comment was made that the next night runs would be scarce with Felix on the mound. If memory serves, the Twins jumped on Felix early and he left in the first or second inning with an injury. I watched that particular game from the hospital with Lucy, who was (unsuccessfully) being induced. Miss SBG was born two years ago next Friday.

  • Rhubarb_Runner
    April 18, 2009 at 3:10 pm

    2007
    Jason Kubel goes 4-for-5 and hits for the cycle, culminating in an 8th inning grand slam which gives the Twins a come-from-behind 11-9 victory over the visiting Angels.

    never forget