The Minnesota Twins took their historic 103rd loss of the season in grand fashion, as the first seven batters of the game struck out, and the offense didn’t kick into gear until it was far too late in a 7-3 loss at U.S. Cellular Field on Friday night.
Tyler Duffey dug the Twins a deep hole, got upset a player pimped a home run off him and finished his season with a 6.43 ERA. And now, with 103 losses, this year’s Twins have lost more games than any previous team in the club’s post-D.C. history. The 1982 bunch lost 102, while this year’s bunch still has games Saturday and Sunday to take care of before settling on their place in history.
Here’s what we saw from our vantage point:
Rodon owned the Twins
He fanned the first seven Twins he faced to tie an AL record, but fell one batter shy of the MLB record of eight (Jim Deshaies, Jacob deGrom) as Logan Schafer’s double with one out in the third broke up the party. Rodon finished with six solid innings, allowing just three hits and three runs (two earned) while fanning 10 and walking three. Rodon got 13 swinging strikes on 95 pitches, as he mixed a good fastball with a devastating slider on the way to his 10-strikeout game. He was clearly amped for some reason or another, as his average four-seam fastball velocity checked in at 95.7 mph — by far his best of the season.
The Twins set a team record with 103 losses
The Twins only have two 100-loss seasons since coming over from Washington D.C. in 1961, and this year is the worst of the bunch with 103 losses. The 1982 squad — which featured Frank Viola, Tim Laudner, Kent Hrbek, Gary Gaetti, Tom Brunansky and Randy Bush, who were all 24 or under — lost 102 games, but became the foundation by which the 1987 World Series team was built. It’s hard to imagine that being true with this bunch, which is the seventh 100-loss team in the 116-year history of the Twins/Senators franchise.
Duffey was…..embattled
It was a strange day for Duffey, who gutted through the first inning, allowing a pair of runs on a charitable triple to Tim Anderson, the first of two doubles to Melky Cabrera, an infield single by Justin Morneau and a subsequent wild pitch. He then blitzed through the second inning, striking out the side before heading into the fateful third inning. It was in the third that the home run to Anderson took place — more on that in a bit — as Duffey ultimately faced four batters, but retired none to finish his day with two-plus innings, six hits and five earned runs. Duffey finishes the season with a 6.43 ERA — far and away the worst mark of any pitcher in baseball with at least 100 innings pitched. The second worst, Shelby Miller, is at just 6.15. Duffey also joins Kyle Kendrick from last year as the only two pitchers with at least 130 innings pitched and an ERA in excess of 6.00 over the last two seasons.
Don’t read the box score
The first three Twins to pitch (out of a total of four) finished the game with the following season ERAs:
- 6.43 (Duffey)
- 6.28 (Pat Dean)
- 11.34 (Pat Light)
It’s been….one of those years in Twins Territory.
Duffey didn’t care for Anderson’s home run antics, and O’Rourke tried to back him up
It’s actually kind of funny, as the second inning opens up with Fox Sports North’s Audra Martin extolling him for telling her how he’s found out there’s definitely a right and wrong way to get frustrated, and that he has to use that anger to his advantage. “He’s learned to channel that to help him get focused in the game,” Martin says, just one inning before this happens:
Some of Duffey’s angst might have come from the fact that Adam Eaton — the runner on when Anderson homers — took a close 2-2 curve on the outside corner that was called a ball. Eaton walked one pitch later, and Anderson homered eight pitches later. In fact, Anderson did the rare thing where he absolutely clobbered a pitch foul, then later in the at-bat still manages to homer.
Anyway, Ryan O’Rourke tried to get some vigilante justice:
It resulted in a warning to both sides, and nothing much came of it as O’Rourke worked a clean inning otherwise. Frankly, it seemed a little childish. It’s great to show that you’ve still got some fight in a season that’s clearly lost, but a guy hit a home run off your starter with an ERA in excess of 6.00. These things happen.
Mauer sits again
Despite all the talk of not shutting Joe Mauer down for the season, he hasn’t played since Sunday, and that was the only game he’s played since Oct. 1. Call it what you want, but he’s started one game in two weeks. He’s basically shut down. He might get a start at DH in one of the final two games.
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Up Next: LHP Hector Santiago vs. RHP James Shields, 6:10 p.m. Saturday, U.S. Cellular Field
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Notes
- Manager Paul Molitor told reporters that Kurt Suzuki won’t catch again this season, as the team would like to get a longer look at John Ryan Murphy.
- If the Twins lose the last two games of the season, they’ll finish at 105 losses. Only two teams in Senators history (1904, 113 losses and 1909, 110) have lost more.
- The Twins are 15 runs away from allowing the most in team history. This year’s bunch has allowed 886 runs, while the 1995 bunch allowed 889 and the 1996 team allowed 900.
- The Twins can only win 59 games if they win the final two of the season; no other team in baseball has fewer than 65 wins.
- The Twins are 2-8 in their last 10 games, 5-15 over their last 20 and 8-22 over their last 30.
