Twins starting pitcher Jack Kralick and reliever Al Schroll both hit solo home runs vs. the Angels at Los Angeles’s Wrigley Field. The Twins, incidentally, won by 2 runs, 9-7.

Twins center fielder Lenny Green homered to lead-off the game. Bloomington High School graduate George Thomas tied the game for the Angels with an RBI single in the second. The Angels went on to build a 3-1 lead in the inning. Then, leading off the third inning, Twins pitcher Jack Kralick pulled a home run to right. Lenny Green then made it back-to-back to tie the game at 3-3.

The Twins scored 3 to take a 6-3 lead in the fourth. Kralick, however, gave all 3 runs back in the bottom of the inning, including back-to-back home runs by Earl Averill and future-Golden Gophers head coach George Thomas to lead-off the inning. Kralick was out after 3 ⅔ innings having allowed 6 runs on 8 hits and 2 walks.

Twins reliever Al Schroll was solid in relief, allowing just 1 run on 3 hits in 4 ⅓ innings. He also pulled a home run to left to lead-off the eighth inning.

Ray Moore came in in the ninth to convert his 11th save of the season.

…unless you count the Beatles concert at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington.

It’s the birthday of Paul Molitor, born in 1956 in St. Paul, MN. Molitor graduated from Cretin High School in 1974 and attended the University of Minnesota from 1975-’77 where he was an All-American his final two seasons. He was selected by the Milwaukee Brewers with the third overall pick in the 1977 draft behind Harold Baines and Bill Gullickson, who was born in Marshall, MN but attended high school in Joliet, IL. In 1978 Molitor was runner-up to Detroit’s Lou Whitaker for American League Rookie of the Year.

Molitor set a World Series record with 5 hits in game 1 of the ‘82 Series which the St. Louis Cardinals won in seven games. He played 15 seasons for Milwaukee before signing with the Toronto Blue Jays following the 1992 season. In ‘93, at age 37, Molitor had his first 100-RBI season, collecting 111. He was the 1993 World Series MVP, hitting .500 (12-for-24) with 2 HRs and 10 runs scored, tying the record set by Reggie Jackson in 1977.

Molitor signed with the Twins for the 1996 season, when, at age 40, he hit .341, collected 113 RBI and led the American League with 225 hits.

Molitor retired following the 1998 season with 3,319 hits and 504 stolen bases. He was only the sixth player in major league history with at least 3,000 hits and 500 stolen bases following Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Eddie Collins, Lou Brock and Rickey Henderson. Ichiro has since joined the club.

Paul Molitor was inducted into the Hall of Fame alongside Dennis Eckersley on July 25, 2004. It was Molitor’s first year of eligibility. 85.2% of Hall of Fame voters voted for Molitor, meaning a staggering 75 members of the BBWAA were complete ignoramuses.

Molitor was named Twins manager prior to the 2015 season.

With the Twins and Tigers tied 1-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Dave McKay, in his first major league at-bat, led-off the bottom of the third with a home run off the Tigers’ Vern Ruhle. Ruhle’s rookie card is 1975 Topps #614, which he shares with Edina High School and University of Minnesota alumnus Paul Siebert. It is the only major league baseball card on which Siebert appears.

The Twins won 8-4 with 1967 Rothsay High School graduate Dave Goltz earning an ugly win, giving up 4 runs on 9 hits in just 5 innings pitched.

McKay was the second of six Twins to homer in their first major league at-bat: Rick Renick, McKay, Gary Gaetti, Luke Hughes and Eddie Rosario.

The Twins beat the Tigers 20-6, the first time the Twins had scored 20+ runs at Target Field. Center fielder Danny Santana, batting leadoff, went 3-for-6 with a walk, 4 RBI and 2 runs scored. Trevor Plouffe also went 3-for-6 with 3 RBI and 4 runs scored. Santana and Plouffe homered, as did Eduardo Escobar.

Despite the lopsided victory, the Twins used six pitchers, with Tommy Milone being knocked out in the fifth after giving up 5 runs on 10 hits, including a home run to Ian Kinsler leading off the game.

Rothsay, MN-native Dave Goltz pitched a 1-hit shutout versus Boston at home in Bloomington. The only hit Goltz allowed was a Jim Rice single over a leaping Roy Smalley leading off the fourth. Goltz also walked 3 while striking out 10.

The Twins won the game 7-0, scoring 5 runs against 1991 Hall of Fame-inductee Fergie Jenkins who lasted only 4 ⅓ innings. Rod Carew, also elected to the Hall in ‘91, homered off Jenkins in the first inning. All nine Twins batters had at least one hit.

The White Sox’s Freddy Garcia had a no-hitter going into the eighth inning at the Metrodome when Jacque Jones hit a leadoff home run. It was the only hit that Garcia would allow. Johan Santana, meanwhile, allowed just 3 hits over 8 innings, and, more importantly, did not allow a run. Joe Nathan held the pale hose hitless in the ninth for a 1-0, 1-hit Twins win. It was the second time the Twins have won on 1 hit.

This has happened at least 65 times since 1914. The Yankees won on 1 hit on May 29, 2016. David Schoenfield wrote an interesting Sweet Spot blog post on 1-hit wins.

The Twins and Royals were tied 1-1 entering the top of the seventh at Kauffman Stadium when Michael Cuddyer hit a leadoff home run off Kansas City starter Brian Bannister. Delmon Young, Denard Span and Orlando Cabrera combined to drive in 5 more runs before Cuddyer came up again, this time with Joe Mauer on first, and homered for the second time in the inning. The third place Twins would go on to win 10-3. They, of course, would finish the 162-game schedule in a tie with Detroit before winning the division in game 163.

Cuddyer is the only Twin to homer twice in the same inning. There have been 59 occurrences in major league history. The first was the Braves’ Charley Jones in 1880. The most recent was Mark Trumbo on April 15, 2016. Andre Dawson did it twice, first in 1978 and again in 1985. Pittsburgh’s Jeff King did so in ‘95 and ‘96. Two switch-hitters have homered from each side of the plate in the same inning: the Cubs’ Mark Bellhorn in 2002, and Cleveland’s Carlos Baerga in 1993. The Cardinals’ Fernando Tatis hit two grand slams in the same inning on April 23, 1999.

In his major league debut at Yankee Stadium, 1979 Bloomington Kennedy graduate Kent Hrbek hit a 12th-inning home run off of George Frazier, giving the Twins a 3-2 victory. He also hit an RBI single in the fifth, tying the game at 1-1 at the time.

Hrbek made the jump to Yankee Stadium straight from Class A Visalia (California League) where he was hitting .379 with 27 HRs and 111 RBI.

Hrbek was the first of three Twins to homer in their major league debut in less than a month. Four days later Tim Laudner would do so. And on September 20th Gary Gaetti homered in his first big league at-bat.

In the second game of a doubleheader in Cleveland, Dean Chance pitched the second no-hitter in Twins history.

Interestingly, Cleveland led the game 1-0 with 1 out in the bottom of the first. Chance walked the first two batters of the game before getting a strikeout for the first out. Cleveland’s cleanup hitter reached on an error to load the bases. Chance then unleashed a wild pitch, allowing Cleveland to score without the benefit of a hit. Chance would issue 5 walks in the game but not allow a hit. He struck out 8 as the Twins won 2-1.

Chance had pitched a rain-shortened five-inning perfect game on August 6th. Though Major League Baseball considers a game official after five innings, in 1991 MLB dictated that a pitcher only gets credit for a no-hitter if the game goes the full nine innings. This rule was enacted retroactively, and, therefore, Chance and 35 other pitchers had no-hitters wiped from the record books.

In high school in Ohio, Chance pitched 17 no-hitters (I’ve also read 18), including 8 in one season. He posted a 52-1 high school record.

The Twins traded minor league pitcher Mark Hamburger to Texas for veteran reliever Eddie Guardado. Hamburger was born in St. Paul in 1987, graduated from Mounds View High School and attended Mesabi Range Community and Technical College in Virginia, MN before signing with the Twins in 2007. Hamburger made 5 relief appearances for the Rangers in 2011. He currently pitches for the St. Paul Saints.

Guardado made his major league debut with the Twins in 1993. He pitched for the team until 2003, leading the league with 45 saves in 2002 and representing the Twins at the 2002 and ‘03 All-Star Games. He signed with the Mariners after the ‘03 season. Guardado only pitched in 9 games in his 2008 return to the Twins. He re-signed with the Rangers following the season.

Eddie Guardado pitched in more games than any other pitcher in Twins history, and it’s not even close. “Everyday” Eddie appeared in 648 games for Minnesota. Rick Aguilera is second at 490.

Guardado was inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame in 2013. He was named Twins bullpen coach prior to the 2015 season.

Jack Kralick pitched the first no-hitter in Twins history versus the Kansas City Athletics at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington. The Twins won 1-0. Their only run came in the bottom of the seventh inning. Bernie Allen singled to right leading off the inning. Zoilo Versalles then laid down a sacrifice bunt. Kansas City tried and failed to get the lead runner at second with Versalles reaching on the fielder’s choice. Pitcher Jack Kralick then sacrificed the runners up a base. With a runner on third and one out, Lenny Green hit a sacrifice fly to drive in the Twins’ only run of the game.

Kralick had a perfect game going into the ninth inning when he issued a one-out walk. He completed the no-hitter having thrown 97 pitches, striking out 3. Right fielder Bob Allison robbed Kansas City’s Ed Charles of a home run in the fourth.

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