Most Heart Breaking Twins loss ever?

[Craig Arko]

Definitely the end of '67.

[gunnarthor]

2010 game 1. Twins up 3-0 on Sabathia entering the 6th. Lirano gets the first out and then falls apart, giving up 4 runs. Twins tie it in bottom of 6th but Hardy strikes out (after taking a meatball for strike one) with bases loaded. Crain gives 2-run homer to Tex in the 7th. Even without Morneau, that was probably our best Twins team. Gah.

[Willihammer]

Game 2 in 2010 was brutal. Pavano had gone 6 strong and the score was 2-2. Pavano went out for the 7th (he had only thrown like 75 pitches at that point), and walked Jorge Posada. Then he fell behind Berkman and Gardy stormed out to argue with the umpire and was ejected. I was at the game, and the crowd had been roaring the whole game but after that, everyone was screaming. Then Berkman crushed a double to the gap in front of the bullpen. Jorge scored all the way from 1st. Pavano put the next two guys on base and Ullger pulled him. Capps gave up another run in the 9th for good measure. Mauer got on in the bottom of the 9th but was erased on a double play, Twins went down 1-2-3, having lost 2 home games to the Yankees, heading to NY for game 3.

[Don't Feed the Greed Guy]

I'd have to agree with Ben B. I was at the game when Torii Hunter dove for Kotsay's sinking line drive--inside-the-park home run. We were sitting in center field, and had a perfect, if heartbreaking view of the whole play. The ball rolled to the wall, right below where we were sitting.

 

But that wasn't quite as heartbreaking as when Calvin Griffith traded Butch Wynegar to the Yankees. He was my boyhood hero. Roy Smalley was traded to the Yanks that year, too, a month before Butch was sent packing. To this day, my two boys have been taught not to swear, unless the word is "damn." And then, it's only allowed if the next word from their mouths is "Yankees."

 

All time, it would have to be game seven, 1965, when Sandy Koufax threw a three-hit shutout. My dad still thinks Koufax is the greatest pitcher, ever.

[old nurse]

Dont remember what year, thinking 1993. Eric Fox hits a 3 run HR off of Rick Aguilera. A's went on to win the division and sent the twins into an era of putrid baseball

Wasn't that 1992 and was the start of the slide to oblivion known as the 90's Twins

[ScottyB]

My 2 biggest losses were letting Harmon go to the Royals and when he passed away.

[wxman91]

Wasn't that 1992 and was the start of the slide to oblivion known as the 90's Twins

 

July 29, 1992 Oakland Athletics at Minnesota Twins Play by Play and Box Score - Baseball-Reference.com

 

Up by 3 games entering the series, and Fox's HR completed the sweep by Oakland to tie it up. The Twins actually regained the division lead temporarily in the next week, but lost 5 of 6 in a road trip to Comiskey and Milwaukee and we know how the rest of the 90s went after that.

[ashbury]

July 29, 1992 Oakland Athletics at Minnesota Twins Play by Play and Box Score - Baseball-Reference.com

 

Up by 3 games entering the series, and Fox's HR completed the sweep by Oakland to tie it up. The Twins actually regained the division lead temporarily in the next week, but lost 5 of 6 in a road trip to Comiskey and Milwaukee and we know how the rest of the 90s went after that.

 

Yeah, the '92 season was shaping up to have a better Twins team than the '91 champs, and then... suddenly it wasn't. At all.

[Sarah]

This is an interesting topic because when I saw the title I thought, “hmm, I can’t really think of one.” So I guess that’s good! The one that came to mind was in the 2002 ALCS game 5 when the Angels scored something like 10 runs in an inning. I mean geez, we were already down in the series and the fact that none of our pitchers could get anyone out was just depressing. And since we had won game one of that series and had home field advantage it was disappointing, not exactly heartbreaking though.

 

I agree that any of our series against the Yankees pretty much sucked but would you really call them heartbreaking? They’re the Yankees and even though I hoped they would win of course, when the Twins lost to them it wasn’t exactly heartbreaking because you kind of expected it to happen. Maybe if we had been one strike away from beating the Yankees in any of those series and then lost that would have been heartbreaking but we were never that close.

[Pius Jefferson]

Francisco Liriano returns after a five week stay on the DL against Oakland. Second inning he leaves and the Twins lose their co-Ace. Throw in Radke pitching on guts and 2006 might be the biggest what if team in Twins history.

[StormJH1]

Was that the play Torii botched? I was there also and you're right, the life went out of the place after that.

Yeah I don't care what anyone else says, I've been here since 03 and never seen the Twins win a playoff series. This game was the worst.

 

Retrosheet Boxscore: Oakland Athletics 5, Minnesota Twins 2

 

All of the losses to the Yankees could be chalked up to Piranha-ball - losing the second game at home to the Moneyball A's and knowing we were going down in Mauer and Morneau's breakout year (and with Santana) was the worst.

[TopGunn#22]

Both already mentioned Game 7 1965 W.S. I was 7 and thought Koufax was awesome! Final game of 1967 vs. Red Sox. And just to further show my age...game #2 of the 1969 ALCS vs. Baltimore lost in extra innings.

[twinsfaninsaudi]

O'Leary's late triple saves Sox | SouthCoastToday.com

 

It is an odd one. But I was twelve years old and living in New Jersey at the time and my family had driven to Boston to see the Twins for my Dad's birthday. It was a meaningless game for both teams, but it cemented Rich Becker as my least favorite Twin of all time. He should've caught that ball. We were sitting in centerfielder too.

 

There were numerous other ones I had to sit through in the Bronx for the 5 years I was in NJ. But this one was the worst. East coast fans are just not nice also, they are not family appropriate and if you are wearing the other team's hat thry do not even care if you are a kid.

[IdahoPilgrim]

September 28, 1995 - the day Puckett got hit by the pitch. It was the last game he ever played.

[Otto von Ballpark]

I'm sure this isn't the most heartbreaking one, but I'll never forget May 17, 2002. I was in college at the time and had stayed up way too late watching this game...

 

The Twins were playing the Yankees in New York

 

I remember this one too, exact same circumstances (watching it late in college).

 

I've always felt that this game set the tone for the Gardenhire Twins record against the Yankees. The plucky 2001 Twins didn't seem to have a problem with NY. Neither did previous Tom Kelly Twins teams, beyond their inherent late-90s sucking in general. Nothing that seemed to foretell a curse.

[Otto von Ballpark]

Can't comment on 1965 or 1967 (or 1984, for that matter). My worst have generally been mentioned here already:

 

2004 ALDS Game 2 (decent expectations, curse hadn't set in yet)

2004 ALDS Game 4

2009 ALDS Game 2 (I should have known better, but I didn't)

2002 May 17 vs Yankees (for starting the curse IMHO)

2006 ALDS Game 1 (BIG expectations, no Yankees, what happened?)

2006 ALDS Game 2

2010 ALDS Game 1 (bad games, but by now the curse was expected)

2010 ALDS Game 2

2008 Game 163 (expectations were low)

2002 ALCS Game 5 (not a fun way to go out)

 

I'd like to add another:

 

2001 August 14 vs Cleveland -- season expectations were low but this pretty much knocked us out for good that year (although the four-game sweep in Tampa that preceded this game didn't help matters):

August 14, 2001 Minnesota Twins at Cleveland Indians Box Score and Play by Play - Baseball-Reference.com