The Twins Almanac: Killebrew Smacks His 500th, Hrbek's Final Game, and Nathan Becomes The Twins All-Time Saves Leader

[Matt Johnson]

Today's Almanac features the Twins all-time home runs and saves leaders, César Tovar breaking up another no-hit bid, and Minnesota high school all-time greats Kent Hrbek, Robb Quinlan, and Dan Johnson. 

Image courtesy of © Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

August 10, 1969: Tovar Breaks Up No-Hit Bid

César Tovar broke up Orioles pitcher Mike Cuellar's no-hit bid leading off the top of the ninth on this date in 1969. Pepito broke up two Baltimore no-hit bids in the ninth inning that season. (Baltimore, of course, got the last laugh, sweeping the Twins in the first-ever ALCS that fall.)

Tovar had his team's only hit five times in his career—tied for the MLB record. (He did it four times with the Twins and once with the Rangers. In the other three games outside of 1969, the one hit came prior to the ninth inning.)

RELATED NOTE: Joe Mauer broke up three no-hit bids in the ninth inning. 

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August 10, 1971: Killebrew Hits 500th & 501st Home Runs

Harmon Killebrew hit his 500th and 501st home runs off Baltimore's Mike Cuellar at Met Stadium on this date in 1971. (Twins lost 4-3.)

The Twins actually gave away Harmon Killebrew 500th Home Run commemorative mugs way back on July 6th, assuming he would have reached the milestone by then, but he was having an uncharacteristically slow stretch in terms of home run production.

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August 10: Happy Birthday, Dan Johnson

Happy 45th birthday to Blaine High School graduate and 10-year major league first baseman Dan Johnson, born in Coon Rapids on this date in 1979. 

He hit not one but TWO of the biggest home runs in Tampa Bay Rays history, in 2008 and 2011. He later attempted to make a comeback as a knuckleball pitcher with the St. Paul Saints.

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August 10, 1994: Hrbek's Final Game

Kent Hrbek played his final game in a Minnesota Twins uniform on this date in 1994, collecting three RBI (including on a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch) and scoring one run in a 17-7 win over the Red Sox at home in the Dome. (It was also Red Sox left fielder Tom Brunansky's final game.)

Kirby Puckett went 2-for-3 with three walks, a grand slam, and three-run homer, for a total of seven RBI. Remarkably, there had only been eight 7-RBI games in Twins history prior to 1994, but it was done three times in 1994: Twice by Kirby Puckett and once by Pedro Muñoz.

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August 10, 2004: Quinlan 21-Game Hitting Streak

Hill-Murray graduate and Golden Gophers all-time great Robb Quinlan hit in his 21st-straight game with the Angels on this date in 2004. It was the longest hitting streak by a rookie in Angels history. He hit .407 in the July and was named American League Rookie of the Month. 

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August 10, 2011: Nathan Becomes Twins Saves Leader

Joe Nathan earned his 255th save on this date in 2011, surpassing Rick Aguilera as the Twins' all-time leader.

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[Karbo]

Another great walk down memory lane! I was at the game when they gave out the Killebrew mugs. I have 2 of them too this day, and they sit proudley on my Twins fan shelve in mt man cave!

[twinstalker]

Thanks, always enjoyable.  Love the Mauer note, that's impressive.  One omission is why Hrbek's last game came on August 10.  Some (younger?) people might guess it had to do with the hit by pitch!

Killebrew was in a slump, no doubt due to the pressure of #500.  Back then 500 was the magical number of all magical numbers, more so than 3000 hits.  I remember listening many nights to the radio thinking he may never get it.  I'm not sure why I missed it that night, but I did and read it in the local northern Iowa paper the next day.  In a weird way it bothered me that he hit #501 that same game.  Even as a little kid I thought it showed fallibility in one of my heroes that he could quickly hit another with the pressure off.  :-)

Killer's bad year to that point was one of the reasons the Twins were bad that year.  Another reason was Carew hadn't gotten back to full Carew-ness after his 1970 injury.  After this game, he was batting .275 with a .318 obp (he was batting .376 when he got hurt June 22, 1970).  Researched, obv.  It was the beginning of a long drought (with a few interesting seasons) that lasted until the 1987 season.

Lastly, as I was looking at 1970 stats, I noticed Minnie Mendoza played a little for Twins and...wait for it...batted .188, which, in his 16 ABs, was the closest he could possibly come to .200.  Another hit in there would have had him at .250.  The Mendoza Line was real!

 

[OBX 3 6 28 29 34]

Tovar was so much fun to watch as well as Oliva and Killebrew and Carew. One of my favorite videos to watch is Tovar and Carew stealing 5 bases off of Lolich and Freehan in the same inning. And those guys were good. Open up a new tab and check it out in YouTube.

[OBX 3 6 28 29 34]

Whoops, the actual video is now gone and only a retelling of what happened. Not sure why because I saw the actual footage on YouTube maybe a year ago with snippets that showed every stolen base including 2 steals of home and I think there were 2 double steals, maybe just 1.

[OBX 3 6 28 29 34]

Another fun player to watch was Bert and his 12 to 6 curveball that made hitters look silly. Long live Captain Hook.