Twins Stat of the Day: August 2021

MLB.com is keeping track of a Stat of the Day for the Twins this season, highlighting a unique, interesting or fun nugget from each game.

• Twins Stat of the Day, July 2021

Aug. 31: Cubs 3, Twins 1 -- Gant maintains the strike zone
John Gant threw five strong innings and allowed two runs on three hits -- but more significantly, the right-hander who arrived in the organization with a one-to-one strikeout-to-walk ratio (56 strikeouts and 56 walks) struck out five without issuing a walk, his first start of the season without a walk, and first such start since Aug. 14, 2018.

Aug. 30: Twins 3, Tigers 2 -- Polanco continues tear
Jorge Polanco extended his hitting streak to three games with a fourth-inning flare to right-center field that scored the Twins' first run. Minnesota's second baseman now has a hit in 10 of his last 12 contests dating to Aug. 16, and he has a .321/.333/.566 slash line during that stretch.

Aug. 29: Brewers 6, Twins 2 -- The stable of pitchers grows
Right-hander Ian Gibaut made his Twins debut with three scoreless innings of relief. He became the 33rd hurler to make an appearance this season, inching the club one step closer to the record of 36 pitchers used by the 2017 squad. The '18 team, which used 34 pitchers, also stands in the way of the '21 club.

Aug. 28: Twins 6, Brewers 4 -- Witnessing more history
Only two days after the Twins were at the plate for an immaculate inning by Chris Sale, they paid witness to another pitching rarity when Jorge Polanco, Josh Donaldson and Max Kepler went down on three pitches against Brewers right-hander Adrian Houser in the fifth inning, marking the first three-pitch inning in Target Field history.

Aug. 27: Twins 2, Brewers 0 -- Albers collects long-awaited win
Andrew Albers earned the victory with 5 1/3 shutout innings and collected his first win as a Twin since Aug. 12, 2013 -- eight years and 15 days prior. That's the sixth-longest span between victories with Minnesota in franchise history, and the second-longest in Twins history (since 1961), behind only Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven, who collected consecutive Minnesota wins on May 23, 1976 and Aug. 8, 1985, nine years and 77 days apart.

Aug. 26: Red Sox 12, Twins 2 -- An immaculate beginning
Chris Sale mowed through Nick Gordon, Andrelton Simmons and Rob Refsnyder on nine pitches in the third inning for his third career immaculate inning, matching Sandy Koufax for the most in MLB history. That frame made history for the Twins, too, as Minnesota was the only team in the Majors that had never been involved in an immaculate inning (on either side) entering the game. The Twins and Rangers remain the only clubs to never have had a pitcher throw an immaculate inning.

Aug. 25: Twins 9, Red Sox 6 (10) -- Sanó hits longest MLB homer of season
Baseballs will sometimes clear the Green Monster and fall to earth on Lansdowne Street, but it's a safe bet that very, very few in the storied history of Fenway Park left the yard where Miguel Sanó's third-inning blast did -- just to left of straightaway center field, over the most distant part of the 37-foot wall. The homer measured 495 feet, according to Statcast, the longest in the Majors this season, blowing past Tommy Pham's 486-foot blast from last week. Sanó owns three of the five longest homers in the American League in 2021.

Aug. 24: Red Sox 11, Twins 9 -- Polanco leads the way in RBIs
Jorge Polanco's productivity over the last two months has been unmatched by any Twins -- or by any hitter in the Junior Circuit. Polanco entered the series opener against the Red Sox with an American League-leading 40 RBIs since July 1, two ahead of José Abreu's second-place total in that span. He added to that lead with three more RBIs against Boston, including a pair that came on a two-run homer that gave him a career-high 23 blasts on the season.

Aug. 21: Yankees 7, Twins 1 -- Damn Yankees
The Twins dropped their third straight game to the Yanks on Saturday, proving that the Bronx Bombers are still their kryptonite. Minnesota entered the series having won their past four sets this season, including against all three division leaders in the American League (Astros, White Sox, Rays). But the Twins are now 26-64 (.289 winning percentage) against the Yankees since 2008, which is their worst record against any AL club over that span.

Aug 20: Yankees 10, Twins 2 -- Free bases burn Barnes
Rookie starter Charlie Barnes struggled Friday night in an outing marred by too many free passes. Along with two hit batsmen, he walked five batters, which marked the fourth time this season that a Twins starter issued five walks in a game: Kenta Maeda and J.A. Happ in June and José Berríos in May. Only one of those pitchers (Maeda) is still with Minnesota.

Aug. 19: Yankees 7, Twins 5 -- Polanco joins Twins great
Jorge Polanco has been on quite a run for the Twins of late, and he kept it going with a 3-for-4 showing. In his team-leading 37th multihit game of the season, he smacked a two-run ground-rule double and added an RBI single. By doing so, he became the first Twin with three or more hits and three or more RBIs at Yankee Stadium since Justin Morneau's two-homer game on April 18, 2012.

Aug. 18: Twins 8, Indians 7 (11 innings) -- Polanco walks it off ... again!
No, this isn't a rerun -- Jorge Polanco really did hit a walk-off winner for the third time in four games. Each of the Twins' last three wins has ended in a Polanco walk-off, making him the first player in club history to provide a walk-off RBI in three straight team victories. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last player on any team to accomplish that feat during the regular season was Tony Peña, who did so for the 1982 Pirates.

Aug. 17: Indians 3, Twins 1 -- Quality rookie starters
Rookie right-hander Bailey Ober twirled the first quality start of his career by allowing two earned runs in six innings -- and he picked a good time for it. Coupled with fellow rookie Griffin Jax's two earned runs allowed in six innings on Aug. 16, they are the first set of Twins rookies to log quality starts in consecutive games since Aug. 18-19, 2012, when Scott Diamond and Samuel Deduno achieved the feat.

Aug. 16: Twins 5, Indians 4 (10 innings) -- Polanco walk-off whisperer
First, Jorge Polanco walked off Tampa Bay with a sacrifice fly on Aug. 15; then, he finished off Cleveland with a two-out RBI double in the 10th inning of the series opener at Target Field. He's the first Twins player to walk off consecutive games since Jacque Jones did it July 19-20, 2005, with a walk-off single and homer against the Orioles. Polanco is also the first Twins player with four or more walk-offs in a season since Kent Hrbek had five in 1987.

Aug. 15: Twins 5, Rays 4 -- Three straight series W's
The Twins' walk-off win gave them their third straight winning series, a feat they accomplished for the first time this season. The last time Minnesota strung together three consecutive series wins was last August, when the club claimed a four-game series against Kansas City, a three-game set against Milwaukee and a three-gamer against Kansas City.

Aug. 14: Twins 12, Rays 0 -- Lopsided shutout victory
Kenta Maeda, Ralph Garza Jr. and Danny Coulombe combined for a three-hit shutout of the Rays while the bats got to work behind them, giving the Twins their largest margin of victory in a shutout since Sept. 12, 2017 (16-0 win over the Padres). Minnesota had never before beaten Tampa Bay by double-digits in a shutout.

Aug. 13: Rays 10, Twins 4 -- Rooker hits 'em hard
Brent Rooker clubbed a career-high four hits to snap an 0-for-19 skid in the series opener. Three of those knocks left the bat in excess of 105 mph: a fourth-inning single at 108.1 mph, a fifth-inning single at 106.2 mph and a seventh-inning homer at 107.8 mph. He is the fifth Twins player since Statcast was introduced in 2015 with at least three such hits in a game, joining Nelson Cruz, Joe Mauer, Miguel Sanó and Byron Buxton.

Aug. 11: Twins 1, White Sox 0 -- Twins keep playing the spoiler
The Twins have won back-to-back series over American League division leaders (the Astros and the White Sox), with the AL East-leading Rays coming to Target Field this weekend. In addition, the Twins have won consecutive series for the second time this season, previously done April 1-4 at Milwaukee and April 5-7 at Detroit.

Aug. 10: Twins 4, White Sox 3 -- Jax cranks up strikeout numbers
Griffin Jax's 10-strikeout performance against the White Sox over six innings was all the more impressive considering he never had exemplary strikeout numbers in his Minor League career -- but he took the K's to rarely seen heights in this outing. He became the first Twins rookie to record 10 strikeouts in a start since Trevor May on Sept. 14, 2014, and was only the second Twins pitcher since pitch counts consistently began being recorded in 1988 to record 10 strikeouts using 83 or fewer pitches.

Aug. 9: White Sox 11, Twins 1 -- Sanó hits hardest Twins HR
In an otherwise forgettable evening for the Twins, Miguel Sanó at least ensured that the Twins wouldn't be shut out by Lucas Giolito -- and he did it loudly with a laser of a solo shot to the upper deck in left field that left his bat at 116.7 mph, the hardest-hit homer by a Twins hitter in the Statcast era. The previous record had belonged to a 116.6 mph blast by Nelson Cruz earlier this season, on April 5.

Aug. 8: Twins 7, Astros 5 -- Polanco packs powerful punch
With two homers in Minnesota's series-clinching victory at Minute Maid Park, Polanco brought his season total to a team-leading 20 and has now clubbed 11 balls over the fence since July 1, tied with George Springer of the Blue Jays for most in the American League in that span. His fifth-inning shot to the Crawford Boxes in left field marked the first opposite-field blast of his career from either side of the plate.

Aug. 7: Astros 4, Twins 0 -- Rooker can mash
Since he was recalled from Triple-A St. Paul late last month, rookie outfielder and designated hitter Brent Rooker has started to recover some of the big swing that can pave his way to a bigger role on the team in the future. He cranked a 109.4 mph double to the left-field corner in the fourth inning, matching Miguel Sanó for the team lead with nine base hits in excess of 100 mph since his recall on July 23.

Aug. 6: Twins 5, Astros 4 (11) -- Polanco's streak rolls on
Before all the late-inning dramatics took hold, Jorge Polanco continued his torrid second half with a double and run scored in the sixth inning, extending his hitting streak to 10 games. That matched the Twins' longest hitting streak of the season, as Polanco pulled even with 10-game stretches from both Byron Buxton (April 1-20) and Nelson Cruz (April 5-16).

Aug. 5: Twins 5, Astros 3 -- Jax thrives without strikeouts
In this era of soaring strikeouts, Twins rookie Griffin Jax showed that pitching to contact can still produce results against the notoriously strikeout-averse Astros. He allowed only one run and three hits through 5 1/3 innings to earn the win without collecting a strikeout, which made him the second Twins starter to throw five or more innings without a strikeout this season, joining José Berríos' start against the White Sox on July 1. You have to go back a few more years to find the last Twins starter to earn a win without a strikeout: Bartolo Colón, on Aug. 25, 2017.

Aug. 4: Reds 6, Twins 5 -- Arraez a bright spot
Luis Arraez went 3-for-3 and now has eight multi-hit games in his last 17 games. He is batting .419 (26-for-62) during this stretch. In 12 Interleague games this season, the utility man is batting .378 (17-for-45).

Aug. 3: Twins 7, Reds 5 -- Polanco rolling on offense
Jorge Polanco's go-ahead three-run homer not only powered the Twins to victory, it extended his hitting streak to seven games. He is hitting .364 (28-for-77) with four doubles, seven home runs and 20 RBIs in his last 19 games. He is also hitting .364 (12-for-33) over his seven-game streak with three home runs.

Aug. 1: Cardinals 7, Twins 3 -- Sanó keeps on-base streak alive
Though Miguel Sanó saw his streak of reaching base multiple times snapped at five straight games, he still knocked a double in the second inning off Adam Wainwright to extend his on-base streak to six straight. He entered the game with a .439 on-base percentage in his last nine games, the second-highest mark in the American League among players with at least 40 plate appearances in that time.