Twins Stat of the Day: June 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: May 2021

June 30: White Sox 13, Twins 3 -- Cruz blasts off in blowout
One day shy of his 41st birthday, Nelson Cruz gave the Twins one of the few memorable moments in a blowout loss to the White Sox, crushing a solo shot an estimated 453 feet to left field in the sixth inning off Dylan Cease. It marked his 17th homer measured at 450 feet or longer in the Statcast era, second-most in the Majors in that stretch behind Giancarlo Stanton (27).

June 29: White Sox 7, Twins 6 -- Donaldson's 111 mph homer
Josh Donaldson invited some controversy when he appeared to yell to his teammates, "It's not sticky anymore," following his two-run homer off Lucas Giolito, evidently in reference to Major League Baseball's recent crackdown on foreign substances. His bat also spoke loudly on that blast, as the 111.2 mph exit velocity on the liner to left field was his second-hardest homer of the season, behind a 113.1 mph blast against Detroit on May 8.

June 27: Twins 8, Indians 2 -- Cruz still going strong
The Twins bashed three homers to blow out Cleveland in the series finale, and the longest belonged -- of course -- to Nelson Cruz, who now owns 33 homers since turning 40 years old, extending his record for most in Twins history for any player following his 40th birthday. (Dave Winfield previously held the record, at 31 such blasts.) Cruz, four days away from his 41st birthday, also moved into a tie with Juan González and Andruw Jones for 47th on baseball's all-time home run list with his 434th career homer.

June 25: Twins 8, Indians 7 -- Arraez gets super extra
Luis Arraez just couldn't stop knocking extra-base hits in Minnesota's comeback win, with triples in the first and third innings and a go-ahead, two-run, two-out double in the sixth inning that accounted for the Twins' victory. Not only was he the first Twins player with multiple triples in a game since Ehire Adrianza on Aug. 30, 2017, but he also joined Rod Carew, Chuck Knoblauch and Carlos Gómez as the only players in Twins' history with two triples and a double in a game.

June 24: Indians 4, Twins 1 -- Berríos gets the calls
José Berríos had Cleveland hitters fooled to the point where he recorded 25 called strikes -- one shy of his career high -- and tallied five strikeouts looking among his nine for the series opener. Those five called strike threes match the most in a game by any Twins pitcher since Statcast was introduced in 2015, matching an outing of his from June 12 and starts from Fernando Romero (May 7, 2018) and Andrew Albers (Aug. 11, 2016).

June 22: Reds 10, Twins 7 -- Extra-base hits everywhere
The Twins cracked four extra-base hits in their five-run eighth inning against Cincinnati's bullpen, including homers from Trevor Larnach and Max Kepler and doubles from Miguel Sanó and Alex Kirilloff. It was Minnesota's first frame with four extra-base hits since Sept. 17, 2019, when they also hit two homers and two doubles in the third inning of a game against the White Sox.

June 21: Twins 7, Reds 5 (12 innings) -- A marathon, and more
It took five hours and 14 minutes before Miguel Sanó finally homered to get the 12-inning Interleague series opener out of the way on Monday night (and Tuesday morning), marking the longest game by time since MLB changed its extra-innings rules before the 2020 season. It was the longest game since the Cardinals and D-backs played six hours and 53 minutes over 19 innings and the Rockies and Giants dueled for five hours and 31 minutes in 16 innings on Sept. 24, 2019.

June 20: Twins 4, Rangers 2 -- Trio of hat tricks for the Twins
The Twins' 14-hit outburst in the series finale marked their largest output since May 2, thanks to three-hit games from Andrelton Simmons, Luis Arraez and Trevor Larnach. It marked the second game this season in which the Twins had three players notch three hits apiece after Byron Buxton, Josh Donaldson and Jorge Polanco accomplished the feat on April 21.

June 19: Twins 3, Rangers 2 -- Cruz keeps bashing at 40
In case you somehow haven't heard by now, Nelson Cruz is 40 years old and will turn 41 on July 1. That hasn't slowed his bat at all. He crushed a 436-foot homer off the batter's eye in center field in the fourth inning to move into a tie with Dave Winfield for the most home runs by a Twins player after turning 40 years old, with 31 such blasts. That round-tripper also marked No. 432 in Cruz's career, moving him past Cal Ripken Jr. and into sole possession of 49th place on the all-time leaderboard in AL and NL history.

June 18: Twins 7, Rangers 5 (10 innings) -- A little extra walking
After Luis Arraez's go-ahead RBI triple to start the 10th inning, the Twins tacked on two more runs on a pair of bases-loaded walks by rookies Ryan Jeffers and Alex Kirilloff, marking the second time in club history with multiple bases-loaded walks in extra innings. The only other time it happened was on May 18, 1979, when the Twins accomplished the feat against Kansas City.

June 16: Twins 7, Mariners 2 -- Cruz's blast ties Iron Man
Nelson Cruz's 421-foot, three-run homer tied him with Cal Ripken Jr. for 49th on MLB's all-time home run list with 431. Cruz sits three shy of Andruw Jones and Juan González, who each hit 434 home runs in their careers, for 47th all-time.

June 15: Mariners 10, Twins 0 -- A night to forget for Happ
J.A. Happ had a rough night as he went just four innings, gave up nine hits, six runs (five earned) and struck out five. His outing made him the fifth starter in franchise history to have a start of four innings with nine-plus hits, six-plus runs and five-plus strikeouts. The only other pitchers to do so are George Dumont (June 30, 1917), Camilo Pascual (June 29, 1955), Kyle Lohse (July 30, 2004) and Jake Odorizzi (July 24, 2019).

June 14: Mariners 4, Twins 3 -- Celestino's first MLB homer
Rookie Gilberto Celestino hit his first career big league homer, becoming the 20th Twins player to hit a home run this season. That's tied for the second-most players that Minnesota has had homer in a season (along with the 1961 team), trailing only the 2004 club, which had 21 players go deep at least once.

June 13: Astros 14, Twins 3 -- Larnach shows continued promise
The Twins had a tough series finale, but if they soon have to turn their eye toward the future, Trevor Larnach could be a reason to believe it will be a bright one. Larnach went 2-for-4 with a double, raising his on-base percentage to .386 through his first 31 career games. His .382 mark entering Sunday was the highest among all rookies with at least 80 plate appearances.

June 12: Twins 5, Astros 2 -- Gordon runs into record books
Nick Gordon reached base twice, with a single and a passed ball on a strikeout -- and made the most of those opportunities on the basepaths by immediately swiping second base both times. He's 5-for-5 on stolen base attempts this season, making him the first player in Twins history with five steals in his first 10 career games, and the first in franchise history with more than one multisteal appearance through 10 games.

June 11: Astros 6, Twins 4 -- Twins lead Majors in homers
With their third four-homer game of the season (two from Josh Donaldson, one from Nelson Cruz and one from Miguel Sanó), the Twins assumed the MLB lead in homers, at 92, one ahead of the Giants, who clubbed one long ball on Friday to bring their season total to 91. Minnesota has multiple homers in six of its past eight games.

June 10: Twins 7, Yankees 5 -- Late power show
Josh Donaldson and Nelson Cruz both crushed two-run homers in the ninth inning to send the Twins to a dramatic walk-off win, their first against the Bombers since July 5, 2014. It was the first time that Minnesota hit multiple homers in the ninth inning or later since July 20, 2016, when Max Kepler and Eddie Rosario each belted ninth-inning homers against the Tigers to send the Twins to victory.

June 9: Yankees 9, Twins 6 -- Sanó matches Mauer on HR list
First baseman Miguel Sanó collected his second three-hit game of the season, including a 355-foot, opposite-field home run in the fifth inning that marked the 143rd of his career. With that homer, Sanó moved into a tie with Joe Mauer for 11th on the Twins' career list since the franchise moved to Minnesota in 1961.

June 8: Yankees 8, Twins 4 -- Jax makes historic MLB debut
It likely wasn't the debut that Griffin Jax had envisioned, with the right-hander allowing homers to Gary Sánchez and Miguel Andújar in a three-run ninth inning. But the 26-year-old still made history as the first Air Force Academy graduate to play in the Major Leagues with his inning of relief against the Yankees, meaning that all three service academies that play Division I baseball (along with Army and Navy) have now been represented in The Show.

June 6: Twins 2, Royals 1 -- Triple play first of its kind in 31 years
Miguel Sanó claims to have seen Minnesota's triple play unfold in his head before it actually happened -- and if he did indeed, give the big man credit, because such a play hasn't happened in more than three decades. Sanó snared Nicky Lopez's bunt on the fly, and flipped to second to double off Jarrod Dyson before Andrelton Simmons threw to Nick Gordon at first to triple off Cam Gallagher, giving the Twins their first 3-6-4 triple play in club history, and the first in MLB since the Mariners did so on May 31, 1980.

June 5: Twins 5, Royals 4 -- Run, Nellie, run
Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said after the game that he could hear Nelson Cruz "through about three walls and two doors right now still talking about it" -- with "it" being the stolen base that nobody saw coming. At age 40, Cruz took off on a pitch that went to the backstop in the third inning and was credited with his first stolen base since May 12, 2018. He's the first Twins player 40 years or older to steal a base since Torii Hunter on Aug. 7, 2015.

June 4: Royals 14, Twins 5 -- Homers keep coming
On an otherwise forgettable day at Kauffman Stadium, the Twins kept their homer streak alive with back-to-back shots in the eighth inning from Miguel Sanó and Nick Gordon, who hit his first career homer with his dad in attendance. Those blasts made it 15 games in a row with at least one long ball for Minnesota, one shy of the longest such streak in the Majors this season (Atlanta, 16 games) and one shy of the club record, done three times.

June 3: Royals 6, Twins 5 -- Donaldson crushes a pair
Had it not been for an inexplicable two-error play in the bottom of the seventh, this might have ended up being Josh Donaldson's signature game with the Twins. With a first-inning blast off Royals starter Kris Bubic, a fifth-inning double and a game-tying solo homer off reliever Jakob Junis in the seventh, Donaldson tallied his first multi-homer game with Minnesota, and his first since Aug. 25, 2019, when he hit two against the Mets during his season with the Braves.

June 2: Orioles 6, Twins 3 -- Triple time for Jeffers
In 801 career Minor League plate appearances and 101 trips to the plate as a big leaguer, 23-year-old catcher Ryan Jeffers had never hit a triple as a professional. He can finally check that one off his baseball bucket list after a long drive to right-center in the eighth inning caromed off the outstretched arm of center fielder Cedric Mullins, bouncing away for an RBI triple that added to his 441-foot homer earlier in the game.

June 1: Orioles 7, Twins 4 -- Minaya gives up homer
In the bottom of the sixth inning on Tuesday, Juan Minaya came out of the bullpen to face the bottom of the O's order. On the first pitch of the inning, he gave up a solo home run to Maikel Franco. It was the first time since June 15, 2019, that the righty reliever allowed a homer to the first batter he faced. Of the 15 home runs he's allowed in his career, five of them were to the first batter of his outing.