The Twins dropped their regular-season finale to the Kansas City Royals on Sunday, but the club still finished with the second-most wins in team history at 101-61.
And they also hit three more home runs in the 5-4 loss to give them 307 for the season, which is one better than the 306 hit by the New York Yankees. The Twins’ 307 home runs is a new major league record.
Martin Perez got the last-game-of-the-season start and wasn’t that good. He allowed three runs over five-plus innings with three walks and five strikeouts, but he also threw 102 pitches. Once the postseason gets under way, I expect Perez, if he’s used at all, will be used out of the bullpen, but not as a starter.
Up next for the Twins: Game 1 of the American League Division Series against the New York Yankees on Friday.
Extra innings…
-Who hit the home runs on Sunday? C.J. Cron (25), Jason Castro (13) and Jake Cave (8).
-Twins infielder Luis Arraez, who hit .334 this season, injured his right ankle in Saturday’s game and now has a Grade 1 sprain, which is not considered severe. However, there is no timeline for his return to the lineup, according to MLB.com.
-Did Twins president Dave St. Peter inadvertently create some bulletin board material to light a fire under the Yankees? Well, the New York Post certainly thinks so. The tabloid has zeroed in on comments Peter made to a Minneapolis radio station last week when he said it’s time to “slay the dragon.”
In response, the Post is getting all the mileage it can out of St. Peter’s comments. There was this story, “Twins issue warning to Yankees: Time to slay the dragon,” and “Twins make big mistake by poking the Yankees ‘dragon,’” and “Twins issue warning to Yankees ahead of the playoffs.”
And now the Twins have to back it up with a series win.