Max Kepler's Game For The Ages

"Gute Hitter"

Move over, David Hassellhoff. Those Germans & Amerikaners just LOVE Max Kepler.

In the first of a four game series against the Cleveland Indians, German-born Max Kepler established his place in team history by hitting his third homerun of the night, a perfect illustration of gluttonous bashing as he hit line drive shots in the first, third, and sixth innings. Each was a two-run shot, if you like disgustingly repetitive and symmetrical homerun videos. Not to mention the disgustingly repetitive German cliches and stereotypes that sports bloggers just can't help themselves from repeating ad infinitum! I'm sure glad I steer clear of that goofy business.

 "Heben sie ein stein!! 
Wunderbar, Maximilian!!"

In doing so, the Berliner (who somehow speaks better English than me) joined some interesting company (see chart below, including Washington Senators), and had a chance to hit a fourth in the eighth (grounded out 3-1 against new Indian relief ace Andrew Miller), and again with the game in the ninth inning, the score 12-5 for Minnesota. He singled [SIGH]. Greed and avarice do, indeed, have their boundaries..

THREE HOME RUN TWINS GAMES - 

Rk	Player	Date	Tm	Opp	Rslt	PA	AB	H	HR	RBI
1	Max Kepler	2016-08-01	MIN	CLE	W 12-5	6	6	4	3	6
2	Justin Morneau	2007-07-06 (2)	MIN	CHW	W 12-0	5	5	3	3	6
3	Tony Oliva	1973-07-03	MIN	KCR	L 6-7	5	5	3	3	3
4	Harmon Killebrew	1963-09-21 (1)	MIN	BOS	W 13-4	5	5	3	3	5
5	Bob Allison	1963-05-17	MIN	CLE	W 11-4	5	5	3	3	6
6	Jim Lemon	1956-08-31	WSH	NYY	L 4-6	4	4	3	3	4
7	Goose Goslin	1925-06-19	WSH	CLE	W 7-5	6	5	3	3	4

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/3/2016.

Kepler looked to be in way too big of a hurry to exit the
postgame interview with FSN North's Audra Martin, IMHO.

One other thing I missed the other night, but was remarked upon by others in the media...a telling insight into Kepler's makeup and confidence as a young player was his response to FSN's Audra Martin she asked, to paraphrase, "What does a game like this do to your confidence level, Max, is it at an all-time high?

Max, not wanting to seem immodest, looked down, smiled, and merely responded "It's maintaining...I don't want to get too high or too low." 

POSTSCRIPT: In this same game, Twins second baseman Jorge Polanco hit two triples, and had a chance to tie the Twins / Senators mark. That hill was too high for him to crest, however. 

Rk	Player	Date	Tm	Opp	Rslt	PA	AB	H	3B	RBI
1	Denard Span	2010-06-29	MIN	DET	W 11-4	5	4	4	3	5
2	Ken Landreaux	1980-07-03	MIN	TEX	W 10-3	5	5	3	3	1
3	Joe Kuhel	1937-05-13	WSH	CHW	W 10-2	5	5	4	3	3
4	Joe Judge	1921-08-09	WSH	SLB	L 6-8	9	7	3	3	2

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used

Generated 8/1/2016.

As it is, this post could become a separate "Game Of The Week" posting on its own merit, with emphasis on the contest as being a window into the Twins future. That just may happen. But for now...

"So Long, everybody" - Herb Carneal

The frauleins dig the long ball. But don't expect this every night!