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!

Baseball Digest Feature - Ken Landreaux And His 1980 Hitting Streak

Ken Landreaux hit in 31 straight games for the Twins in 1980, which is still the team record. Brian Harper had hit in 25 games in 1990, followed by Lenny Green's 24 in 1961. John Swol's Twins Trivia site posted an excellent list of the top 45 in team history last July 27.


You should go to a Baseball Digest spread on Landreaux from August of '80 - the version is here at my Google docs page. There is one other pdf newspaper linked below, with facts from the game his streaked ended (May 31, 1980, BBRef.)

An inset box (below) taken from the Hutchinson (KS) News of June 1, 1980, details Landreaux's attitude after the streak was stopped by Baltimore's Scott McGregor with a nice group of quotes, and a list of hitting streaks.

For me, Ken Landreaux was a lot of fun to watch. He had a smooth swing, could take the pitch the other way, and had occasional pull power as a left handed batter. He partially filled the offensive void, if only for one strong season, following the trade of Rod Carew (the transaction which included Ken) to the Angels in February, 1979. Nearly eclipsing the feat in importance was the fact that by then, Kenny's super afro and mutton chops placed him near the top of Minnesota's All-Time Sideburn and Hair-Do Roll Of Fame - and bests Brian Dozier's in overall effect.

                  Indiana (Penn.) Gazette, May 30, 1980

Hutchinson (KS) News, June 1, 1980

To borrow from the great old broadcaster, I say:

"So Long, Everybody!" - Herb Carneal