What would sports fanatics do without baseball during the summer? Of course there is fishing, racing, golf and other top-notch activities to keep you busy while the season is right.

Fall and winter’s calendar is jam-packed when you’re an all-around sports nut, and nothing beats the month of October, when each of the Big 4 professional sports leagues are in action.

There’s no getting sick and tired of watching the ball game on summer nights. Short of your team having a terrible go of a season, it’s difficult to think of anything I’d rather turn on the TV for these days.

Right now, it’s Twins, Twins and more Twins. And although they’ve been a .500 team at best this season, there’s been a sense this season that the team is identifying its young core of the future: Brooks Lee, Royce Lewis, Luke Keaschall, Connor Prielipp, Mick Abel, Austin Martin, Kody Clemens have all made their case to be part of the team’s long-term plans. We’ll see who’s left, or who’s added after the Aug. 3 trade deadline, but that’s another story for the future. Until then, if you felt like looking back on the day July 26 in Twins history, there have been some of those moments that maybe helped you fall in love with watching the game on a mid-summer’s night.

 

July 26, 1967

Merritt Pitches 13 Innings

Starting pitcher Jim Merritt pitched a Twins record 13 innings in a 3-2, 18-inning win at Yankee Stadium on this date in 1967. Mickey Mantle went 0-for-6 with a walk in the game. The winning run scored when Rod Carew walked, stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by the catcher, and scored on a Rich Rollins hit to the shortstop. 

 

July 26, 1976

Blyleven Dominates in Return to Minnesota

In his first game against the Twins since being traded to the Rangers at the beginning of June, Bert Blyleven pitched a two-hit shutout at Met Stadium on this date in 1976. Dave Goltz took the tough-luck loss for the Twins, limiting the Rangers to three runs (two earned) over 8.1 innings. 

 

July 26, 1992

Second-half slide halts dreams of Twins’ title defense

Twins fans should have been feeling pretty good on July 26, 1992, as their defending World Series Champions had a three-game lead in the AL West over the Oakland Athletics. They were 54-34 in the first half of the season that year but went 37-38 in the second half and watched their lead dwindle away as the Athletics won the division by six games and the Twins missed the playoffs.   

“There was no single explanation for their collapse,” wrote legendary sportswriter Roger Angell, “because so many things went wrong at the same time.”

 

July 26, 2004

Hunter Steamrolls Catcher

Legendary Twins centerfielder Torii Hunter made a memorable trip home as he steamrolled White Sox catcher Jamie Burke at the plate on July 26, 2004. The Twins would win 6-2 and Burke would spend the night in the hospital, diagnosed with a concussion. “I feel like a truck hit me,” Burke said.

 

July 26, 2010

Twins Connect for 11 Extra-Base Hits

The Twins connected for 20 hits—11 for extra bases—in a 19-1 win in Kansas City on this date in 2010. The Twins were one of the top hitting teams in the Majors that season, finishing third in the MLB in both hits and average. Joe  Mauer went 5-for-5 with a home run and seven RBI. Danny Valencia went 4-for-4, hitting his first major league home run—a two-out opposite field grand slam off reigning Cy Young winner Zack Greinke in the first. Mauer was just the third catcher in major league history with five hits and seven RBI in a game after Walker Cooper in 1949 and Victor Martinez in 2004.

Danny Valencia is the only player in Twins history to hit a grand slam for his first major league home run.

 

July 26, 2019

Cruz Homers in Fifth Straight Game

Former Twins DH Nelson Cruz homered in his fifth straight game on July 26, 2019, tying the Twins record. He hit three home runs the previous day, a second three-home run game just nine days later. 

Three previous Twins had five-game home run streaks. Harmon Killebrew did it in 1964 and on two separate occasions in 1970. Marty Cordova homered in five straight during the 1995 season,  in just his 23rd major league game. And Brian Dozier did it in 2016, the same year he hit a career-high 42 home runs.

 

July 26, 2020

40-Year-Old Hits for 12 Total Bases, Drives In Seven

On This Date in 2020: In just the third game of the COVID-shortened season, 40-year-old DH Nelson Cruz hit two home runs, two doubles, seven RBI, and scored four runs in a 14-2 Twins win in Chicago. 

He was just the sixth player in MLB history aged 40 or over with 12 or more total bases in a game. Babe Ruth holds the record with 13, and Stan Musial, Reggie Jackson, Rickey Henderson, and Jason Giambi also had 12-total base games after age 40. Cruz was just the fourth player in his 40s with seven RBI in a game (Musial, Jackson, Giambi).

 

Information collected via The Twins Almanac and Major League Baseball Reference