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1984 Minnesota Twins season

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1984 Minnesota Twins
LeagueAmerican League
DivisionWest
BallparkHubert H. Humphrey Metrodome
CityMinneapolis, Minnesota
Record81–81 (.500)
Divisional place2nd
OwnersCalvin Griffith (majority owner, with Thelma Griffith Haynes)
General managersCalvin Griffith
ManagersBilly Gardner
TelevisionKMSP-TV
(Bob Kurtz, Ted Robinson)
Spectrum
(Harmon Killebrew, Dick Bremer)
Radio830 WCCO AM
(Herb Carneal, Joe Angel)
← 1983 Seasons 1985 →

The 1984 Minnesota Twins season was a season in American baseball. The team spent much of the season contending for the division title, but finished with a record of 81–81, tied for second in the American League West, and three games behind the division winner Kansas City Royals. Their 81–81 record was an 11-game improvement from 1983, and a 21-game improvement from their 102-loss season of 1982 (the third-worst record in franchise history).

1,598,692 fans attended Twins games, a Twins attendance record, but still the fifth-lowest total in the American League. Towards the end of the season, Calvin Griffith sold the club to local investor Carl Pohlad.

Offseason

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Regular season

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  • May 4 - Oakland's Dave Kingman popped up in the fourth inning. The ball found a drainage hole in the Metrodome's roof and never returned to the playing surface. Kingman was awarded a ground-rule double. In the ninth, he hit another ball out—but this one was just into the seats.
  • May 8 – Kirby Puckett got four hits in his major league debut, at Anaheim Stadium.
  • June 29 – Andre David made his major league debut and started in right field for the Twins. In his first at bat in the second inning, he homered off Detroit Tigers pitcher Jack Morris to become the fourth Twin to homer in his first-ever at bat. David joined Rick Renick (1968), Dave McKay (1975) and Gary Gaetti (1981); three of the four were against Detroit pitching. In 2015, Eddie Rosario joins the list when he homers on the very first pitch he sees in the majors.
  • Only one Twins player made the All-Star Game, catcher Dave Engle.
  • September 28 – The Twins suffered their biggest blown lead for a loss in team history. Leading Cleveland 10-0 in the third inning, and 10-2 in the sixth, they lost the 9-inning game 11-10. In the ninth, relievers Ron Davis and Ed Hodge loaded the bases. Hodge allowed a walk-off single.

Offense

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Kent Hrbek hit .311 with 27 HR and 107 RBI. Tom Brunansky hit 32 HR and 85 RBI. Leadoff batter Kirby Puckett hit .296 and scored 63 runs. Gary Gaetti hit 5 HR and 65 RBI.

Pitching

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Starter Frank Viola was 18-12. Reliever Ron Davis had 29 saves. He also blew 14 saves, to tie a major league record set in 1976 and tied two other times. Mike Smithson allowed 35 homers, the most in the majors.

Defense

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Gary Gaetti led the major leagues playing in 162 games. His 334 assists led all of baseball this season. Outfield teammates Kirby Puckett (center) and Tom Brunansky (right) also led the major leagues in assists.

Season standings

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AL West
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Kansas City Royals 84 78 .519 — 44‍–‍37 40‍–‍41
California Angels 81 81 .500 3 37‍–‍44 44‍–‍37
Minnesota Twins 81 81 .500 3 47‍–‍34 34‍–‍47
Oakland Athletics 77 85 .475 7 44‍–‍37 33‍–‍48
Chicago White Sox 74 88 .457 10 43‍–‍38 31‍–‍50
Seattle Mariners 74 88 .457 10 42‍–‍39 32‍–‍49
Texas Rangers 69 92 .429 14½ 34‍–‍46 35‍–‍46

Record vs. opponents

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1984 American League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

[10] [11] [12] [13] [14]

Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET KC MIL MIN NYY OAK SEA TEX TOR
Baltimore — 6–7 8–4 7–5 7–6 7–6 5–7 7–6 5–7 5–8 6–6 9–3 9–3 4–9
Boston 7–6 — 9–3 7–5 10–3 7–6 3–9 9–4 6–6 7–6 7–5 4–8 5–7 5–8
California 4–8 3–9 — 8–5 8–4 4–8 6–7 8–4 4–9 8–4 7–6 9–4 5–8 7–5
Chicago 5–7 5–7 5–8 — 8–4 4–8 5–8 7–5 8–5 7–5 6–7 5–8 5–8 4–8
Cleveland 6–7 3–10 4–8 4–8 — 4–9 6–6 9–4 7–5 2–11 7–5 8–4 9–3 6–7–1
Detroit 6–7 6–7 8–4 8–4 9–4 — 7–5 11–2 9–3 7–6 9–3 6–6 10–2 8–5
Kansas City 7–5 9–3 7–6 8–5 6–6 5–7 — 6–6 6–7 5–7 5–8 9–4 6–7 5–7
Milwaukee 6–7 4–9 4–8 5–7 4–9 2–11 6–6 — 5–7 6–7 4–8 6–6 5–6 10–3
Minnesota 7–5 6–6 9–4 5–8 5–7 3–9 7–6 7–5 — 8–4 8–5 7–6 8–5 1–11
New York 8–5 6–7 4–8 5–7 11–2 6–7 7–5 7–6 4–8 — 8–4 7–5 6–6 8–5
Oakland 6–6 5–7 6–7 7–6 5–7 3–9 8–5 8–4 5–8 4–8 — 8–5 8–5 4–8
Seattle 3–9 8–4 4–9 8–5 4–8 6–6 4–9 6–6 6–7 5–7 5–8 — 10–3 5–7
Texas 3–9 7–5 8–5 8–5 3–9 2–10 7–6 6–5 5–8 6–6 5–8 3–10 — 6–6
Toronto 9–4 8–5 5–7 8–4 7–6–1 5–8 7–5 3–10 11–1 5–8 8–4 7–5 6–6 —


Notable transactions

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Roster

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1984 Minnesota Twins
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Game log

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Regular season

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1984 regular season game log: 81–81 (Home: 47–34; Away: 34–47)
April: 11–13 (Home: 8–5; Away: 3–8)
# Date Time (CT) Opponent Score Win Loss Save Time of Game Attendance Record Box/
Streak
1 April 3 7:35 p.m. CST Tigers 1–8 Morris (1–0) Williams (0–1) – 2:10 34,381 0–1 L1
2 April 5 12:15 p.m. CST Tigers 3–7 Petry (1–0) Viola (0–1) – 2:33 8,373 0–2 L2
— April 23 @ Tigers Postponed (Rain) (Makeup date: April 24)
17 April 24 4:30 p.m. CST @ Tigers 5–6 Morris (4–0) Davis (2–2) – 2:16 N/A 8–9 L1
18 April 24 7:21 p.m. CST @ Tigers 3–4 Abbott (1–0) Viola (0–3) López (1) 2:29 20,315 8–10 L2
May: 13–12 (Home: 8–4; Away: 5–8)
# Date Time (CT) Opponent Score Win Loss Save Time of Game Attendance Record Box/
Streak
June: 13–14 (Home: 6–7; Away: 7–7)
# Date Time (CT) Opponent Score Win Loss Save Time of Game Attendance Record Box/
Streak
74 June 29 4:35 p.m. CST @ Tigers 5–3 Williams (3–3) Morris (12–4) Davis (15) 2:50 N/A 37–37 W1
75 June 29 8:00 p.m. CDT @ Tigers 5–7 Hernández (4–0) Filson (4–2) – 3:00 44,619 37–38 L1
76 June 30 6:35 p.m. CDT @ Tigers 3–4 Petry (11–3) Schrom (1–3) Hernández (14) 2:43 48,095 37–39 L2
July: 17–10 (Home: 13–6; Away: 4–4)
# Date Time (CT) Opponent Score Win Loss Save Time of Game Attendance Record Box/
Streak
77 July 1 12:30 p.m. CDT @ Tigers 9–0 Viola (8–7) Berenguer (4–6) – 2:21 43,484 38–39 L1
55th All-Star Game in San Francisco, CA
85 July 12 7:35 p.m. CDT Tigers 4–2 Viola (10–7) Petry (11–4) Davis (17) 2:18 29,729 44–41 W2
86 July 13 7:35 p.m. CDT Tigers 3–5 (11) Hernández (5–0) Lysander (0–1) López (10) 3:11 30,050 44–42 L1
87 July 14 7:35 p.m. CDT Tigers 5–6 (12) Hernández (6–0) Walters (0–3) – 3:40 46,017 44–43 L2
88 July 15 1:15 p.m. CDT Tigers 2–6 Rozema (6–1) Schrom (2–4) López (11) 3:00 27,965 44–44 L3
August: 15–16 (Home: 4–7; Away: 11–9)
# Date Time (CT) Opponent Score Win Loss Save Time of Game Attendance Record Box/
Streak
September: 12–16 (Home: 8–5; Away: 4–11)
# Date Time (CT) Opponent Score Win Loss Save Time of Game Attendance Record Box/
Streak
Legend:        = Win        = Loss        = Postponement
Bold = Twins team member

Player stats

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= Indicates team leader

Batting

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Starters by position

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Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Dave Engle 109 391 104 .266 4 38
1B Kent Hrbek 149 559 174 .311 27 107
2B Tim Teufel 157 568 149 .262 14 61
3B Gary Gaetti 162 588 154 .262 5 65
SS Houston Jiménez 108 298 60 .201 0 19
LF Mickey Hatcher 152 576 174 .302 5 69
CF Kirby Puckett 128 557 165 .296 0 31
RF Tom Brunansky 155 567 144 .254 32 85
DH Randy Bush 113 311 69 .222 11 43

Other batters

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Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Tim Laudner 87 262 54 .206 10 35
Darrell Brown 95 260 71 .273 1 19
Ron Washington 88 197 58 .294 3 23
Dave Meier 59 147 35 .238 0 13
Lenny Faedo 16 52 13 .250 1 6
Andre David 33 48 12 .250 1 5
Pat Putnam 14 38 3 .079 0 4
Chris Speier 12 33 7 .212 0 1
Jim Eisenreich 12 32 7 .219 0 3
Mike Hart 13 29 5 .172 0 5
John Castino 8 27 12 .444 0 3
Jeff Reed 18 21 3 .143 0 1
Greg Gagne 2 1 0 .000 0 0
Álvaro Espinoza 1 0 0 ---- 0 0

Pitching

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Starting pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Frank Viola 35 257.2 18 12 3.21 149
Mike Smithson 36 252.0 15 13 3.68 144
John Butcher 34 225.0 13 11 3.44 83
Ken Schrom 25 137.0 5 11 4.47 49

Other pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Pete Filson 55 118.2 6 5 4.10 59
Ed Hodge 25 100.0 4 3 4.77 59
Albert Williams 17 68.2 3 5 5.77 22
Bobby Castillo 10 25.1 2 1 1.78 7

Relief pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Ron Davis 64 7 11 29 4.55 74
Rick Lysander 36 4 3 5 3.49 22
Len Whitehouse 30 2 2 1 3.16 18
Mike Walters 23 0 3 2 3.72 10
Larry Pashnick 13 2 1 0 3.52 10
Keith Comstock 4 0 0 0 8.53 2
Jack O'Connor 2 0 0 0 1.93 0
Curt Wardle 2 0 0 0 4.50 5

Awards and honors

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All-Star Game

Farm system

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See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Toledo Mud Hens International League Cal Ermer
AA Orlando Twins Southern League Charlie Manuel
A Visalia Oaks California League Dave Hilton
A Kenosha Twins Midwest League Duffy Dyer
Rookie Elizabethton Twins Appalachian League Fred Waters

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Elizabethton

Notes

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  1. ^ Jeff Little at Baseball Reference
  2. ^ John Butcher at Baseball Reference
  3. ^ Mark Grace at Baseball Reference
  4. ^ Jay Bell at Baseball Reference

References

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  • Johnson, Lloyd; Wolff, Miles, eds. (1997). The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (2nd ed.). Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America. ISBN 978-0-9637189-8-3.
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