Thread: Most Heart Breaking Twins loss ever?

Dunno if it has been mentioned, but game 4 of the 2004 ALDS was disgusting. Up 5-2 late, Rincon gives up that bomb to Ruben Sierra.

Originally Posted by freshinthehouse

Dunno if it has been mentioned, but game 4 of the 2004 ALDS was disgusting. Up 5-2 late, Rincon gives up that bomb to Ruben Sierra.

This. That was the best Twins team in this entire run. Up 5-1 going to the 8th and Rincon had been a stud all year and coughed it up. Haven't won a playoff game since. That whole series was a heartbreaker.

This thread is depressing, but enjoyable on some level. Lots of good mentions so far.

I'm going to go with game 1 of the 2006 ALDS, Santana vs Zito. That was heartbreaking to me because there was so much momentum and anticipation going into that postseason, but once we lost that game, I knew it was over.

The various playoff losses to the Yankees where we had a late lead and blew it were all heartbreaking, but there were so many that they all just kind of blend together for me.

The Vikings have broken a lot of hearts too, but you've at least got to give them style points for finding new, interesting and creative ways to torture their fans. I mean to say, taking yourself out of range of a game-winning field goal in the NFC championship game with a too many men on the field penalty?! Not just anyone could come up with that. With the Twins, it's the opposite. Losing to the same team. The same way. Every. Single. Year.

Originally Posted by Ben B

My two votes have already been mentioned. ALDS Game 2 in 2004 and the ALDS game in 2006 against the A's with Kotsay's inside the park homer. I was at the A's game and you could just feel the Dome deflate. I knew it was over then.

Was that the play Torii botched? I was there also and you're right, the life went out of the place after that.

Originally Posted by drjim

This. That was the best Twins team in this entire run. Up 5-1 going to the 8th and Rincon had been a stud all year and coughed it up. Haven't won a playoff game since. That whole series was a heartbreaker.

2010's team was pretty good too. I went in to that playoffs pretty high on that team so Game 1 was a soul-crusher. But I'd rank this game ahead of it, but I would nominate Game 2 of that same series. Koskie's ball stays in the park and we may win that sucker. Extra inning dramatics only made it worse. We had a chance to put a 2-0 stranglehold on that series too.

Originally Posted by drjim

This. That was the best Twins team in this entire run. Up 5-1 going to the 8th and Rincon had been a stud all year and coughed it up. Haven't won a playoff game since. That whole series was a heartbreaker.

Yessir. Every playoff loss since hasn't been as bad IMO because we were the inferior team. Even in 2006 our rotation was in shambles once Radke got hurt. A few things go our way in 2004 and we get past the Yankees.

Originally Posted by drjim

Originally Posted by freshinthehouse

Dunno if it has been mentioned, but game 4 of the 2004 ALDS was disgusting. Up 5-2 late, Rincon gives up that bomb to Ruben Sierra.

This. That was the best Twins team in this entire run. Up 5-1 going to the 8th and Rincon had been a stud all year and coughed it up. Haven't won a playoff game since. That whole series was a heartbreaker.

I'd choose Game 2 of that series over Game 4. Up one game to zero (which the Twins won in Yankee stadium), the boys rally to tie up the second game in Yankee stadium in the eighth inning. In extra innings, the Twins gain a lead in the top of the 12th on (if I remember right) a home run by Hunter. But Nathan goes out for his third consecutive inning to try and close it out and loses on three walks and a double.

The Twins would have been up 2-0 and coming home had they held onto that one. Game 4 was practically anti-climactic after that.

Originally Posted by Izzy997

Originally Posted by Ben B

My two votes have already been mentioned. ALDS Game 2 in 2004 and the ALDS game in 2006 against the A's with Kotsay's inside the park homer. I was at the A's game and you could just feel the Dome deflate. I knew it was over then.

Was that the play Torii botched? I was there also and you're right, the life went out of the place after that.

Yep, that was the Torii play. I remember Cuddyer and Morneau had just hit back-to-back homers to tie it and the place was electric...and then the very next inning, that happened.

2004 ALDS game 2.

Originally Posted by ashburyjohn

Originally Posted by TwinsFanInPhilly

Twins were tied for the AL West lead only a few days prior and were still in the race on 9/28/1984 when this happened:

Box Score of Game played on Friday, September 28, 1984 at Cleveland Stadium

I remember it like it was yesterday.

Is that the one where Gaetti said afterward in self-reproach, "it's pretty tough to play this game with both hands wrapped around your throat"?

Or the one where Ron Davis cried?

It's the Gaetti game. Although i think the quote was closer to "it's hard to throw to first with both hands wrapped around your neck."

Definitely the end of '67.

2010 game 1. Twins up 3-0 on Sabathia entering the 6th. Lirano gets the first out and then falls apart, giving up 4 runs. Twins tie it in bottom of 6th but Hardy strikes out (after taking a meatball for strike one) with bases loaded. Crain gives 2-run homer to Tex in the 7th. Even without Morneau, that was probably our best Twins team. Gah.

Game 2 in 2010 was brutal. Pavano had gone 6 strong and the score was 2-2. Pavano went out for the 7th (he had only thrown like 75 pitches at that point), and walked Jorge Posada. Then he fell behind Berkman and Gardy stormed out to argue with the umpire and was ejected. I was at the game, and the crowd had been roaring the whole game but after that, everyone was screaming. Then Berkman crushed a double to the gap in front of the bullpen. Jorge scored all the way from 1st. Pavano put the next two guys on base and Ullger pulled him. Capps gave up another run in the 9th for good measure. Mauer got on in the bottom of the 9th but was erased on a double play, Twins went down 1-2-3, having lost 2 home games to the Yankees, heading to NY for game 3.

I'd have to agree with Ben B. I was at the game when Torii Hunter dove for Kotsay's sinking line drive--inside-the-park home run. We were sitting in center field, and had a perfect, if heartbreaking view of the whole play. The ball rolled to the wall, right below where we were sitting.

But that wasn't quite as heartbreaking as when Calvin Griffith traded Butch Wynegar to the Yankees. He was my boyhood hero. Roy Smalley was traded to the Yanks that year, too, a month before Butch was sent packing. To this day, my two boys have been taught not to swear, unless the word is "damn." And then, it's only allowed if the next word from their mouths is "Yankees."

All time, it would have to be game seven, 1965, when Sandy Koufax threw a three-hit shutout. My dad still thinks Koufax is the greatest pitcher, ever.

Originally Posted by Roaddog

Dont remember what year, thinking 1993. Eric Fox hits a 3 run HR off of Rick Aguilera. A's went on to win the division and sent the twins into an era of putrid baseball

Wasn't that 1992 and was the start of the slide to oblivion known as the 90's Twins

My 2 biggest losses were letting Harmon go to the Royals and when he passed away.

Originally Posted by old nurse

Wasn't that 1992 and was the start of the slide to oblivion known as the 90's Twins

July 29, 1992 Oakland Athletics at Minnesota Twins Play by Play and Box Score - Baseball-Reference.com

Up by 3 games entering the series, and Fox's HR completed the sweep by Oakland to tie it up. The Twins actually regained the division lead temporarily in the next week, but lost 5 of 6 in a road trip to Comiskey and Milwaukee and we know how the rest of the 90s went after that.

Originally Posted by wxman91

July 29, 1992 Oakland Athletics at Minnesota Twins Play by Play and Box Score - Baseball-Reference.com

Up by 3 games entering the series, and Fox's HR completed the sweep by Oakland to tie it up. The Twins actually regained the division lead temporarily in the next week, but lost 5 of 6 in a road trip to Comiskey and Milwaukee and we know how the rest of the 90s went after that.

Yeah, the '92 season was shaping up to have a better Twins team than the '91 champs, and then... suddenly it wasn't. At all.

This is an interesting topic because when I saw the title I thought, “hmm, I can’t really think of one.” So I guess that’s good! The one that came to mind was in the 2002 ALCS game 5 when the Angels scored something like 10 runs in an inning. I mean geez, we were already down in the series and the fact that none of our pitchers could get anyone out was just depressing. And since we had won game one of that series and had home field advantage it was disappointing, not exactly heartbreaking though.

I agree that any of our series against the Yankees pretty much sucked but would you really call them heartbreaking? They’re the Yankees and even though I hoped they would win of course, when the Twins lost to them it wasn’t exactly heartbreaking because you kind of expected it to happen. Maybe if we had been one strike away from beating the Yankees in any of those series and then lost that would have been heartbreaking but we were never that close.

Francisco Liriano returns after a five week stay on the DL against Oakland. Second inning he leaves and the Twins lose their co-Ace. Throw in Radke pitching on guts and 2006 might be the biggest what if team in Twins history.