The San Diego Padres are in a tightly contested race for the top spot in the National League West. After Saturday’s games, the Padres sit just one game back of the Dodgers, with a chance to win the NL West for the first time since 2006.
Their offensive explosion against the Minnesota Twins on Saturday was a huge boost for the team, especially coming off losing four of their last five games. But, there was more to their blowout 12-3 win than it seems on the surface.
As one user on Reddit pointed out, the Padres’ blowout win over the Twins forced the Twins to set incredible Major League Baseball history. The Twins threw the most pitches by a team in a nine-inning game in MLB history.
Padres Force Twins to Make Wild MLB History
The Padres forced the Twins to throw 226 pitches in the 12-3 win. It’s the most pitches for a team in a nine-inning game in MLB history.
MLB pitch counts are only official since 1999, so there might’ve been a nine-inning game prior that matches or beats this record. But, officially, this Padres 12-3 win over the Twins saw the most pitches thrown by a team in a game in MLB history.
The previous record was a game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Washington Nationals in 2017 on October 1st. That was an 11-8 win for the Pirates, as, unlike the Twins, they won the game despite holding the pitch-count record.
In the 12-3 blowout win, the Twins had to face the Padres’ batting order for all nine innings, as the game was played in Minnesota. Thanks to this, the Twins had to get 27 outs against the Padres hitters, who put together an offensive showcase.
What makes this performance even more impressive is how well Twins starter Taj Bradley was pitching. He had 83 pitches through five innings, only allowing one earned run with six strikeouts and three walks, and one hit.
But after he came out, things unraveled. Mick Abel, whom the Twins picked up at the trade deadline in a deal with the Philadelphia Phillies, threw 59 pitches across one inning of work, as he allowed five earned runs, one unearned, on seven hits with one walk and one strikeout.
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After Abel slogged through the sixth inning, he came back out for the seventh, but allowed four straight singles on 20 pitches to cement his rough stat line. Brooks Kirske came in as relief for Abel and threw 44 pitches in the seventh, allowing three runs to score thanks to Elias Diaz’s second home run of the game.
To finish out the eighth and ninth innings, Genesis Cabrera came in and threw 31 pitches while giving up two more runs to make it 12-3. Ryan Fitzgerald, a position player, had a clean nine-pitch ninth inning, which helped set the MLB record for the Twins.
Across a nine-inning game, the Twins threw 226 pitches, or 25.1 pitches per inning. A sign of how many pitches were thrown was how the game took two hours and 58 minutes. Considering the pitch clock and the new rules, a game lasting this long is a testament to how many pitches were thrown in the game.
The Padres’ offensive explosion from the sixth inning through the eighth inning forced the Twins to throw 134 pitches in that three-inning span. The Padres’ pitching staff threw 136 in the entire nine-inning game.
It’s incredible MLB history for the Padres and the Twins. What seemed like another tough game through five innings turned into one of the Padres’ best offensive performances of the year, as they forced the Twins to throw 226 pitches in nine innings of work.
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