Minnesota Twins Opening Day Countdown: 72, Pascual’s complete games
The Minnesota Twins are just 72 days away from opening day in Baltimore. As we near that day, we will tap into Twins history related to each number as we get closer!
The Minnesota Twins are preparing for a 2018 season with expectations after making the playoffs in 2017 as a Wild Card. We will have bring out numbers from team history that represent the number of days until opening day on March 29th in Baltimore.
The Minnesota Twins started their Twin Cities adventure with a fairly talented team in place already. One of the best of that team was a charismatic young Cuban righty by the name of Camilo Pascual.
Pascual’s complete games
Pascual had made his debut with the Senators in 1954 as a 20 year old, throwing 119 1/3 innings in 48 games, 4 of them starts. He would work as a swing man again in 1955 and for much of 1956 before moving into the rotation for good in 1957.
Pascual had a penchant for taking a start the distance. He was not a guy who threw every 3 days, racking up 40 or more starts in a season, but he did lead the American League in shutouts 3 times.
Pascual made his first of 7 All-Star teams in 1959 with the Senators, and he would represent the Minnesota Twins four times as an All-Star. In the first four seasons of the franchise’s tenure in Minnesota, Pascual was a gem on the mound.
Over those four seasons, he compiled a 71-48 won-lost record with a 3.14 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP, but more impressively, he averaged 16 complete games and 256 innings per season over those four seasons, with an 84/210 BB/K ratio.
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Pascual would become the first 20-game winner in Twins history in 1962, and in that season he led the league in shutouts for his third and final season.
The Twins would trade Pascual to the new Senators organization before the 1967 season, but he would only have one more 200 inning season left in his right arm.
In his 13 years with the Senators/Twins organization, Pascual tossed 119 complete games in total, but he threw 72 of those once the organization had moved to Minnesota, so he’s our feature for today.
Pascual’s arm wasn’t able to hold up to the stress of that many innings, as was the case with many pitchers of his era, but it is impressive that he completed 132 of the 404 starts in his career, or 32.7%
We look forward to that first day of the season against Baltimore!