The Year in Review

2009 was a historic season for the Twins. They closed out their 28-year stay in the Metrodome; Joe Mauer had one of the greatest seasons ever for a catcher; and the Twins completed an unprecedented comeback to win the AL Central. They climbed into a tie for first place on October 3rd for the first time since May 14th, and when they won the tiebreaker game it was the first time they'd been alone atop the division since they were 3-2 on April 10th. Although, perhaps there is some precedent, as the Twins also extended the Tigers' division title drought with a late-season comeback in 2006, which now sits at 22 years.

Also, an interesting note: the Twins' longest win streak of the season until mid-September was 4 games. After September 12th, they had 3 separate winning streaks of 5 or more games.


Record: 87-76
Best record at any point (games above .500): 87-76
Worst record at any point (games below .500): 56-62
Days in first (and biggest lead): 7 (1 GA)
Days in last (and furthest out of first): 0 (7 GB)
Longest win streak: 6 games
Longest losing streak: 6 games
Runs scored/runs against: 817/765
Most runs scored/most runs allowed: 20/16
Shutouts/times shut out: 7/4
Extra inning games: 14
Longest game: 16 innings


Hitter of the Year: Joe Mauer
Pitcher of the Year: Joe Nathan

Bizarro World Hitter of the Year: Alexi Casilla
Bizarro World Pitcher of the Year: Francisco Liriano

I'm not going to write anything about those guys here because that'll be covered when I break down each player's individual season.