There weren't many bright spots in the Twins' 9-1 loss Friday to Baltimore. In fact, arguably the only bright spot was a solo home run by Minnesota third baseman Trevor Plouffe to get the Twins on the scoreboard in the top of the seventh inning.
Plouffe's 11th homer of the year was relatively meaningless in the grand scheme of Friday's game, but it was an historic moment in Twins lore. The home run was the 10,000th in franchise history, dating back to the days of the Washington Senators.
In doing so, Minnesota becomes the 16th franchise in baseball history to reach the 10,000-homer plateau.
While Plouffe has the most recent home run in franchise history, the first of the 10,000 home runs belonged to Billy Clingman, according to Baseball Almanac. Clingman homered on April 27, 1901 with the Senators against the Philadelphia A's. It was only the second game in the franchise's history. Washington finished the 1901 season with 33 home runs, paving the way for the 10,000th blast more than a century later.
The home run by Plouffe against Baltimore also snapped a drought by the Twins of six straight games without a home run. The last time Minnesota homered prior to Friday was one week ago -- Aug. 22 against Detroit when the Twins hit four homers against the Tigers. In fact, Plouffe was the last Twin to homer before Friday, as his ninth-inning homer in that game against Detroit off second baseman (yes, an infielder) Andrew Romine capped Minnesota's 20-6 blowout victory.
Plouffe's home run Friday came against Orioles starting pitcher Miguel Gonzalez. The Twins third baseman connected on a 3-2 pitch and sent it deep to the seats in left field, putting himself and Minnesota in the record books.
During the game, Twins director of baseball communications Dustin Morse tweeted a picture of the baseball, indicating that the team was able to retrieve the milestone home run from the fan who caught it. The 10,000th home run ball will be displayed at Target Field when Minnesota returns home on Tuesday for a series against the White Sox.
When Plouffe went deep Friday, it was the 105th homer of the season for the Twins. Brian Dozier leads the team with 20, while Josh Willingham -- who was traded to the Royals recently -- had 12 with Minnesota. Plouffe is now second among current Twins after his 11th homer. Minnesota still has a ways to go in the final month of the season to catch last year's pace of 151 homers.
The Twins/Senators franchise has had just two players win home run titles, but Harmon Killebrew did so a total of six times between 1959 with the Senators to 1969 with the Twins. His career high was 49 homers, which he hit twice -- in 1964 and 1969. The only other player in franchise history to lead the league in homers was Roy Sievers, whose 42 homers with Washington in 1957 earned him the home run crown.
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