Twins: Manuel Margot's 16-pitch at-bat against the Rangers was one for the ages

Minnesota Twins outfielder Manuel Margot led off the game against the Texas Rangers Friday night but it didn’t seem like anything special. When Margot flew out to left field, however, it was at the end of a 16-pitch at-bat that drove up Andrew Heaney’s pitch count and set the tone in a 4-3 win.

The at-bat began with a ball off the plate before Margot fouled off a four-seam fastball and swung and missed at another fastball. While Margot was down early in the count 1-2, the at-bat was just beginning as Heaney missed high with a fastball to even the count.

Margot fouled off a slider and a changeup before Heaney missed high with a fastball and the rest of the at-bat turned into a marathon before Margot fouled off seven straight fastballs before fouling off a slider on the 15th pitch of the at-bat.

Heaney threw one more fastball and Margot timed it up, ripping a 102.4 mph liner into left field, but it was right at Wyatt Langford for the first out of the inning.

As you can imagine, Margot’s marathon at-bat had some notable achievements. The 16-pitch plate appearance was the longest in MLB this season behind Nick Castellanos, who had a 15-pitch plate appearance against Logan Gilbert and the Seattle Mariners on Aug. 4.

Phil Miller of the Star Tribune noted it was the longest at-bat of Margot’s nine-year career and Heaney’s 11-year career and Twins Radio pointed out that Margot had the longest leadoff plate appearance in Twins history going back when Baseball Reference started tracking pitch counts with the 1988 season. Luis Arraez held the previous record after finishing off a 14-pitch at-bat against Cody Morris of the Cleveland Guardians with a single on Sept. 18, 2022.

Want more? Margot’s plate appearance was the second longest to lead off a game since 1988 behind Pat Listach of the Milwaukee Brewers drew a walk after a 17-pitch marathon against Oakland’s Ron Darling on Sept. 26, 1992.

Related: Carlos Santana's 3-run homer leads Twins over Rangers, 4-3

The at-bat gave the Twins an advantage as Heaney only lasted 4.1 innings. Still, they couldn’t capitalize in the first inning as Carlos Santana lined out to center fielder Leody Taveras and Max Kepler lined out to right fielder Adolis García on the next two pitches to end the inning.

“I would say we smashed a few balls after [Margot’s at-bat] and then you end up with nothing,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli told MLB.com. “You’re walking away with 18 pitches seen, and two really good swings and one pretty good spring. I mean, it’s life. That happens. Baseball is kind of a funny game. It’s a little bit different than other games. Sometimes you do everything right and you’re sitting there scratching your head, trying to figure out a different way to get it done."

“But that’s the type of inning that – I don’t really glorify things like this too often – it’s the kind of inning that you should probably walk away with a couple of runs, the way it went. Or at least score some point along the way. But that’s life. You’ve got to move on, and we moved on and played a good game.”

The Twins would eventually get to Heaney when Ryan Jeffers hit a solo home run in the third inning and Carlos Santana launched a three-run homer in the top of the fifth inning to earn a 4-3 victory.

Minnesota will look to win its third straight game to open the series when they face the Rangers at 6:05 p.m. CT Saturday.