CLEVELAND 9, MINNESOTA 3 IN CLEVELAND
Date: Wednesday, April 10.
Batting stars: Torii Hunter was 3-for-4 with a stolen base. Dustan Mohr was 2-for-4 with a home run, his second. A. J. Pierzynski was 1-for-2 with a double and a walk.
Pitching stars: Jack Cressend struck out two in a scoreless inning. LaTroy Hawkins pitched a scoreless inning.
Opposition stars: Jim Thome was 2-for-5 with a grand slam and a double, driving in five. Ellis Burks was 2-for-3 with a double and two walks. Matt Lawton was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.
The game: Thome doubled in a run in the first inning to give the Indians a 1-0 lead. In the second, the Twins loaded the bases with none out. Mohr singled home the tying run and Pierzynski hit a sacrifice fly to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead, but a double play ended the inning. In the bottom of the inning, Cleveland scored six runs to put the game away early. Cristian Guzman made two errors in the inning, making all six runs unearned. An error brought home the first run, Lawton singled in the second, and Thome hit a two-out grand slam. It killed the rally, but it also killed the Twins' hopes of winning the game. Burks singled home a run in the fourth to make it 8-2. Mohr homered leading off the fifth to make it 8-3, but that was as close as Minnesota would come. Omar Vizquel hit a sacrifice fly in the eighth to round out the scoring.
WP: Danys Baez (2-0) LP: Rick Reed (1-1) S: None.
Notes: Jay Canizaro got another chance at second, going 0-for-2 with a walk. His average was .167...Jacque Jones was 1-for-4 to make his average .432...Mohr raised his average to .393...Reed pitched five innings, allowing eight runs (only two earned) on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts...Baez pitched 5.1 innings, giving up three runs on six hits and four walks with no strikeouts...Lawton was batting .306.
Record: The Twins were 5-4, in second place, three games behind Cleveland.
Sounds like there was plenty of TWINS BASEBALL!! in the bottom of the second.
I think I recognize everyone in this photo other than the guy holding the glove on the bottom row, second from the right.
David Arias, IIRC.
Others:
Milty and Minty,
Luie and Guzy,
Koskie and Radke and 'Zynski,
Jonesey and Torii-y,
and Joe Mays.
Vizquel was 35 in 2002, coming off his worse season in his career. He finished a decade later. Though, perhaps truthfully finished actually in 2007.
Vizquel had 1761 hits and a career 84 OPS+ going into the the 2002 season. Somehow, despite declining skills as he aged, he managed 1116 hits with an 81 OPS+ over another 11 seasons. But you’re right to say that 2007 was the turning point. Over 2002-2006, his average OPS+ was 93; from 2007-2012, though, his average OPS+ fell to 63.