MINNESOTA 13, DETROIT 7 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Sunday, April 14.

Batting stars:  Matthew LeCroy was 3-for-4 with a triple and two doubles.  Doug Mientkiewicz was 3-for-4 with a walk.  Torii Hunter was 2-for-4 with a walk and three RBIs.  Bobby Kielty had a pinch-hit home run.

Pitching stars:  Jack Cressend, LaTroy Hawkins, and Tony Fiore each pitched a scoreless inning, with Hawkins striking out two.

Opposition stars:  Craig Paquette was 4-for-4 with two home runs and two doubles.  Robert Fick was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.  Dmitri Young was 2-for-4.

The game:  Young had an RBI single in the first and Paquette hit a solo homer in the second to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead.  LeCroy tripled and scored in the bottom of the second to cut the lead to 2-1.  In the fourth, RBI singles by Denny Hocking, Mientkiewicz, Hunter, and Corey Koskie put the Twins ahead 5-2.  Things were looking good, but the Tigers came roaring back in the sixth.  They led off the inning with two walks and Randall Simon followed with a three-run homer to tie the score.  Paquette then doubled, chasing starter Joe Mays, and Fick singled later in the inning to put Detroit up 6-5.  Paquette struck again in the eighth, leading off with a home run to give Detroit some insurance.  It wasn't enough, as it was the Twins turn to come back, this time with an eight-run inning.  Kielty hit a pinch-hit two run homer to tie it 7-7.  Two singles and a walk loaded the bases and David Ortiz had a pinch-hit  three-run triple to give Minnesota a 10-7 lead.  Hunter had a run-scoring single to make it 11-7, a bases-loaded walk to Kielty made it 12-7, and Jacque Jones hit a sacrifice fly to close out the scoring.  The Tigers went down in order in the ninth.

WP:  J. C. Romero (2-0).  LP:  Matt Anderson (0-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  LeCroy was used as the DH...LeCroy and Ortiz each had one triple on the season, and they both came in this game.  It was the only triple of LeCroy's career.  Ortiz went hit nineteen triples in his career, with a high of three in 2004...Pinch-hitters really came through for the Twins, with Kielty hitting a two-run homer and Ortiz a three-run triple...Hocking was used at second base...Mays pitched well for five innings, but fell apart in the sixth.  His line was five innings, six runs, eight hits, two walks, and no strikeouts...Hawkins lowered his ERA to 0.82...Romero and Fiore kept their ERAs at zero, with Romero having pitched 8.2 innings and Fiore making his season debut in this game...Steve Sparks was the starter for Detroit.  He pitched six innings, giving up five runs (one earned) on eight hits and one walk with two strikeouts...Anderson had been unscored upon in three appearances before this game.  Here he faced five batters and did not retire any, giving up four hits and a walk...The Tigers fell to 0-11 on the season...Jones was 1-for-5 to make his average .358...Mientkiewicz raised his average to .321...LeCroy was batting .375...Hunter raised his average to .353...Dustan Mohr was 0-for-5 but was still batting .361...In three starts, Mays now had an ERA of 11.57.  He missed the next three months due to injury, not pitching again for the Twins until July 20.

Record:  The Twins were 8-5, in second place, 3.5 games behind Cleveland.