DETROIT 3, MINNESOTA 2 IN DETROIT (10 INNINGS)
Date: Friday, April 26.
Batting stars: Jacque Jones was 3-for-5 with a double. Matthew LeCroy was 2-for-4 with a double. Denny Hocking was 2-for-5.
Pitching star: Rick Reed pitched seven innings, giving up one run on seven hits and no walks with three strikeouts.
Opposition stars: Bobby Higginson was 2-for-4 with a home run, his fourth. Robert Fick was 2-for-5 with a home run, his second. Jose Macias was 3-for-4.
The game: RBI singles by Jones and LeCroy put the Twins up 2-0 in the third. Higginson led off the fourth with a home run to cut the lead to 2-1. The Twins opened the fifth with a double and a single but could not score. The Tigers started the eighth with three singles, two of them bunt singles. A double play brought home the tying run. In the tenth, Jones got a one-out single, took second on a passed ball, and advanced to third on a ground out, but a pop fly ended the inning. Fick led off the tenth with a home run to end the game.
WP: Matt Anderson (2-1). LP: Bob Wells (0-1). S: None.
Notes: Cristian Guzman got a day off, with Hocking playing shortstop...LeCroy was again the DH...Jay Canizaro got the start at second base, going 1-for-4 with a double...Wells had come in to start the ninth with the score tied. He had a 6.94 ERA. Eddie Guardado did not pitch in this game...Future Twin Seth Greisinger started for Detroit and pitched five innings, giving up two runs on six hits and two walks with five strikeouts...Juan Acevedo perhaps should have been listed as an opposition star as well. He struck out three in three shutout innings of relief, giving up just one hit and no walks...Robert Fick actually made the all-star team in 2002. It's a selection that probably says more about the 2002 Tigers than it says about him--he hit .270/.331/.433 that season, respectable numbers but hardly numbers that scream all-star. He did have a pretty good first half--.290/.352/.479 at the break--but again, not numbers that were astounding or anything. One suspects Fick was the Tigers version of 1999 Ron Coomer.
Record: The Twins were 14-9, in second place, a game behind Chicago.