MINNESOTA 3, TAMPA BAY 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Monday, April 29.

Batting stars:  Dustan Mohr was 2-for-2 with a double and a walk.  Torii Hunter was 2-for-4 with a double.  A. J. Pierzynski was 1-for-2 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  Eric Milton pitched 7.1 innings, giving up two runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.  Eddie Guardado pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Randy Winn was 2-for-4 with a double.  Brent Abernathy was 2-for-4.  Joe Kennedy pitched 7.1 innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and three walks with five strikeouts.

The game:  Tampa Bay took the lead in the first on three singles, the last a run-scoring hit by Ben Grieve.  The Twins took the lead in the second.  Hunter led off with a double.  Mohr tied it with a one-out single.  Pierzynski doubled to put men on second and third and Denny Hocking followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-1 Twins.  The Devil Rays tied it in the fifth when Russ Johnson led off with a walk, stole second, and scored on Abernathy's single.  The Twins got the lead back in the seventh when Mohr doubled, went to third on a fly ball, and scored on another Hocking sacrifice fly.

WP:  Milton (4-2).  LP:  Kennedy (1-2).  S:  Guardado (9).

Notes:  Jay Canizaro again got the call at second base and also batted second.  He went 0-for-3 with a walk, dropping his average to .175...Matthew LeCroy was again the DH and went 1-for-4, making his average .344...Hocking started at shortstop, replacing Cristian Guzman.  He was 0-for-1, but delivered two important sacrifice flies.  Guzman apparently had a minor injury, as he would not play again until May 4...Jacque Jones was 0-for-4 and was batting .306...Hunter raised his average to .366...Mohr raised his average to .368...Pierzynski was now batting .320...Guardado's ERA fell to 1.50...This was probably Joe Kennedy's second-best major league season as a starter.  He went 8-11, 4.53 with a WHIP of 1.32.  He spent six seasons as a starter in the big leagues and only once had an ERA below 4.50.  For his career, he was 43-61, 4.79, 1.47 WHIP.  Oddly, his best season as a starter came when he was playing in Colorado:  9-7, 3.66.  He had a fine season out of the bullpen for Oakland in 2006, going 4-1, 2.31 in 39 appearances (34 innings, leading one to think he may have often been used as a LOOGY).  It's possible that if he'd remained in that role he might have stuck around a long time, but the Athletics put him back into the starting rotation in 2007 and he went back to pitching the way he had the rest of his career.  He finished 2007 with Toronto and then his career was over.

Record:  The Twins were 15-11, in second place, a half game behind Chicago.