DETROIT 5, MINNESOTA 1 IN DETROIT

Date:  Saturday, April 27.

Batting stars:  Matthew LeCory was 2-for-4 with a double.  Brian Buchanan was 2-for-4.  Torii Hunter was 1-for-3 with a home run (his eighth) and a walk.

Pitching stars:  Tony Fiore pitched four innings of relief, giving up one run on four hits and no walks with one strikeout.  Jack Cressend pitched a perfect inning of relief.

Opposition stars:  Nate Cornejo pitched a complete game, giving up one run on nine hits and a walk with eight strikeouts.  Bobby Higginson was 3-for-4 with a triple.  Randall Simon was 2-for-4 with a home run, his sixth.

The game:  In the first inning, Higginson had an RBI triple and scored on Simon's single to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead.  Hunter hit a one-out homer in the second to cut the lead to 2-1, but Detroit scored two more in the third on Simon's two-run homer to make it 4-1.  The Twins left the bases loaded in the second and left two on in the third and fourth.  They stranded ten for the game and went 1-for-10 with men in scoring position.

WP:  Cornejo (1-2).  LP:  Matt Kinney (1-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  LeCroy was again at DH...Buchanan was in right field, replacing Dustan Mohr...Jay Canizaro got the start at second base and was 1-for-1 with a hit-by-pitch...Jacque Jones was 1-for-5 and was batting .330...Hunter dropped his average to .366...LeCroy raised his average to .348...Buchanan raised his average to .333...A. J. Pierzynski was 0-for-4 to make his average .319...Matt Kinney started and pitched just three innings, allowing four runs on five hits and a walk with three strikeouts...Fiore gave up his first run of the season in ten innings...This was the only complete game and the only win of the season for Cornejo.  He did pitch two complete games the next season, 2003.  In 2002 he would stay in the Tigers rotation through May 20, then was sent to AAA, coming back as a September call-up.  He would be in the rotation for all of 2003, but went 6-17, 4.67.  For his career, he was 12-29, 5.41 in 56 starts.  He wasn't all that good at AAA, either, going 13-8 but with a 4.24 ERA and a WHIP of 1.44.  But the Tigers had terrible teams then, and he'd been a first-round draft choice, so he got his shot.  He stayed in the Tigers organization through 2005, was in AAA with the White Sox in 2006, and then was done.

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.