KANSAS CITY 16, MINNESOTA 3 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Wednesday, April 17.

Batting stars:  David Ortiz was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his fourth.  Bobby Kielty was 1-for-4 with a home run, his second.

Pitching stars:  None.

Opposition stars:  Joe Randa was 2-for-3 with a double and three RBIs.  Raul Ibanez was 2-for-5 with a double and three RBIs.  Carlos Beltran was 1-for-3 with a home run, two walks, and four RBIs.

The game:  The Twins' winning streak came to a crashing halt.  It was a good game for six innings, though.  Brad Radke ran into first-inning trouble for the first time all season, as an RBI single by Mike Sweeney and a two-run double by Randa put the Royals up 3-0.  It stayed 3-0 until the bottom of the fifth, when Kielty hit a home run to make it 3-1.  Kansas City got the run back in the sixth on Randa's RBI single.  Ortiz hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth to cut the lead to 4-3.  In the seventh, however, a walk, an error, and Beltran's three-run homer put the Royals up 7-3.  Kansas City really put the game away in the eighth, scoring nine runs.  They had five consecutive one-out singles followed by a double.  A walk, a single, another walk, and another double made it 16-3 by the end of the inning.

WP:  Paul Byrd (3-0)  LP:  Brad Radke (2-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  Denny Hocking again played second base.  He went 0-for-3 to drop his average to .115...Jacque Jones went 1-for-4 to drop his average to .361...Doug Mientkiewicz was 1-for-3 to make his average .300...Torii Hunter was 1-for-4 to drop his average to .373...Beltran's three-run homer came off LaTroy Hawkins.  An error made the runs unearned, however, so his ERA dropped to 0.73...The eighth-inning runs came off Bob Wells (five) and Jack Cressend (four)...Ex-Twin Chuck Knoblauch was 1-for-4 to raise his average to .204...Ex-Twin David McCarty was 0-for-1 as a pinch-hitter and was batting .167...Royals starter Paul Byrd pitched six innings, giving up three runs on five hits and no walks with four strikeouts.

Record:  The Twins were 9-6, in third place, 2.5 games behind Cleveland and a half game behind Chicago.