MINNESOTA 3, DETROIT 2 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Saturday, May 4.
Batting stars: Torii Hunter was 2-for-4 with a double and a stolen base, his sixth. Corey Koskie was 1-for-2 with two walks and a stolen base, his second. The Twins had just four hits.
Pitching stars: Eric Milton pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on five hits and three walks with three strikeouts. Mike Jackson pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up two hits.
Opposition stars: Shane Halter was 2-for-3 with a home run (his second), a double, and a walk. Mark Redman pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on two hits and six walks while striking out five. Brandon Inge was 2-for-4 with a double.
The game: The Twins loaded the bases with none out in the second on a walk, a single, and another walk. A popup was the first out, but Tom Prince delivered a sacrifice fly to put the Twins on the board. With Koskie on first and Hunter on third, they pulled off a double steal of second and home to make it 2-0. A sacrifice fly put got the Tigers a run in the fifth and Halter homered in the sixth to tie it 2-2. Detroit got a pair of two-out singles in the ninth, but did not score. In the ninth, Koskie walked and was bunted to second. Pinch-hitter A. J. Pierzynski was intentionally walked and pinch-hitter Bobby Kielty reached on an error to load the bases. Jacque Jones fouled out, but Cristian Guzman delivered an RBI single to win the game for the Twins.
WP: Jackson (2-1). LP: Fernando Rodney (0-1). S: None.
Notes: Guzman was back in the lineup at shortstop and batted second. He went 1-for-5, but the one was obviously a big one...Matthew LeCroy was the DH and went 0-for-3 with a walk, dropping his average to .333...Prince started at catcher and went 0-for-1 to make his average .333 as well...Jay Canizaro again filled in at second, but was dropped to ninth in the order. He went 0-for-1 with two walks...Hunter raised his average to .361...Jackson's ERA fell to 1.50...J. C. Romero pitched two-thirds of an inning without giving up a run, making his ERA 0.51...Shane Halter had a pretty undistinguished career other than 2001. In that season, he batted .284/.344/.467. The rest of his career he hit .235/.299/.360. He mostly played shortstop and third base, although he played some second and first, some outfield, and also pitched and caught in two games each. On October 1, 2000, he pulled off the stunt of playing all nine positions against the Twins. He faced just one batter as a pitcher, walking LeCroy. He was with Kansas City from 1997-98, spent most of 1999 in AAA for the Mets, and was with the Tigers from 2000-2003. He finished his major league career in 2004 with Anaheim, although he also played briefly in AAA for the Cubs in 2005. He is currently a coach for the Southern Athletics Baseball Academy in Texarkana, Texas.
Record: The Twins were 20-11, in first place, a half game ahead of Chicago. I don't remember, but I would think that even this early in the season, it was frustrating to be playing this well and not be able to increase the lead over the White Sox.