KANSAS CITY 4, MINNESOTA 1 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Tuesday, May 7.
Batting stars: Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4 with a home run. Corey Koskie was 2-for-4. Jacque Jones was 1-for-3 with a walk.
Pitching stars: Matt Kinney pitched six innings, giving up one run on two hits and four walks with four strikeouts. LaTroy Hawkins retired all five men he faced.
Opposition stars: Paul Byrd pitched seven shutout innings, giving up three hits and three walks with four strikeouts. Michael Tucker was 1-for-3 with a triple and a walk. A. J. Hinch was 1-for-2 with two walks.
The game: It was scoreless until the sixth, when Tucker led off with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly by Mike Sweeney. The Royals led off the seventh with singles by Brandon Berger and Neifi Perez, followed by a pickoff error which moved the runners to second and third. The error hurt, as Hinch delivered a two-run single to put the Royals up 3-0. In the eighth, Carlos Beltran doubled and scored on a stolen base-plus-error to make it 4-0. The Twins got their lone run when Guzman homered leading off the bottom of the eighth.
WP: Byrd (5-2). LP: Kinney (1-2). S: Roberto Hernandez (1).
Notes: Brian Buchanan again played right field, going 0-for-3. His average was .304...Jay Canizaro was back at second base, going 0-for-4...Jones raised his average to .307...Koskie raised his average to .311...Torii Hunter was 0-for-3 to make his average .354...A. J. Pierzynski was 0-for-4 and was batting .302...Kinney's ERA fell to 2.95, as he had pitched well in three of his four starts. Unfortunately, that was as good as it would get for him. He would make only one more good start the rest of the season, which for him would only last through the end of June, when he went on the disabled list. The Twins would trade him after the 2002 season...Hawkins had his ERA fall to 1.77...Paul Byrd was a better pitcher than I remember. He started his career in the bullpen for the Mets and Atlanta, converting to a starter role when he was traded to Philadelphia in 1998. He made the all-start team as a Phil in 1999, going 11-4, 3.72 in the first half, although he faded in the second half. He suffered through a couple of injury plagued seasons before having perhaps his best year with the Royals in 2002, going 17-11, 3.90, 1.15 WHIP with a league-leading seven complete games. He missed 2003 due to injury, but then had another fine year with the Angels in 2004, going 12-11, 3.74, 1.19 WHIP. That was as good as it got for him. He had a couple of fair-to-middling years with Cleveland, moved on to Boston, and finished his playing career there in 2009...Roberto Hernandez had missed the month of April due to injury. This was his first save opportunity of the season.
Record: The Twins were 21-13, in first place, a half game ahead of Chicago.