MINNESOTA 3, KANSAS CITY 2 IN KANSAS CITY
Date: Monday, May 13.
Batting stars: Brian Buchanan was 2-for-4 with a home run, his fourth. Jay Canizaro was 1-for-4 with a walk. David Ortiz was 1-for-4 with a double.
Pitching stars: Brad Radke pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit and no walks with two strikeouts. J. C. Romero pitched 2.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit while striking out one. Eddie Guardado pitched a perfect inning and struck out one.
Opposition stars: Neifi Perez was 2-for-4 with two doubles. Michael Tucker was 1-for-2 with two walks and a stolen base, his sixth. Jeremy Affeldt pitched 5.2 innings, giving up two runs on five hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
The game: There was no score until the fourth, when the Royals took a 1-0 lead on an RBI ground out. The Twins tied it in the fifth when Tom Prince led off with a double and scored on a Cristian Guzman single. Kansas City went back in front in the bottom of the fifth on two walks and a Guzman throwing error. The Twins tied it again in the sixth on Buchanan's two-out solo home run. In the eighth, Doug Mientkiewicz led off with a double and scored from first on an Ortiz double to give the Twins the lead 3-2. The Royals did not get a baserunner after Perez' one-out double in the sixth.
WP: Romero (3-0). LP: Jason Grimsley (1-2). S: Guardado (13).
Notes: Apparently there was nothing wrong with the Twins that playing Not The Yankees couldn't fix...Jacque Jones was again out of the starting lineup, with Dustan Mohr in left and Buchanan in right. This is the third time in five games he was out of the lineup--perhaps he had a minor injury. He would be back in the lineup regularly starting with the next game...Canizaro was the second baseman and leadoff batter...Ortiz returned to the starting lineup as the DH, having been out since April 18...Prince caught in place of A. J. Pierzynski. He went 1-for-3 and was batting .324...Torii Hunter was 0-for-4, dropping his average to .331...Mohr was 1-for-4 and was batting .306...Denny Hocking was at third base and went 0-for-2...Radke pitched the first two innings, then left the game due to injury. He would make an abortive comeback attempt May 30, but would not return to the rotation until August 3...Romero's ERA dropped to 0.40...Mike Jackson struck out both batters he faced to drop his ERA to 1.26...Guardado's ERA dropped to 2.00...Ex-Twin Chuck Knoblauch was 0-for-3 with a walk, lowering his average to .189.
Record: The Twins were 23-16, in first place by 1.5 games over Chicago.