MINNESOTA 14, KANSAS CITY 5 IN KANSAS CITY

Date:  Thursday, May 16.

Batting stars:  Torii Hunter was 4-for-6 with two home runs, his tenth and eleventh.  He scored three times and drove in four.  Tom Prince was 2-for-4 with a home run (his fourth), a walk, and three RBIs.  Jacque Jones was 2-for-6 with a home run, his eighth.

Pitching stars:  Jack Cressend pitched two shutout innings.  Bob Wells pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Carlos Beltran was 2-for-3 with a walk.  Juan Brito was 2-for-4 with two doubles.  Michael Tucker was 2-for-5 with a double.

The game:  Hunter homered in the first to put the Twins up 1-0.  Jay Canizaro and Denny Hocking each had an RBI double in a three-run second that made it 4-0.  They added two more in the third and Jones homered in the fourth to make it 7-0.  The Royals scored three in the fifth to cut the lead to 7-3, but Prince and Cristian Guzman each homered in the sixth and the Twins were never threatened again.  Hunter put an exclamation point on the game with a three-run homer in a five-run seventh.

WP:  Kyle Lohse (3-2).  LP:  Chris George (0-4).  S:  None.

Notes:  Doug Mientkiewicz apparently had a minor injury, as he missed his second straight game and would not play again until May 22.  Bobby Kielty was at first place, one of five times he would play there in 2002 and one of eight times he would play there in his career.  He went 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, and a stolen base, his second.  He raised his average to .300....It would be interesting to know why Ron Gardenhire sometimes played Hocking at third and Canizaro at second and sometimes did it the other way around.  In this game it was Hocking at second and Canizaro at third...Hunter raised his average to .342...Prince also raised his average to .342...Dustan Mohr was 2-for-5 with a walk and two stolen bases, his second and third, to make his average .311...Lohse pitched five innings, giving up three runs (one earned) on four hits and five walks with two strikeouts...Chuck Knoblauch stole two bases for Kansas City, his eleventh and twelfth.  This was his thirty-eighth game.  Twelve stolen bases in thirty-eight games is pretty good when your OBP is only .271...The two doubles by Juan Brito were the only two he would get in the majors in 2002.  He played only nine games for the Royals, getting sent back to the minors ten days later despite the fact that he was batting .304 at the time.  He would not get back to the majors until 2004, when he was with Arizona.  He came up in June and stayed for the rest of the season, batting .205 in 171 at-bats.  That would be it for his major league career, although he played in AAA through 2007 and played in winter ball through 2010.  He batted .216/.252/.309 in 194 at-bats.  It appears that he is the brother of Jorge Brito, who caught for Colorado in 1995-96.

Record:  The Twins were 25-17, in first place, 1.5 games ahead of Chicago.