MINNESOTA 11, TEXAS 4 IN TEXAS
Date: Tuesday, May 28.
Batting stars: Jacque Jones was 2-for-5 with a grand slam (his tenth homer), a double, and a walk. He had five RBIs. A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-5 with a triple and a double. David Ortiz was 1-for-5 with a double and three RBIs.
Pitching stars: Jack Cressend struck out three in 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit. LaTroy Hawkins pitched a perfect inning.
Opposition stars: Rusty Greer was 2-for-4 with a walk. Alex Rodriguez was 1-for-1 with a home run (his fifteenth) and a walk. Juan Gonzalez was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.
The game: In the second, the Twins loaded the bases on a hit batsman, a double and a walk. Jones then hit a two-out grand slam to give them a 4-0 lead. In the fourth, Pierzynski hit an RBI triple and scored on a Jones double to make it 6-0. Tony Fiore, making a rare start for the Twins, did not give up a hit through three innings, but gave up a home run to Rodriguez leading off the fourth. He gave up three more hits and two more runs in the inning as the Rangers cut the lead to 6-3. Bobby Kielty had an RBI single in the fifth to make it 7-3. It stayed there until the eighth, when the Twins put together a two- out rally. A pair of walks started it, Cristian Guzman singled home a run, another walk loaded the bases, and Ortiz lined a three-run double to put the game out of reach.
WP: Fiore (3-1). SP: Chan Ho Park (1-2). S: None.
Notes: Denny Hocking played second base, going 1-for-2 with two walks...Pierzynski's triple was one of six he had in 2002, his career high. He had 24 for his career...Chan Ho Park had been a fine pitcher for the Dodgers from 1996-2001, making the all-star team in his last year there. He became a free agent, signed with Texas, and was awful for them. With the Dodgers he had an ERA of 3.77 and a WHIP of 1.32. With the Rangers it was 5.79 and 1.60. He was with Texas through July of 2005, then went to San Diego and the Mets before coming back to the Dodgers in 2008. He again had a good year, the last one of his career, going 4-4, 3.40 mostly out of the bullpen. He was a free agent again after that season and finished up his career with Philadelphia, the Yankees, and Pittsburgh. He played in Japan in 2011 and Korea in 2012 before retiring. It's odd that he could pitch well for the Dodgers and no one else, but that's how it looks...This was Fiore's second start of the season, as he also started May 18 in New York. He had thrown 98 pitches in the earlier start and threw 88 in this one. The most pitches he had thrown in a game prior to these two was 49. It seems very unlikely that, in 2017, a team would allow a pitcher coming out of the bullpen to throw that many pitches. It also seems unlikely that, after he had given up three runs in the fourth, a team would allow him to not only pitch the fifth but to start the sixth. I'm not making a judgment on which way is correct, merely observing that the game has changed.
Record: The Twins were 30-22, in first place by two games over Chicago.