MINNESOTA 7, ANAHEIM 6 IN MINNESOTA (10 INNINGS)
Date: Thursday, May 30.
Batting stars: A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-2. Cristian Guzman was 2-for-5. Doug Mientkiewicz was 1-for-2 with a double, two walks, and a hit-by-pitch.
Pitching stars: LaTroy Hawkins pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits and a walk. J. C. Romero struck out three in two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk. Eddie Guardado struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up two hits.
Opposition stars: Adam Kennedy was 4-for-5 with two doubles. Darin Erstad was 2-for-4 with a home run (his fourth) and two walks. Garret Anderson was 2-for-4.
The game: It looked bad for the Twins in the first. Erstad homered in the first to put the Angels up 1-0. A double and two groundouts made it 2-0 in the second. In the third, RBI singles by Tim Salmon and Kennedy and a run-scoring ground out put Anaheim up 5-0. The Twins came back in the fifth. Tom Prince walked and scored from first on a Jay Canizaro double. A ground out and a hit batsman put men on first and third with one out. Torii Hunter hit a run-scoring double and, with two out, Brian Buchanan tripled home two to cut the lead to 5-4. In the eighth, the Angels loaded the bases with one out and Anderson hit a sacrifice fly to increase the lead to 6-4. In the bottom of the eighth, David Ortiz led off with a double and scored on a pair of fly outs. Two singles and a walk then loaded the bases and Guzman singled to tie it up. The Twins missed a chance to take the lead when Pierzynski was thrown out trying to score from second on the Guzman single. The Twins had men on first and second with none out in the ninth, but could not score. In the tenth, Dustan Mohr walked and went to third on a Pierzynski single. A ground out put men on second and third, but Guzman hit a sacrifice fly to left to bring Mohr home with the winning run.
WP: Eddie Guardado (1-1). LP: Lou Pote (0-1). S: None.
Notes: Guzman led off, as Jacque Jones was not in the starting lineup. Jones was used as a pinch-hitter in the eighth...Buchanan started in right field, going 1-for-3 with a triple. It was his only triple of the season and the first of his career. He would hit two more, both with San Diego in 2003...The teams combined to leave 22 men on base. The Twins were 3-for-15 with men in scoring position and the Angels were 2-for-13...Brad Radke started the game, his first appearance since May 13, but faced only two batters. One of them, Erstad, hit a home run, after which Radke left the game. He would not appear for the Twins again until August 3...Jack Cressend came in to replace Radke and pitched 2.2 innings, allowing four runs (two earned) on six hits and a walk while striking out one...Hawkins lowered his ERA to 1.64...Romero dropped his ERA to 0.57...Scott Schoeneweis started for the Angels, striking out seven in 6.2 innings while giving up four runs, six hits, and two walks...Troy Percival got a blown save despite the fact that the Twins didn't score off him. As I recall, the Twins had not scored an earned run off Percival at this point. For his career, the Twins would score just two earned runs in 47.2 innings off Percival, for an ERA of 0.38...Schoeneweis had a long career for a guy who, to put it bluntly, wasn't very good. He pitched in the majors for twelve seasons. In seven of them, he had an ERA over five. His best seasons were when he appears to have been used as a LOOGY, going 3-4, 3.32 in 57 innings (80 games) for Toronto in 2005 and 2-6, 3.34 in 56.2 innings (73 games) for the Mets in 2008. For his career, he was 47-57, 5.01, 1.47 FIP in 972 innings (577 games, 93 starts). One of the things that annoys me about baseball is how players like Scott Schoeneweis get chance after chance in the majors, long after they've established that they don't belong there, while other players can make AAA all-star teams for years and struggle to get a cup of coffee in the majors. I guess no one ever promised life, or baseball, would be fair.
Record: The Twins were 31-23, in first place by 2.5 games over Chicago.