MINNESOTA 8, CLEVELAND 3 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Thursday, June 6.
Batting stars: Jacque Jones was 3-for-5 with two doubles and a stolen base, his fifth. Dustan Mohr was 2-for-4. Torii Hunter was 1-for-4 with three-run homer, his fifteenth.
Pitching stars: Tony Fiore pitched two perfect innings. Mike Jackson struck out three in a scoreless inning, giving up one hit. Eddie Guardado struck out two in a perfect inning.
Opposition stars: Jim Thome was 2-for-3 and was hit by a pitch. Ellis Burks was 1-for-3 with a walk. Matt Lawton was 1-for-4 with a double and a walk.
The game: Jones singled home a run in the third, but the Twins missed a chance for more, leaving men on second and third. Cleveland missed a bigger chance in the fourth, leaving the bases loaded. The Indians didn't miss in the fifth, though, getting an RBI double by Omar Vizquel, a run-scoring single by Ellis Burks, and another run-scoring single by Chris Magruder to go ahead 3-1. The Twins came right back in the bottom of the fifth. A. J. Pierzynski and Jones each doubled to make it 3-2, Doug Mientkiewicz singled home a run to tie it, and Hunter hit a three-run homer to put the Twins ahead 6-3. The Twins bullpen then came in and shut down the Indians the rest of the way, giving up just one single. The Twins added a run in the seventh on a Corey Koskie single and one more in the ninth on a sacrifice fly by Cristian Guzman.
WP: Kyle Lohse (6-3). LP: Bartolo Colon (7-4). S: None.
Notes: This is the first time since very early in the season the Twins used all nine of their "regular" players...Jones raised his average to .311...Hunter went down to .303...Mohr went up to .331...Pierzynski was 1-for-4 and was batting .335...Luis Rivas was 1-for-2 with a walk and was batting .438...Lohse pitched five innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and three walks while striking out three...Jackson's ERA went down to 1.11...Bartolo Colon, who was in his sixth year in the majors at this point, started for Cleveland. He pitched 4.2 innings, giving up six runs on nine hits and two walks while striking out five...Outfielder Chris Magruder had the most playing time of his career in 2002, getting 258 at-bats. He was drafted by San Francisco in the second round in 1998. He did fairly well, but nothing special, in the minors for them, but was traded to Texas in July of 2001 in a deal that involved Andres Galarraga. He got a September call-up with them, batting .127 in 29 at-bats. He was traded to Cleveland just as the 2002 season was starting. He started the season in AAA, but came up to the Indians in late May and stayed the rest of the season. He played all three outfield positions, starting 63 games, but batted just .217/.261/.353. He was injured much of 2003, playing just 41 games in AAA and getting a September call-up. A free agent after the season, he signed with Milwaukee. He started 2004 in AAA with them, but spent the second half of the season with the Brewers. He was in Milwaukee for all of 2005, his first full season in the majors. It was also his last full season in the majors, and in fact his last season as a professional baseball player, as he became a free agent after the season and went unsigned. For his career, Magruder batted .220/.277/.352 in 540 major league at-bats spread over five seasons. If he'd been platooned against left-handers, he might have been a useful player, as he batted .280/.310/.444 against them. Unfortunately for him, roughly two-thirds of his major league at-bats came against right-handers, against whom he batted .188/.261/.302. He is a cousin of NFL quarterback Jon Kitna.
Record: The Twins were 34-26, in first place, four games ahead of Chicago.