PHILADELPHIA 3, MINNESOTA 0 IN PHILADELPHIA
Date: Friday, June 21.
Batting star: A. J. Pierzynski was 1-for-2 with a walk.
Pitching stars: Kyle Lohse pitched six innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on five hits and two walks and striking out five. Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.
Opposition stars: Brandon Duckworth struck out nine in four shutout innings, giving up four hits and a walk. Jeremy Giambi was 2-for-3 with a double.
The game: Tomas Perez singled home a run in the second to put the Phillies up 1-0. Philadelphia added two runs in the seventh, getting a run-scoring single by Travis Lee and a sacrifice fly. The Twins had only one hit through five innings. They only twice got a man as far as second base. The first time came in the second, when Torii Hunter singled and stole second. A walk put men on first and second, but Denny Hocking grounded out to end the threat. The other time came in the seventh, when the Twins got two-out singles by Dustan Mohr and Pierzynski. Bobby Kielty then pinch-hit and struck out to end the inning. The last seven Twins were retired, five by strikeout. There was also a stretch in the second through sixth innings in which twelve consecutive Twins were retired.
WP: Duckworth (4-4). LP: Lohse (6-5). S: Jose Mesa (19).
Notes: The Twins were now 6-7 in interleague play and had lost three in a row...With no DH, David Ortiz played first base, replacing Doug Mientkiewicz. He was 0-for-4...Hocking was at second in place of Luis Rivas. He went 0-for-2...Jacque Jones was 0-for-4 to make his average .311...Hunter was 1-for-4 and was batting an even .300...Mohr was 1-for-3, making his average .309...Pierzynski raised his average to .328...Travis Miller pitched a third of an inning and did not give up a run, keeping his ERA at zero through three appearances (two innings)...Mike Jackson retired both batters he faced to make his ERA 2.05...Guardado lowered his ERA to 2.34...2002 was Brandon Duckworth's only full season in the majors. This was his best game of the season, at least by game scores. Despite that, it was not a good year for him, as he went 8-9, 5.41. He had come up to the majors in 2001, making 11 starts and going 3-2, 3.52, 1.25 WHIP. He had pitched very well in AAA that season and very well in AA in 2000, so the Phillies likely thought they really had something. They didn't. He struggled again in 2003 and was traded to Houston after the season as part of a deal for Billy Wagner. He struggled through two seasons with the Astros, splitting both of them between the majors and AAA, became a free agent, and signed with Pittsburgh. They sent him to AAA, where he pitched very well. By now, though, he was thirty years old and should have been expected to do well in AAA. He was sold to Kansas City in June and was promoted to the majors, but remained the same pitcher he had been. The Royals tried him in a relief role in 2007 and he perhaps did a little better, but not enough to matter. He made seven more starts with Kansas City in 2008 and then his big league career was at an end. He kept pitching, and in fact had some pretty good years in AAA from 2010-2012 with Philadelphia and Boston, but never got a call-up. He pitched in Japan in 2012 and 2013, then hung up the spikes for good. At last report, he was a scout for the Yankees. For his major league career he was 23-34, 5.28, 1.53 WHIP in 511 innings (134 games, 84 starts).
Record: The Twins were 40-33, in first place by four games over Chicago.