MINNESOTA 4, MILWAUKEE 3 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Sunday, June 30.
Batting stars: Denny Hocking was 3-for-4. Torii Hunter was 2-for-4 with a double. Matthew LeCroy was 2-for-4.
Pitching star: Eric Milton struck out eight in eight innings, giving up two runs on four hits and two walks.
Opposition stars: Ryan Thompson was 2-for-4 with a double. Robert Machado was 1-for-3 with a triple.
The game: In the third, the Twins loaded the bases with two singles and a walk. LeCroy then delivered a two-run single to put the Twins ahead 2-0. Machado's two-run triple in the fifth tied it 2-2. There was no more scoring until the eighth. The Twins again had the bases loaded, this time with two out. Dustan Mohr walked to bring home the go-ahead run and a balk was called on Luis Vizcaino to bring home an insurance run. The Twins needed it, because in the bottom of the ninth a two-out walk and a double by Thompson made the score 4-3. Alex Ochoa then struck out to end the game.
WP: Milton (9-6). LP: Glendon Rusch (5-6). S: Eddie Guardado (24).
Notes: Jacque Jones was given the day off. Luis Rivas moved into the leadoff spot, going 1-for-4...Brian Buchanan was the DH rather than David Ortiz, going 1-for-4...Tom Prince caught in place of A. J. Pierzynski, going 0-for-3...LeCroy was at first base in place of Doug Mientkiewicz. He raised his average to .337...Hunter raised his average to .305...Bobby Kielty was 0-for-3 with a walk and was batting .326...Milton's game score was tied for his second highest of the season, behind only his first start of the season...This was the last of Ryan Thompson's nine seasons in the majors. Only one of them was a full season, 1994. He was drafted by Toronto in the thirteenth round in 1987, but was traded to the Mets late in the 1992 season alone with Jeff Kent for David Cone. He made his major league debut as a September call-up for the Mets and became the regular center fielder for them in the second half of 1993. He did okay--not great, not terrible--but enough that he remained the starting center fielder in 1994. He hit eighteen homers and drew a decent number of walks, but batted just .225 and was injured in mid-August, missing the rest of the season. He was a part-time outfielder for the Mets in 1995 and was traded to Cleveland for 1996. He was in AAA most of 1996 and all of 1997, then went to Japan for 1998. He came back to the United States, playing for Houston in 1999, the Yankees in 2000, and Florida in 2001, getting a handful of games in the majors each season. He was hitting well in AAA in 2002 when the Brewers called him up in mid-June. What he did for them seems to have been the pattern for his career--he hit well for a month or so, then tailed off and made a slow slide into mediocrity or worse. He was in AAA in Tampa Bay in 2003 and Houston in 2004, also spending a little time in the Mexican League. Again, he did well at times, but for his career he batted .243/.301/.433 with 52 home runs in 1257 at-bats. He is the father of Trevor Thompson, who played basketball at Ohio State. He became a youth baseball coach in Indianapolis, but in 2013 was arrested for being part of an identity theft scheme. I could not find out what happened to his case.
Record: The Twins were 46-36, in first place, leading Chicago by six games.