MINNESOTA 2, OAKLAND 1 IN OAKLAND

Date:  Wednesday, July 3.

Batting stars:  Corey Koskie was 2-for-4 with two doubles.  Brian Buchanan was 1-for-3 with a double.  Bobby Kielty was 1-for-4 with a double.

Pitching stars:  Johan Santana struck out eight in 6.1 innings, giving up one run on six hits and three walks.  LaTroy Hawkins pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up two hits.  Eddie Guardado pitched a perfect inning and struck out one.

Opposition stars:  Mark Mulder struck out twelve in a complete game, giving up two runs on six hits and a walk.  Jermaine Dye was 2-for-4 with a double.  Olmedo Saenz was 2-for-4.

The game:  Terrence Long led off the third with a single, went to second on a balk, and scored on a Ramon Hernandez single to put Oakland up 1-0.  The Twins came back in the top of the fourth.  Koskie hit a one-out double.  With two out, Kielty doubled and Doug Mientkiewicz singled to put the Twins up 2-1.  At that was it for the scoring.  The Athletics had their chances.  They put men on first and second in the fifth on a pair of walks and in the sixth on a pair of singles.  Dye hit a two-out double in the eighth.  They never got the tying run farther than second base, though.

WP:  Santana (4-1).  LP:  Mulder (9-5).  S: Guardado (26).

Notes:  Denny Hocking was at shortstop in place of Cristian Guzman.  He was 1-for-4...Matthew LeCroy was the DH.  He went 0-for-4 to drop his average to .323...Buchanan was in right field and was now batting .319...Kielty shifted to center as Torii Hunter was not in the lineup...Hawkins lowered his ERA to 1.56...Guardado got back on track after some rough outings.  He had given up runs in three of his four prior appearances, although twice the Twins won the game anyway...By game scores, this was the best game Mulder had pitched so far this season.  At the end of the year it would tie for second with another game against the Twins, on September 7.  His best game would be September 17 against Anaheim, a twelve-strikeout, complete game shutout.

Record:  The Twins were 48-37, in first place, leading Chicago by 6.5 games.

OAKLAND 4, MINNESOTA 3 IN OAKLAND

Date:  Tuesday, July 2.

Batting stars:  Matthew LeCroy was 2-for-4 with a double, a home run (his third), and three RBIs.  Corey Koskie was 1-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base, his seventh.  Dustan Mohr was 1-for-2 with a walk.

Pitching star:  Rick Reed pitched seven innings, giving up one run on five hits and two walks and striking out two.

Opposition stars:  Barry Zito pitched eight innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and three walks and striking out three.  Eric Chavez was 2-for-4 with a double.  Olemdo Saenz was 1-for-1 with a two-run homer, his fourth.

The game:  LeCroy hit a two-run homer in the first to give the Twins a 2-0 lead.  For a while, it looked like that might be enough.  Oakland got on the board in the fourth on a bases-loaded double play, but the Twins got the run back in the fifth on LeCroy's RBI double.  Mark Ellis homered leading off the bottom of the eighth, but the Twins still led 3-2 with Eddie Guardado ready to pitch the ninth.  This, however, would not be Guardado's day.  Chavez led off the ninth with a double.  Jermaine Dye struck out, but Saenz hit a two-run walkoff homer to give the Athletics the victory.

WP:  Chad Bradford (4-2).  LP:  Guardado (1-2).  S:  None.

Notes:  Bobby Kielty led off in place of Jacque Jones.  He went 0-for-4 to drop his average to .317...LeCroy was the DH.  David Ortiz was at first base, with Doug Mientkiewicz out of the lineup.  Ortiz went 1-for-3...Tom Prince caught, in place of A. J. Pierzynski.  He was 0-for-4...LeCroy raised his average to .337...Torii Hunter was 0-for-4 to make his average .302...It was Guardado's third blown save of the season in twenty-eight chances...Ellis' home run was his second of the season.  Surprisingly (to me, anyway) he hit 105 home runs in his career, with a high of nineteen in 2007...Due to a lack of time, our player profiles are going to be on hiatus until probably about the first of the year.

Record:  The Twins were 47-37, in first place, leading Chicago by 5.5 games.

Due to personal time constraints, this is a reprint from last year which has not been updated.

Jim Tobin (1912)
Phil Gagliano (1941)
Roy White (1943)
Craig Reynolds (1952)
Jim Leyritz (1963)
Dean Palmer (1968)
Jeff D’Amico (1975)
Jason Repko (1980)
David Aardsma (1981)
Michael Bourn (1982)
Cole Hamels (1983)
Tyler Duffey (1990)

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