MINNESOTA 4, PHILADELPHIA 1 IN PHILADELPHIA (11 INNINGS)
Date: Saturday, June 22.
Batting stars: Luis Rivas was 2-for-4 with a double. Matthew LeCroy had a pinch-hit double. Dustan Mohr drove in two with a pinch-hit single.
Pitching stars: Rick Reed pitched seven shutout innings, giving up two hits and no walks and striking out five. LaTroy Hawkins struck out two in a perfect inning. Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.
Opposition stars: Terry Adams pitched seven innings, giving up one run on three hits and three walks and striking out three. Mike Lieberthal hit a home run, his fifth.
The game: There was no score until the third, when Reed walked, a force out followed, a Cristian Guzman single-plus-error put men on second and third, and a Doug Mientkiewicz ground out put the Twins on the board. Reed kept the Phillies offense silent through seven innings, giving up just two hits and only once allowing a man past first base. He threw just 91 pitches, but was removed after seven for J. C. Romero. It's hard to second-guess the move, as Romero had an ERA of under one, but it didn't work, as Lieberthal led off the eighth with a home run to tie it 1-1. The Twins wasted a leadoff double by Rivas in the tenth. In the eleventh the first two Twins batters went out. A. J. Pierzynski and Bobby Kielty then singled, LeCroy delivered a pinch-hit RBI double, Rivas was intentionally walked, and Mohr brought home two insurance runs with a single. In the bottom of the eleventh, Travis Lee led off with a single and Jimmy Rollins was hit by a pitch with two out, bringing the tying run to the plate. Guardado retired Marlon Anderson on a fly ball to end the game.
WP: Hawkins (2-0). LP: Dan Plesac (2-3). S: Guardado (21).
Notes: Brian Buchanan started in right field, with Kielty coming in for defense in the eighth. Buchanan was 1-for-3...Denny Hocking started at third in place of Corey Koskie. He went 0-for-4 and was replaced by pinch-hitter LeCroy in the eleventh...Jacque Jones was 0-for-5 with a walk and was batting .306...Pierzynski was 1-for-5 to make his average .325...Hawkins' ERA was now 1.77...Guardado was at 2.27...Romero, despite giving up the home run, had an ERA of 0.82...The Twins had just four hits through the first ten innings...This was one of two seasons in which Terry Adams was used as a starter. He was a starter early in his minor league career, but was moved to the bullpen in 1994, when he was still in Class A with the Cubs. He had a terrific 1995 in AA, made seven appearances in AAA, and came up to the majors in August, making 18 appearances in relief for the Cubs. He didn't do very well, but he was in the majors to stay. He had a fine year in 1996, going 3-6, 2.94, 1.32 WHIP in 69 games (101 innings). The rest of his career, though, he was pretty mediocre. He was traded to the Dodgers after the 1999 season and went 6-9, 3.52, although with a WHIP of 1.41. He moved into the Dodgers' starting rotation in the second half of 2001 and did okay, although nothing special. He was a free agent and signed with Philadelphia, who kept him in the rotation for the first half of 2002, then moved him back to the bullpen. He made some really good starts, but he also made some really bad ones. He had an excellent year in 2003 in relief for the Phils, going 1-4, 2.65, 1.34 WHIP. That was as good as it would get for him. He signed with Toronto as a free agent for 2004, was traded to Boston in July, signed back with Philadelphia as a free agent in 2005, and was released after sixteen games. He gave it one more try with Pittsburgh in 2006, but was unimpressive in AAA. For his career, he was 51-62, 4.17, 1.46 WHIP with 42 saves. As a starter, he was 14-15, 4.52, 1.45 WHIP in 41 starts. He spent eleven years in the big leagues, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at. At last report, he was helping coach high school baseball in his home town of Semmes, Alabama.
Record: The Twins were 41-33, in first place by five games over Chicago.
(4 votes, average: 9.50 out of 10)
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