BOSTON 3, MINNESOTA 1 IN BOSTON
Date: Sunday, August 11.
Batting stars: Cristian Guzman was 1-for-4 with a double. Dustan Mohr was 1-for-3. Luis Rivas was 1-for-3.
Pitching stars: Johan Santana struck out seven in 5.1 innings, giving up two runs on three hits and three walks. Bob Wells pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit.
Opposition stars: Tim Wakefield pitched eight innings, giving up one run on four hits and no walks and striking out seven. Lou Merloni was 1-for-2 with a double and a walk. Nomar Garciaparra was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.
The game: It was scoreless until the sixth. Merloni led off with a walk, went to second, and scored on a Johnny Damon double. A walk and a single loaded the bases with one out and Shea Hillenbrand hit a sacrifice fly to put Boston up 2-0. In the seventh, Guzman led off with a double and Torii Hunter followed with an RBI single, cutting the lead to 2-1, but the Twins could do no more. The Red Sox added an insurance run in the eighth when Damon walked and scored on Garciaparra's double. The Twins did not get a baserunner after Hunter's RBI single in the seventh.
WP: Wakefield (6-4). LP: Johan Santana (6-4). S: Ugueth Urbina (28).
Notes: Denny Hocking was at third base, replacing Corey Koskie. He was 0-for-3.
Santana was pulled in the sixth, having given up one run and leaving the bases loaded with one out, just before the Hillenbrand sacrifice fly. He threw 87 pitches.
Wells was working on a string of ten scoreless innings since coming back from injury, giving up five hits and three walks. He lowered his ERA from 7.36 to 5.65.
Ugueth Urbina had been a closer for Montreal for several years before coming to Boston. I'd forgotten that he came up as a starter and was fairly decent at it, going 7-5, 4.14 in seventeen starts for the Expos in 1996 as a twenty-two year old. He might have developed into a pretty good starter, but we'll never know, because Montreal made him their closer in 1997. It's hard to argue that it was the wrong decision, as he performed well in that role. His best year with the Expos was 1998, when he went 6-3, 1.30, 34 saves, with a WHIP of 1.01. He made his first all-star team that year and led the league in saves in 1999, with 41. He was not doing as well in 2001, and Montreal had a bad team, so they traded him to the Red Sox at the July trade deadline. He did well for them and made his second all-star team in 2002, going 1-6, 3.00, 40 saves, 1.07 WHIP. He then started bouncing around. He signed with Texas for 2003 but was traded to Florida in mid-July, helping them win the championship. He signed with Detroit for 2004 but was traded to Philadelphia in June. Then, various off-field things happened. His mother was kidnapped in Venezuela in 2004, finally released unharmed several months later. Urbina was arrested in November of 2005 and charged with attempted murder. He continues to maintain his innocence, but he served seven years in prison, released in December 2012. He pitched in the Venezuelan Winter League in 2-2013-2014. Two of his sons, Ugueth Jr and Jose, pitched in the minor leagues. He is the only major league player to have the initials UU. For his career, he was 44-49, 3.45, 237 saves, 1.21 WHIP. He was only thirty-one when his major league career ended, so he clearly would've pitched longer had circumstances been different. No information about what Ugueth Urbina is doing now was readily available.
Record: The Twins were 70-49, in first place, leading Chicago by thirteen games. The Twins had lost six of their last seven.
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