MINNESOTA 10, TORONTO 5 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Friday, July 26.
Batting stars: Jacque Jones was 2-for-5 with two home runs (his sixteenth and seventeenth) and three RBIs. Torii Hunter was 2-for-5 with a triple and a double. Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-3 with three RBIs.
Pitching stars: Tony Fiore struck out four in two perfect innings. LaTroy Hawkins pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a walk and striking out one. Eddie Guardado pitched a perfect inning and struck out one.
Opposition stars: Vernon Wells was 2-for-4 with a home run, his fifteenth. Carlos Delgado was 1-for-2 with two walks and a home run, his twenty-first.
The game: Vernon Wells hit a two-run homer in a four-run wecond that gave the Blue Jays a 4-0 lead. Hunter tripled and scored on a Mienkiewicz sacrifice fly in the bottom of the second to cut the lead to 4-1, but Delgado homered in the third to put it back up to four runs at 5-1. The Twins got three consecutive singles in the fourth, the last an RBI hit by Luis Rivas, to make the score 5-2. The Twins opened the fifth with four hits, a single by Corey Koskie, a double by David Oritz, a two-run double by Hunter, and an RBI single by Mientkiewicz, to tie the score 5-5. The Twins then scored four in the sixth to take control of the game. Jones hit a two-run homer and Ortiz and Mientkiewicz had RBI singles, giving the Twins a 9-5 advantage. Jones closed out the scoring with another home run in the eighth. Toronto did not get a hit after the third inning.
WP: Tony Fiore (9-2). LP: Luke Prokopec (2-8). S: None.
Notes: Hunter raised his average to .311.
Bobby Kielty was 1-for-3 with a walk to keep his average at .328.
A. J. Pierzynski was 3-for-4 to raise his average to .304.
Joe Mays started for the Twins and pitched five innings, giving up five runs on six hits and two walks and striking out four. He actually lowered his ERA slightly, from 9.17 to 9.13.
This was the third time Fiore struck out four in a game, but the only time he did so in just two innings.
Hawkins lowered his ERA to 1.31.
The Blue Jays had two future Twins in their lineup, Shannon Stewart and Orlando Hudson. Stewart was 0-for-3 with a walk. Hudson was 1-for-4.
Toronto starter Steve Parris pitched four innings, giving up five runs on ten hits and two walks and striking out five. I have no memory of Steve Parris, but he was in the majors for at least part of eight seasons. He had been drafted by Philadelphia, picked up on waivers by the Dodgers, picked up on waivers by Seattle, and released before he came up with Pittsburgh in July of 1995. He was in their rotation the rest of the season. He didn't get a whole lot accomplished, but on the other hand he had come up from AA. But on the other hand, he was already twenty-seven at this point. He was apparently injured part of 1996, was released, and signed with Cincinnati. He was in the minors for all of 1997 but gave the Reds two good seasons from 1998-1999, going 17-9, 3,60 in thirty-seven starts. He struggled in 2000, however, and was traded to Toronto after the season. he was with the Blue Jays for 2001-2002, going 10-11, 5.17. He went to Tampa Bay for 2003 but was released in mid-June, ending his career. His career numbers were 44-49, 4.75 in 129 starts. Nothing remarkable, but he did have two good seasons for Cincinnati. Plus, you have to give him marks for persistence. A number of teams gave up on him, but for a long time there was always somebody who wanted him, too. He was born in Joliet, Illinois and apparently has returned there, as we found a couple of recent articles about personal appearances he has made and clinics he has participated in around that area.
Record: The Twins were 62-42, in first place, leading Chicago by fourteen games.