SEATTLE 8, MINNESOTA 2 IN SEATTLE

Date:  Sunday, July 7.

Batting stars:  Denny Hocking was 2-for-3.  Jacque Jones hit a home run, his thirteenth.  A. J. Pierzynski hit a home run, his sixth.

Pitching stars:  None.

Opposition stars:  John Olerud was 2-for-4 with two two-run homers, his fourteenth and fifteenth.  Mark McLemore was 2-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base, his thirteenth.  Bret Boone was 2-for-4 with a double.

The game:  Jones homered with one out in the second to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  It didn't last long, though, as Edgar Martinez and Boone led off the bottom of the second with doubles to tie it and a sacrifice fly gave the Mariners a 2-1 lead.  Olerud hit a two-run homer in the third to make it 4-1.  Pierzynski homered in the fifth to cut the lead to 4-2, but the Twins would get no closer.  The Mariners put the game out of reach with four in the eighth, two on an Olerud homer and two on a Dan Wilson double.

WP:  John Halama (4-2).  LP:  Rick Reed (5-6).  S:  Kazuhiro Sasaki (21).

Notes:  Jones batted sixth, with Luis Rivas again in the leadoff spot.  Rivas was 1-for-3 with a walk, a double, and a stolen base, his fourth...Matthew LeCroy was the DH, going 0-for-4 to drop his average to .313...Torii Hunter was given the day off going into the all-star break, with Bobby Kielty in center and Dustan Mohr in right...Kielty was 1-for-3 to make his average .318...Pierzynski was 1-for-4 and was batting .320...Hocking started at short, replacing Cristian Guzman...Reed pitched six innings, giving up four runs on seven hits and no walks and striking out four...Seattle starter Halama struck out six in 5.2 innings, giving up two runs on four hits and two walks...Kazuhiro Sasaki had a brief but excellent major league career.  He had played in Japan for nine years before coming to the Mariners.  He had been a star closer there, twice posting an ERA below one and posting a WHIP of less than one five times.  He came to the Mariners in 2000 at age thirty-two and immediately became their closer.  He was the Rookie of the Year that season and made the all-star team in both 2001 and 2002.  He had injury problems in 2003, injuries he said came when he fell down stairs while carrying a suitcase.  It appears many did not believe this explanation, although I did not quickly see an alternative explanation offered.  2003 would be his last season in the majors.  The Mariners wanted him back for 2004, but he asked for his release to go back to Japan.  His family had stayed behind in Japan when he came to the United States, and this apparently put a strain on his marriage.  Unfortunately, the return did not help him professionally or personally.  He was no longer the pitcher he had once been, and he and his wife ultimately divorced.  He pitched in Japan through 2005, then was done.  He is a member of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.  In his four seasons in the United States, he was 7-16, but with 129 saves, an ERA of 3.14, and a WHIP of 1.08.

Record:  The Twins were 50-39, in first place, 7.5 games ahead of Chicago.