MINNESOTA 4, TORONTO 0 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Sunday, July 28.

Batting stars:  Torii Hunter was 3-for-4 with a double and a home run, his twenty-fourth.  David Ortiz was 2-for-4.  Corey Koskie was 1-for-4 with a double.

Pitching stars:  Johan Santana struck out thirteen in eight shutout innings, giving up two hits and three walks.  Eddie Guardado struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Carlos Delgado was 2-for-4 with a double.  Shannon Stewart was 1-for-4 with a triple.  Scott Eyre retired all four batters he faced.

The game:  Doubles by Cristian Guzman and Koskie gave the Twins a 1-0 lead in the first inning.  It stayed 1-0 until the sixth, when the Twins loaded the bases with one out and a Michael Cuddyer sacrifice fly and an A. J. Pierzynski singled made it 3-0.  Hunter added a home run in the eighth to round out the scoring.  The Blue Jays twice got a man to third base but did not score.

WP:  Santana (5-2).  LP:  Esteban Loaiza (4-6).  S:  None.

Notes:  Cuddyer started at first base, with Doug Mientkiewicz on the bench.  He was 0-for-2 with a walk and a sacrifice fly.

Denny Hocking was 1-for-3 in place of Luis Rivas.

Hunter raised his average to .315.

Bobby Kielty was 0-for-2 with two walks to make his average .328.

Pierzynski was 1-for-4 and was batting .303.

This was the best start of the season for Santana, at least by game scores.  He would then make two relief appearances before making his next start on August 6.

As you may have noticed, I kind of like checking out the careers of guys I don't remember.  Today it's Scott Cassidy, who pitched the last inning for Toronto in this game.  This was his rookie year.  He'd signed as a free agent with the Blue Jays in 1998.  He did well in a 2001 split between AA and AAA and started 2002 in the Toronto bullpen.  He appeared in 58 games and had a fine WHIP, 1.27, but posted an ERA of 5.73.  He gave up 12 home runs in 66 innings, which probably contributed to that.  He then spent the next two years in the minors, and when he got back to the big leagues it was with Boston in 2005.  He was called up in July appeared in one game, and was traded to San Diego.  He was sent back to AAA, but got a September call-up with the Padres.  He didn't do much, but he started 2006 with San Diego and did quite well, posting a 2.79 ERA in 37 appearances.  Then in mid-July, for no apparent reason, he was sent back to AAA, not coming back until September.  Still, his numbers that year were 6-4, 2.53, 1.36 WHIP, and it appeared that age thirty Scott Cassidy had finally figured it out.  Instead, he never got back to the majors again.  He appeared in forty games in AAA in 2007, then his career was done.  It seems like there must be more to the story than that, but a quick google search did not reveal it.  Scott Cassidy is currently the head baseball coach at LeMoyne College in Syracuse.

Record:  The Twins were 64-42, in first place, leading Chicago by fourteen games.

MINNESOTA 5, TORONTO 4 IN MINNESOTA (10 INNINGS)

Date:  Saturday, July 27.

Batting stars:  Corey Koskie was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.  Torii Hunter was 1-for-3 with a double, a walk, and a stolen base, his seventeenth.

Pitching stars:  Eric Milton struck out six in six innings, giving up two runs on five hits.  Bob Wells struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk.  J. C. Romero pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up two walks and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Shannon Stewart was 2-for-5 with two doubles.  Josh Phelps was 2-for-4.  Dave Berg was 1-for-4 with a double.

The game:  The Twins scored four in the third to take a 4-0 lead.  Guzman had an RBI double, Koskie brought him home with a single, and Hunter delivered a two-run double.  The Blue Jays missed a chance in the fifth, stranding two runners, but broke through in the sixth on a Jose Cruz double and a run-scoring ground out.  LaTroy Hawkins, who was having an outstanding season, came on in the seventh and gave up consecutive singles.  He retired the next two batters on ground outs, one of which scored a run, but Stewart doubled to send home the tying run.  Berg led off the ninth with a double but did not advance past second.  In the tenth, Bobby Kielty led off with a single and was bunted to second.  Guzman was intentionally walked, but Koskie came through with a double to deep right-center to bring home the winning run.

WP:  Wells (1-1).  LP:  Kelvim Escobar (5-5).  S:  None.

Notes:  Kielty was used as a pinch-hitter for Luis Rivas, who had gone 0-for-3.  Dustan Mohr started in right.

Hunter raised his average to .311.

Mohr went 0-for-4 and was batting .303.

Despite giving up two runs, Hawkins still had an ERA of just 1.59.  He had not given up a run since June 12.

Romero brought his ERA down to 1.95.

Kelvim Escobar was used as both a starter and a reliever at various points in his career.  He came up to the Blue Jays in 1997, a year which he began in Class A.  He made 27 appearances with Toronto, posting an ERA of 2.90 but a WHIP of 1.52, largely due to the fact that he walked 5.5 batters per nine innings.  He struck out 10.5, though.  He started 1998 in the Blue Jays bullpen but was pretty awful, and so he went down to AAA to get used to starting again, the role he had filled in his minor league career.  He came back in August to make ten starts and did pretty well.  He was in the Blue Jays' rotation for most of 1999-2000 and did not do well, however, so he started 2001 back in the bullpen.  He did fairly well as a setup man and was moved back into the rotation in August, where he did even better.  2002 found him installed as the Blue Jays' closer, and while he had 38 saves his other numbers were not good:  5-7, 4.27, 1.53 WHIP.  He was back starting in 2003, was not all that good there either, and after the season Toronto allowed him to become a free agent.  He signed with the Angels and had his best years there.  From 2004-2007 he went 43-35, 3.60, 1.26 WHIP.  The main difference seems to have been his control, as he went from walking 4.2 batters per nine innings before 2005 to walking just 3.0 after.  He missed much of 2005 and all of 2008 due to injury.  He tried to come back in 2009, but was able to make just one start.  He tried again in 2013, going to spring training with Milwaukee, but did not make the team.  He pitched in Mexico that season, but then his playing career was over.  He was still hoping to make a comeback in 2014, but could find no takers.  He was up and down, but overall his numbers are okay--101-91, 4.15, 1.38 WHIP.  He is a cousin of Alcides Escobar and Edwin Escobar.  At last report, Kelvim Esocbar was living in the Miami area.

Record:  The Twins were 63-42, in first place, leading Chicago by fourteen games.