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.

MINNESOTA 8, CHICAGO 1 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Wednesday, July 24.

Batting stars:  David Ortiz was 3-for-5 with a double and a three-run homer, his twelfth.  Torii Hunter was 3-for-5 with a double.  Doug Mientkiewicz was 1-for-2 with a home run (his sixth) and two walks.

Pitching stars:  Kyle Lohse pitched eight innings, giving up one run on eight hits and four walks and striking out four.  J. C. Romero pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Ray Durham was 3-for-5.  Kenny Lofton was 2-for-4.  Frank Thomas was 1-for-2 with two walks and a home run, his seventeenth.

The game:  Bobby Kielty hit a two-run homer in the second to give the Twins a 2-0 lead.  A. J. Pierzynski singled home a run in the fourth to make it 3-0.  The Twins took control in the fifth, getting a three-run homer from Ortiz and a two-run homer from Mientkiewicz to make it 8-0.  The White Sox missed all kinds of chances, stranding two runners in the first, third, fifth, eighth, and ninth and leaving the bases loaded in the second.  Their only run came in the sixth, when Thomas led off with a home run.  For the game Chicago stranded twelve and went 0-for-11 with men in scoring position.

WP:  Lohse (10-5).  LP:  Jon Garland (8-8).  S:  None.

Notes:  Hunter raised his average to .310.

Kielty was 1-for-3 with a walk and a two-run homer, his eighth.  He raised his average to .328.

This was the fourth consecutive strong start by Lohse.  In those starts, he gave up just three earned runs in twenty-seven innings for an ERA of 1.00.

Romero lowered his ERA to 2.00.

Chicago starter Garland pitched 4.1 innings and allowed seven runs on nine hits and three walks and struck out two.  This was his first full year as a rotation starter, a position he held through 2010.  He was pretty much a league average pitcher--his ERA+ was between 91 and 111 every year from 2002-2010 with the exception of 2005, when it was 128.  That was his best season--he went 18-10, 3.50, 1.17 WHIP.  He made his only all-star team that season and finished sixth in Cy Young balloting.  But in each season from 2002-2010 he made either thirty-two or thirty-three starts and pitched 192-221 innings.  That's a very valuable man.  He stayed with the White Sox through 2007, was with the Angels in 2008, played for Arizona and the Dodgers in 2009, and was with San Diego in 2010.  He signed with the Dodgers for 2011, but made only nine starts before needing shoulder surgery.  He missed all of 2012.  He tried to come back in 2013, but lasted just twelve starts for Colorado before being released.  It sounds as if he would like to have given it another try, but no one was interested in letting him do that.  In fact, an article last summer said that he had started throwing and was contemplating a comeback, although it does not appear that anything came of it.  He's thirty-eight, so it wouldn't be impossible, although it would certainly be quite a story.

Record:  The Twins were 61-42, in first place, leading Chicago by fourteen games.