MINNESOTA 6, BOSTON 2 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Sunday, August 18.
Batting stars: Doug Mientkiewicz was 3-for-4 with a double and a home run, his ninth. Torii Hunter was 2-for-4. Corey Koskie was 2-for-4.
Pitching stars: Rick Reed struck out seven in seven innings, giving up two runs on six hits and no walks. J. C. Romero struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk. Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit.
Opposition stars: Shea Hillenbrand was 2-for-4 with a double. Manny Ramirez was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk. Cliff Floyd was 1-for-4 with a home run, his twenty-fourth.
The game: Singles by Jacque Jones and Koskie and a David Ortiz sacrifice fly put the Twins ahead 1-0 in the first inning. The Red Sox tied it in the second, as Ramirez doubled and scored on a Brian Daubach single. Mientkiewicz led off the bottom of the second with a home run to put the Twins back on top 2-1. The Twins loaded the bases with one out in the fourth, getting singles from Hunter and Mientkiewicz and a walk to Dustan Mohr, but could only score one on an A. J. Pierzynski fielder's choice. That made the score 3-1, where it stayed until the seventh, when Floyd led off with a home run to cut the margin to 3-2. The Twins finally took control in the eighth. Singles by Cristian Guzman and Ortiz put men on first and second with one out. Hunter singled home one run, Mientkiewicz doubled home another, and a sacrifice fly made the score 6-2. Boston could manage only a Carlos Baerga single in the ninth.
WP: Reed (11-6). LP: John Burkett (10-7). S: None.
Notes: As we get later in the season, the Twins seem to be going more and more with a set lineup.
Hunter raised his average to .305.
Pierzynski was 0-for-3 to make his average .302.
Reed was in the second of a streak of eight starts in which he would give up two or fewer runs. He would lower his ERA from 4.63 to 3.71 over that stretch.
Romero lowered his ERA to 1.61.
First baseman/outfielder Brian Daubach had a few years in which he was a pretty good player and probably should've had more. He was drafted out of high school by the Mets in the 17th round in 1990 and took quite a while to get to the majors. He spent two years in rookie ball and three in Class A, not reaching AA until 1995. He repeated AA in 1996 and had his first really good year, batting .296/.403/.507 with 22 home runs. He was still just twenty-four, but the Mets gave up on him and allowed him to become a free agent. He signed with Florida and spent all of 1997 at AAA, hitting 40 doubles and 21 home runs and posting an OPS of .877. You'd think that would've at least gotten him a September call-up, but the Marlins stuck with Jeff Conine, who batted .242/.337/.405. Back in AAA in 1998, he had a monster year, batting .316/.421/.634 with 45 doubles and 35 home runs. He finally did get a September call-up that year, playing in all of ten games and getting fifteen at-bats as this time the Marlins chose to play Derrek Lee (.233/.318/.414) at first base. After two years in which Daubach showed he was clearly too good to be in AAA, and with the team in need of a first baseman, the Marlins chose to release him after the 1998 season. He signed with Boston and showed why he should've been in the majors earlier, batting .294 with an OPS of .921 with 33 doubles and 21 home runs. He finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting behind Carlos Beltran (the runaway winner), Freddy Garcia, and Jeff Zimmerman. He was twenty-seven by this time, though, so his future was somewhat limited. He stayed with the Red Sox for four seasons, over which he batted .266 with a slugging average of .493 and hit 84 home runs. That was as good as it would get for him, though. He was a free agent after the 2002 season and never played regularly again. He signed with the White Sox, where he was stuck behind Paul Konerko, went back to Boston in 2004, was with the Mets in 2005, spent 2006 in AAA with the Cardinals and then was done. He had four fine years, though, and almost certainly would've had one or two more if he'd been given the chance. One wonders if Daubach got crosswise with someone in the organization or if the Marlins just couldn't recognize a good thing when it was staring them in the face. He has stayed in baseball as a minor league manager and coach, and was the batting coach for the AAA Syracuse Chiefs last season.
Record: The Twins were 73-52, in first place, leading Chicago by fourteen and a half games.