2002 Rewind: Game One Hundred Thirty-three

MINNESOTA 5, SEATTLE 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, August 27.

Batting stars:  Torii Hunter was 3-for-4 with a home run, his twenty-fifth.  Jacque Jones was 2-for-4 with a home run, his twenty-fourth.  A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-4 with a triple.

Pitching stars:  Joe Mays pitched six innings, giving up two runs on nine hits and three walks with one strikeout.  LaTroy Hawkins pitched a perfect inning.  Eddie Guardado pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Desi Relaford was 2-for-3 with a double.  Carlos Guillen was 2-for-4.  Dan Wilson was 2-for-4.

The game:  Wilson singled home a run in the first inning to give the Mariners a 1-0 lead.  The Twins started the third with a single, a double, and a single, but only scored once, as Pierzynski singled home a run to tie it 1-1.  Seattle went ahead 2-1 in the top of the fourth, as Desi Relaford doubled home a run.  The Twins took the lead for good in the bottom of the fourth.  Hunter tied it with a home run, Doug Mientkiwicz singled, and Pierzynski delivered a two-out run-scoring triple to give the Twins a 3-2 advantage.  Jones led off the fifth with a homer to make it 4-2.  Hunter drove in the game's final run with an infield single in the seventh.  The Mariners missed on a lot of promising starts to innings.  They had men on first and second with one out in the second, started the third with two singles, left a man on second in the fourth, had men on first and second starting off the fifth, and got a pair of one-out singles in the sixth.  They hit into three double plays and were 2-for-11 with men in scoring position.

WP:  Mays (3-5).  LP:  Ismael Valdez (7-10).  S:  Guardado (37).

Notes:  Hunter got his average back over .300 at .301.

Pierzynski was batting .303.  The triple was his fifth of the season.  He would hit six in 2002, a quarter of his career total.

Hawkins' ERA went to 2.22.

J. C. Romero pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a walk.  His ERA fell to 1.53.

Guardado's ERA dropped to 2.67.

We will not have a player profile today, and may not have one for the remainder of this series.  I enjoy doing them, but they take a lot of time.  It's Ash Wednesday, which means the start of Lent coming on, which means mid-week worship services to prepare.  Unfortunately, I only get the same number of hours in the day that everyone else does.  Such is life.

Record:  The Twins were 79-54, in first place, leading Chicago by sixteen and a half games.