OAKLAND 6, MINNESOTA 3 IN OAKLAND
Date: Saturday, August 31.
Batting stars: Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-4. Corey Koskie was 1-for-2 with a double and two walks. Dustan Mohr was 1-for-2 with a home run, his eleventh.
Pitching star: Kyle Lohse pitched seven innings, giving up three runs on four hits and a walk and striking out four.
Opposition stars: Cory Lidle pitched 7.1 innings, giving up one run on four hits and a walk and striking out six. Eric Chavez was 3-for-4 with a home run (his thirty-first) and a double, driving in four. Ray Durham was 1-for-3 with a walk.
The game: Oakland took the lead in the first inning, getting an RBI double from Chavez and scoring another run on a ground out to go up 2-0. It stayed 2-0, with neither team even mounting much of a threat, until the sixth, when back-to-back two-out doubles by Koskie and David Ortiz cut the lead to 2-1. Chavez got the run back for the Athletics when he led off the bottom of the seventh with a home run to make it 3-1. The Twins tied it in the eighth. Mohr hit a one-out pinch-hit homer to make it 3-2 and Torii Hunter delivered a two-out RBI single later in the inning to tie it 3-3. The normally reliable J. C. Romero came in to pitch the eighth, but he did not have it this day. With one out, Ramon Hernandez doubled and Durham walked. A ground out put men on second and third with two down. Miguel Tejada was intentionally walked, but Chavez and Jermaine Dye delivered back-to-back singles, with Chavez driving home two and Dye one, to give the Oaklands a 6-3 lead. The Twins got a two-out walk in the ninth but no more.
WP: Jim Mecir (5-3). LP: Romero (8-2). S: Billy Koch (37).
Notes: A. J. Pierzynski dropped back below .300 with an 0-for-4. He was batting .298.
Bobby Kielty also dropped below .300 with an 0-for-4. He was batting .295.
I know we don't put a lot of stock in won-lost records, but those of some of the Twins relievers in 2002 were rather remarkable. Tony Fiore ended up 10-3. Romero was 9-2. LaTroy Hawkins was 6-0. That's 25-5 from the primary set-up men. It seems like that shows: a) that those three pitched very well, and b) the Twins got a lot of late wins that season.
Record: The Twins were 80-57, in first place, leading Chicago by fourteen games.