2002 Rewind: Game One Hundred Thirty-seven

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.