OAKLAND 2, MINNESOTA 0 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Saturday, September 7.

Batting stars:  Jacque Jones was 2-for-4 with a double.  Luis Rivas was 2-for-3.  A. J. Pierzynski was 1-for-3.

Pitching stars:  Joe Mays pitched 7.1 innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on five hits and a walk and striking out one.  Bob Wells pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Mark Mulder struck out ten in eight shutout innings, giving up seven hits and no walks.  Miguel Tejada was 2-for-4.  Scott Hatteberg was 1-for-3 with a walk.

The game:  Oakland got on the board in the second, when Jermaine Dye reached second on an error and scored on a David Justice single.  Meanwhile, five of the first six Twins struck out, with only Torii Hunter making contact on a ground out to third.  Three of the strikeouts were called.  The Twins threatened in the third, putting men on second and third with two out, but Cristian Guzman struck out to end the inning.  In the fifth, the Twins loaded the bases with two out, but Guzman grounded out to short to end the inning.  The Athletics added a run in the eighth when Ramon Hernandez singled, was bunted to second, and scored on a Hatteberg single to make the score 2-0.  The Twins' last eight batters went out.

WP:  Mulder (17-7).  LP:  Mays (3-6).  S:  Billy Koch (38).

Notes:  Matthew LeCroy was the DH rather than David Ortiz.  He was 0-for-4.

Michael Cuddyer was at first base, replacing Doug Mientkiewicz.  He was 1-for-4, raising his average to .194.

Pierzynski raised his average back to .300.

J. C. Romero pitched two-thirds of an inning, giving up only a walk.  His ERA was now 1.84.

This was the second-best outing of the year for Mays, topped only by a two-hit shutout he threw on August 16.  He got his ERA below six at 5.67.

This was the best outing of the year to day for Mulder (he would have a better one a couple of weeks later).  He was in the middle of a three-year stretch in which he would go 55-24, 3.36 with seven shutouts and seventeen complete games.  He finished second to Roger Clemens in Cy Young balloting in 2001, and there was no compelling reason to favor Clemens over him that year.  Oddly, he only made the all-star team once in that stretch, in 2003, although he made it again in 2004.  Shoulder injuries cut his career short (only nine seasons, and in two of them he made only three appearances each), but from 2001-2005 he was among the top pitchers in the game.

Record:  The Twins were 82-60, in first place, leading Chicago by fourteen games.

MINNESOTA 6, OAKLAND 0 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Friday, September 6.

Batting stars:  Corey Koskie was 3-for-3 with a home run (his eleventh), a double, and a hit-by-pitch.  Jacque Jones was 2-for-4 with a double.  A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-4 with a double.

Pitching star:  Brad Radke pitched a complete game shutout, giving up six hits and one walk and striking out five.

Opposition stars:  Scott Hatteberg was 2-for-4 with a double.  Eric Chavez was 2-for-4 with a double.  Miguel Tejada was 2-for-4.

The game:  Oakland loaded the bases in the first inning but did not score.  In the bottom of the first, doubles by Jones and Koskie put the Twins ahead 1-0.  The Athletics had men on second and third with one out in the third but did not score.  The Twins went up 2-0 in the bottom of the third, as Luis Rivas tripled and scored on a ground out.  Koskie led off the sixth with a home run to make it 3-0.  The Twins got a couple of clutch hits in the seventh.  With Pierzynski on second and two out, Jones had an RBI single and scored from first on a Cristian Guzman double to make it 5-0.  The Twins' final run came in the eighth, when Torii Hunter doubled, went to third on a ground out, and scored on a wild pitch.  Radke really settled down after the third inning, giving up just two more hits.

WP:  Radke (7-4).  LP:  Cory Lidle (8-10).  S:  None.

Notes:  Jones had gone 7-for-13 with three doubles over his last three games.

Michael Cuddyer played right field and went 0-for-4, dropping his average to .191.

It was Radke's best game of the season, both by game scores and by the eye test.  It was one of two complete games he had in 2002 and his only shutout.  His ERA went below five for the first time all season and was 4.67.

Record:  The Twins were 82-59, in first place, leading Chicago by fourteen games.

MINNESOTA 3, SEATTLE 2 IN SEATTLE

Date:  Wednesday, September 4.

Batting stars:  Jacque Jones was 3-for-5.  David Ortiz was 2-for-4 with a home run (his seventeenth) and a double.  Torii Hunter was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.

Pitching star:  Rick Reed pitched 7.1 innings, giving up one run on six hits and a walk and striking out five.

Opposition stars:  Edgar Martinez was 2-for-3 with a home run (his eleventh) and a walk.  Desi Relaford was 2-for-4.  Jamie Moyer pitched eight innings, giving up three runs on twelve hits and a walk and striking out two.

The game:  Corey Koskie's RBI single put the Twins ahead 1-0 in the first inning.  The Twins had men on first and third with none out in the fifth, but a double play by Cristian Guzman meant the Twins only scored once to make it 2-0.  An Ortiz homer in the eighth made it 3-0.  Meanwhile, the Mariners did not get a man past first base until the seventh.  They got on the board in the eighth, as Jose Offerman led off the inning with a home run.  Martinez led off the ninth with another home run, making the score 3-2, but Seattle did not get the tying run on base.

WP:  Reed (13-7).  LP:  Jamie Moyer (13-7).  S:  Eddie Guardado (39).

Notes:  Presumably, the Tuesday night game was rained out.

Michael Cuddyer played right field, as both Bobby Kielty and Dustan Mohr were on the bench.  Cuddyer went 1-for-4.

In his last five starts, Reed had pitched 38 innings with an ERA of 1.18.  He was 4-1 in those starts.  He would have three more strong starts before struggling in his next-to-last start of the season.

Offerman's home run was his fifth of the season.

Ichiro Suzuki was 1-for-4 in this game.  For the season he batted .321/.388/.425.  Against the Twins in 2002, however, he was 5-for-28 with two walks for a line of .179/.233/.179.  For his career, however, he has batted .331/.362/.415 against Minnesota.

Record:  The Twins were 81-59, in first place, leading Chicago by 12.5 games.