MINNESOTA 2, DETROIT 0 IN DETROIT
Date: September 18, 2002.
Batting stars: Denny Hocking was 2-for-2 with a double and a hit-by-pitch. Matthew LeCroy was 1-for-3 with a walk.
Pitching stars: Joe Mays pitched six shutout innings, giving up three hits and a walk and striking out two. Eddie Guardado struck out two in a perfect inning. Johan Santana struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.
Opposition stars: Ramon Santiago was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his eighth. Steve Sparks pitched eight innings, giving up two runs on eight hits and a walk and striking out one. Carlos Pena was 1-for-2 with two walks.
The game: In the first inning, Dustan Mohr doubled and scored on a LeCroy single to give the Twins a 1-0 lead. The Tigers got a pair of two-out singles in the bottom of the first but did not score. Neither team had much of a threat after that until the seventh, when a walk and a single gave Detroit men on first and second with none out. A popup and a strikeout left them there with two out, a wild pitch advanced them to second and third, but Chris Truby struck out to end the inning. The Twins got an insurance run in the eighth on doubles by Hocking and Luis Rivas. The Tigers again threatened in the eighth, getting a pair of one-out singles and a two-out walk to load the bases, but Robert Fick popped up to end the inning. Detroit did not threaten in the ninth.
WP: Mays (4-7). LP: Sparks (8-16). S: Guardado (43).
Notes: The Twins won with pretty much a B lineup. Bobby Kielty was again in center replacing Torii Hunter and went 1-for-4. Mohr was in left replacing Jacque Jones and went 1-for-4 with a double. LeCroy was the DH rather than David Ortiz. Michael Cuddyer was at third base replacing Corey Koskie and went 1-for-3. Michael Restovich was in right and went 0-for-4. Todd Sears was at first replacing Doug Mientkiewicz and went 0-for-4. Denny Hocking was at short replacing Cristian Guzman.
A. J. Pierzynski was 1-for-3 and was batting .304.
This was the second-best game (by game scores) of the season for Mays. It was topped only by his complete game shutout of Boston on August 16. He pretty much alternated good and bad games from the middle of August through the end of the season.
It was the major league debut for Michael Restovich.
Javier Valentin was used as a defensive replacement for Pierzynski and went 1-for-1. It was his first appearance as a Twin, and his first big-league appearance at all, since 1999. He had remained in the Twins organization all that time, playing in AAA. He would leave the Twins after this season, spend one year with Tampa Bay, and then be a reserve catcher for Cincinnati from 2004-2008. His best year was 2005, when he went .281/.362/.520 with 14 homers in 221 at-bats.
Record: The Twins were 89-63, in first place, leading Chicago by thirteen games.