CHICAGO 8, MINNESOTA 2 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Sunday, September 22.

Batting stars:  Dustan Mohr was 3-for-5 with a double.  Matthew LeCroy was 2-for-4.  Michael Restovich was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Johan Santana pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit and striking out one.  LaTroy Hawkins pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  D'Angelo Jimenez was 2-for-4 with a three-run homer, his fourth.  Frank Thomas was 2-for-4 with a home run (his twenty-seventh) and three RBIs.  Mark Buehrle pitched six innings, giving up two runs on nine hits and two walks and striking out three.

The game:  The White Sox again took control early.  Thomas hit a two-run homer in the first to give Chicago a 2-0 lead.  A. J. PIerzynski singled in a run in the second to make it 2-1, but Jeff Liefer doubled and scored in the bottom of the inning to build the lead back to 3-1.  Thomas singled home a run in the third, and in the fourth Jimenez hit a three-run homer to make the score 7-1.  The Twins opened the fifth with a pair of singles, but could only score once on a double play.  The only other score came in the eighth, when Magglio Ordonez led off the inning with a home run.

WP:  Buehrle (19-11).  LP:  Joe Mays (4-8).  S:  None.

Notes:  Jacque Jones was again out of the lineup.  Luis Rivas was in the leadoff spot and went 2-for-5.  Michael Restovich played left field.

Torii Hunter was the DH, with David Ortiz out of the lineup.  He went 0-for-4.  Mohr was in center field, his only appearance in center all season.

LeCroy was at first base in place of Doug Mientkiewicz.

Michael Cuddyer was in right field.  He went 1-for-3 with a stolen base.  I didn't realize this, but Cuddyer had seventy-five stolen bases in his career.  His high was eleven in 2011.

Denny Hocking was at shortstop, replacing Cristian Guzman.  He was 0-for-4.

Restovich raised his average to .300.

Pierzynski was 1-for-3, raising his average to .304.

Javier Valentin got a pinch-hit single, raising his average to .667 (2-for-3).

Joe Mays lasted only four innings, allowing seven runs on seven hits and two walks and striking out none.  He had a game score of eighteen.  It was not his lowest of the season--that had come on August 5, when he gave up eight runs on twelve hits in 5.2 innings.

Hawkins lowered his ERA to 2.18.

Record:  The Twins were 89-66, in first place, leading Chicago by 10.5 games.  They were outscored in the Chicago series 32-8.