MINNESOTA 3, CHICAGO 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Saturday, September 28.

Batting stars:  Michael Cuddyer was 3-for-3 with a double.  Bobby Kielty was 1-for-1 with a two-run homer, his eleventh.  Matthew LeCroy was 1-for-2 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  Kyle Lohse struck out seven in five innings, giving up two unearned runs on three hits and four walks.  Johan Santana struck out two in 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk.  LaTroy Hawkins struck out two in a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Mark Buehrle pitched a complete game, giving up three runs on ten hits and a walk and striking out seven.  Frank Thomas was 2-for-4.  D'Angelo Jimenez was 1-for-3 with two walks.

The game:  The White Sox put men on first and second with none out in the first and failed to score.  LeCroy singled home a run in the bottom of the first to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  The Twins missed a chance to increase the lead in the second, opening the inning with two singles but not bringing them home.  In the fifth, an error and two walks loaded the bases and Maggilo Ordonez delivered a two-out two-run single to give Chicago a 2-1 lead.  The White Sox had men on first and second with one out in the sixth and did not score.  They had men on second and third in the seventh but again did not score.  The Twins had a similar failure in the bottom of the seventh, putting men on first and third with none out and not scoring.  In the eighth, Kielty came through with a two-out two-run homer to put the Twins up 3-2.  Chicago got a walk leading off the ninth but did not advance the runner past first base.

WP:  LaTroy Hawkins (6-0).  LP:  Mark Buehrle (19-12).  S:  Eddie Guardado (45).

Notes:  LeCroy was the DH in place of David Ortiz.  Ortiz came in to play first base later in the game and went 1-for-2 with a double.

Cuddyer was the right fielder.

A. J. PIerzynski was 1-for-2 to make his average .301.

Denny Hocking was the second baseman in place of Luis Rivas.  He moved to short later in the game, with David Lamb taking over at second.  Hocking was 0-for-2.

The Twins basically treated this like a spring training game.  The only players to play the entire game were Cuddyer, Hocking, and Corey Koskie.  Lohse came out after five innings, throwing 81 pitches.

The Twins won a bunch of games late in 2002, and that's reflected in the won-lost records of some of their relievers.  Tony Fiore was 10-3.  J. C. Romero was 9-2.  As shown above, LaTroy Hawkins was 6-0.

Santana got his ERA below three at 2.99.

Hawkins' ERA was 2.13.

Guardado pitched a scoreless inning to drop his ERA to 2.93.

Chicago stranded eleven runners and went 1-for-10 with men in scoring position.

While it was basically a meaningless game, one suspects the Twins may have taken some pleasure in denying Buehrle his twentieth win.

Record:  The Twins were 93-67, in first place, leading Chicago by 12.5 games.