MINNESOTA 2, ANAHEIM 1 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Tuesday, October 8.
Batting stars: Corey Koskie was 2-for-4 with a double. Luis Rivas was 1-for-2 with a walk. Torii Hunter was 1-for-3 with a double.
Pitching stars: Joe Mays pitched eight innings, giving up an unearned run on four hits and no walks and striking out three. Eddie Guardado struck out two in a scoreless inning.
Opposition stars: Kevin Appier pitched five innings, giving up two runs on five hits and three walks and striking out two. Adam Kennedy was 1-for-3. Brad Fullmer was 1-for-3.
The game: Hunter led off the second with a double and got to third with none out on a wild pitch. With one out, A. J. PIerzynski delivered a sacrifice fly to give the Twins a 1-0 lead. The Angels put together a rally in the third, getting two-out singles from Kennedy and David Eckstein, and Cristian Guzman booted a Darin Erstad ground ball to tie the score. A single and a walk put men on first and second with one out for the Twins in the fourth, but they could not score. In the fifth, Rivas walked, Guzman singled, and Koskie doubled to right to give the Twins a 2-1 advantage. Mays took it from there, as he retired the last thirteen men he faced. Guardado came on to pitch the ninth. He gave up a one-out walk to Tim Salmon, but he never advanced past first as the Twins took the victory.
WP: Mays. LP: Appier. S: Guardado.
Notes: Michael Cuddyer remained the right fielder, going 0-for-2 with a walk.
I'd forgotten how many gritty, grindy guys the Angels had on that team. David Eckstein. Darin Erstad. Adam Kennedy. Chone Figgins probably fits that category, too. Ben Weber and Al Levine are probably in there as well, among others.
in the notes to game two of the ALDS I explained the reasons why making Joe Mays the Twins' number two starter for the playoffs seemed like a really strange decision. That explanation was very well reasoned and insightful, and the fact that Mays had a tremendous game here should not be taken as a refutation of that explanation. Seriously, Mays pitched really well in this one. I still don't know that it was the logical thing to do, but it worked, so there's not much you can do but give Gardy credit for it.
Record: The Twins took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
this story only ends one way.
Adam F. Kennedy....
...because of Gardy, or in spite of Gardy?
I was at every home playoff game during the 2002-2004 run. This is the game I remember the second most after Rubin Effing Sierra.
This was so much joy. Hope that Joe Mays was good again. Feeling like, hey it's not the Yankees, so the Twins have a good shot here. Hey, they've never lost a playoff series in my lifetime! Everyone was in a great mood.
16 years ago!
After pulling off that Oakland series, I had a lot of hope. The Angels looked imminently beatable if you got to them in the first 5 innings. After that you were toast. I was at game 2 of this series. Lord, was that ever true. But at least for half the game that place was deafening. It was fun.
I was in school in Japan during this series so I didn't get to see much of it. Most of what I did see were the Twins getting absolutely smothered by F-Rod, Percival, et al.
And, yeah, Brendan Donnelly had a couple nice years to start his major league career.
And Ben Weber. Buh.
2002 Angels page.
What a frustrating rotation.
I remember being vaguely irritated that F-Rod was allowed on the postseason roster to begin with, but I don't remember why.
Was it because the Angels used the rulebook to their favor and had him on the postseason roster even though he didnt pitch in the regular season until September?
I'm sure it was exactly that.
Neyer or here:
There we go.
I don't remember if I knew that at the time, but I also remember being irritated he was pitching.
"Who the f@ck is this kid!?"
The kid with a negative FIP.
I like how I post positive memories of this game yet the thread turned into pain.
I couldn’t wait until tomorrow lest I forgot. (I’m about to go on vacation.)