ANAHEIM 7, MINNESOTA 1 IN ANAHEIM
Date: October 12, 2002.
Batting stars: David Ortiz was 2-for-4. Doug Mientkiewicz was 1-for-3 with a double. Corey Koskie was 1-for-4 with a double.
Pitching star: Brad Radke pitched 6.2 innings, giving up two runs on five hits and a walk and striking out four.
Opposition stars: John Lackey struck out seven in seven shutout innings, giving up three hits and no walks. Bengie Molina was 2-for-3 with a triple and a hit-by-pitch. Darin Erstad was 2-for-4 with a stolen base.
The game: Neither team even got a man to second base until the sixth, when Molina singled and was sacrificed to second. The Angels broke through in the seventh. Erstad led off with a single and went to third on a single-plus-error. Tim Salmon walked, Troy Glaus delivered an RBI single, and Scott Spiezio had a run-scoring double to put Anaheim ahead 2-0. In the eighth, the Angels had a man on third with two out. Garret Anderson singled, Glaus singled, Brad Fullmer doubled, Spiezio was intentional walked, and Molina tripled to left to give Anaheim a 7-0 advantage. The Twins avoided the shutout when Koskie had a two-out double in the ninth and scored on an Ortiz single.
WP: Lackey. LP: Brad Radke. S: None.
Notes: Dustan Mohr was again in right field. He was 1-for-3.
This was John Lackey's rookie year. He came up in late June of 2002 and made eighteen starts, going 9-4, 3.66. He tied Bobby Kielty four fourth place in Rookie of the Year voting that year. He has, of course, gone on to a long and successful career in the major leagues.
The Twins used five pitchers in the eighth inning. Ron Gardenhire, in the last couple of games, used his bullpen entirely differently than he had all season. During the season, he very rarely tried to play matchups and very rarely used relievers for less than an inning unless they were getting hit hard, instead trusting his relievers to get their job done. That's not what he did that in game three or in the eighth inning of game four. Johan Santana started the inning, retiring David Eckstein on a popup and giving up a bloop single to Darin Erstad. He then picked Erstad off base, but the Twins messed it up and Erstad stole second. LaTroy Hawkins then came in to face Alex Ochoa and got him to ground out. J. C. Romero came in to face Anderson and gave up an RBI single. Mike Jackson came in and gave up the single to Glaus, the double to Fullmer, the Spiezio intentional walk, and the Molina triple. Finally, Bob Wells came in to strike out Adam Kennedy and end the inning. My point is not that Gardy was wrong--the fact that it didn't work is not proof that it was a bad decision at the time. My point is simply that this was something Gardy didn't do all season, and then he suddenly decided to do it in the ALCS.
Record: Anaheim took a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.