MINNESOTA 4, CLEVELAND 3 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, September 24.

Batting stars:  Bobby Kielty was 1-for-2 with a triple.  David Ortiz was 1-for-2 with a walk.  A. J. Pierzynski was 1-for-3 with a double and a hit-by-pitch.

Pitching stars:  Eric Milton pitched 6.2 innings, giving up one run on six hits and a walk and striking out three.  LaTroy Hawkins pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Jim Thome was 2-for-3 with a home run (his forty-eighth) and a walk.  Chris Magruder was 2-for-4.  Ellis Burks was 1-for-2 with a two-run homer, his thirty-first.

The game:  It was scoreless until the bottom of the third.  The Twins scored one on a ground out and Ortiz had an RBI single to give the Twins a 2-0 lead.  Thome homered leading off the fourth to cut the lead to 2-1.  In the fifth, Kielty tripled and scored on an error to make it 3-1.  Burks hit a two-run homer in the eighth to tie it 3-3.  In the ninth, PIerzynski led off with a double and was pinch-run for by Michael Ryan.  A bunt moved Ryan to third and two intentional walks loaded the bases.  Bobby Kielty then hit a fly ball to short left field.  Ryan showed why using a pinch-runner was a good idea by tagging up and scoring the winning run.

WP:  Hawkins (5-0).  LP:  Dave Elder (0-2).  S:  None.

Notes:  Jacque Jones was again out of the lineup, with Dustan Mohr in left field and leading off.  He was 0-for-3 with a sacrifice fly and two walks.

Torii Hunter was back in the lineup in center field.  He went 0-for-4.

Michael Cuddyer was the right fielder.  He went 1-for-3.

Pierzynski held his average at .304.

Milton got his ERA back under five at 4.99.

Hawkins lowered his ERA to 2.16.

Kyle Lohse made his only relief appearance of the season.  He pitched a third of an inning, allowing two runs on a hit and a walk.

Cleveland starter Ricardo Rodriguez made his seventh career start and his last of the season.  He pitched six innings, giving up three runs on four hits and three walks and striking out four.  He started the 2003 season with the Indians and pitched well in his first four starts, but not well after that.  He made fifteen starts before missing the rest of the season due to injury, so we'll never know if he'd have had a full season in the majors otherwise.  If he had, it would've been his only one.  He moved on to Texas for 2004 and got about a month in the majors.  He actually did pretty well, throwing a complete game shutout against his former team.  He got about two months with the Rangers in 2005 and pitched well at times, but not often enough.  That ended his major league career.  His numbers are 10-15, 5.18 in 206.2 innings (39 games).  He kept pitching for quite a while after that, playing winter ball in the Dominican Republic through 2011.

Record:  The Twins were 90-66, in first place, 11.5 games ahead of Chicago.

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.