CHICAGO 14, MINNESOTA 4 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Saturday, September 21.

Batting stars:  Corey Koskie was 2-for-3 with two home runs, his thirteenth and fourteenth.  David Ortiz was 2-for-3 with a home run, his nineteenth.  Michael Restovich hit a pinch-hit home run, his first.

Pitching star:  Mike Jackson pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Magglio Ordonez was 3-for-4 with two home runs, his thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth, scoring three times and driving in four.  Aaron Rowand was 3-for-4.  Carlos Lee was 2-for-4 with a grand slam, his twenty-sixth home run.

The game:  Ordonez hit a two-run homer in the first to give the White Sox a 2-0 lead.  Ortiz homered in the second to cut the lead to 2-1.  Chicago took the game over in the third.  They started the season with back-to-back doubles by D'Angelo Jimenez and Jose Valentin, followed by back-to-back singles by Lee and Ordonez.  The next two batters were retired, but Joe Crede doubled and Rowand singled, making the score 6-1.  Koskie led off the fourth with a homer to make it 6-2, but Ordonez homered leading off the fifth to make it a five-run game again at 7-2.  Koskie hit another homer leading off the sixth, but Valentin hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth to increase the lead to 9-3.  The White Sox scored five more in the seventh, capped by the Lee grand slam.  Restovich hit a pinch-hit home run with one out in the ninth to round out the scoring.

WP:  Jon Rauch (2-1).  LP:  Brad Radke (9-5).  S:  None.

Notes:  Jacque Jones was again out of the lineup, and would not return until September 26.  Dustan Mohr led off and played left field, going 0-for-4.

It was the first major league home run by Restovich.  It was one of three he hit as a Twin and one of six he hit for his career.  It came off Kelly Wunsch.  I suspect he probably remembers it pretty well, even though all it did was make the score 14-4.

Radke pitched just three innings, allowing six runs on nine hits and no walks and striking out three.  His game score was twenty, his lowest of the season.

Jackson lowered his ERA to 2.89.

Rauch was in his rookie season.  It was his fifth major league start.  I don't know if he had the neck tat then, but I'm confident that he was tall.

The Twins had been outscored 24-6 in their last two games.

Record:  The Twins were 89-65, in first place, leading Chicago by 11.5 games.

CHICAGO 10, MINNESOTA 2 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Friday, September 20.

Batting stars:  Michael Cuddyer was 2-for-3 with a double.  Corey Koskie was 1-for-3 with a home run, his twelfth.  David Ortiz was 1-for-3 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  Rick Reed pitched four innings, giving up one run on three hits and no walks and striking out two.  LaTroy Hawkins pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a walk.

Opposition stars:  Paul Konerko was 3-for-4.  Carlos Lee was 2-for-3 with a home run (his twenty-fifth), scoring three times and driving in four.  Dan Wright pitched eight innings, giving up two runs on five hits and a walk and striking out three.

The game:  It looked good for a while.  Koskie homered in the second inning to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  Jose Valentin homered in the fourth to tie it 1-1.  The Twins had men on first and third with none out in the fifth but could only score once, on a David Lamb double play grounder, to make it 2-1.  Then Reed left the game and the roof fell in.  It fell slowly, but surely.  The White Sox got a walk and three singles (two of them infield singles) in the bottom of the fifth to take a 3-2 lead.  In the sixth, four consecutive singles and a sacrifice fly brought home three runs and made it 6-2.  In the seventh, two walks and a single made it 7-2 and Lee hit a three-run homer to put the game out of reach.  The Twins did not threaten after the fifth inning.

WP:  Dan Wright (13-12).  LP:  Juan Rincon (0-2).  S:  None.

Notes:  Michael Ryan made his major league debut in this game, batting leadoff and playing left field in place of Jacque Jones.  He went 0-for-4.

Torii Hunter returned to the starting lineup, going 0-for-3.

Ortiz played first base in place of Doug Mientkiewicz.  Mientkiewicz had not played since September 15, but would be back in the lineup in the next game.

Cuddyer was in right field.

Tom Prince caught, replacing A. J. Pierzynski.  He went 1-for-3.

Lamb played second base in place of Luis Rivas.  He went 0-for-3.

There is no apparent reason for Reed to have come out after four innings and forty-five pitches.  One assumes he was simply being rested in a meaningless game near the end of a long season, with the playoffs coming up.

Rincon made his first appearance as a Twin since August 25.  It did not go well, as he allowed five runs (four earned) on seven hits and a walk in 1.1 innings.  He did not have the best luck, as four of the hits were infield singles.

Kevin Frederick made his first appearance as a Twin since August 6.  It did not go well, either, as he allowed four runs on two hits and two walks in one inning.

Hawkins lowered his ERA to 2.21.

Record:  The Twins were 89-64, in first place, leading Chicago by 12.5 games.

MINNESOTA 2, DETROIT 0 IN DETROIT

Date:  September 18, 2002.

Batting stars:  Denny Hocking was 2-for-2 with a double and a hit-by-pitch.  Matthew LeCroy was 1-for-3 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  Joe Mays pitched six shutout innings, giving up three hits and a walk and striking out two.  Eddie Guardado struck out two in a perfect inning.  Johan Santana struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Ramon Santiago was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his eighth.  Steve Sparks pitched eight innings, giving up two runs on eight hits and a walk and striking out one.  Carlos Pena was 1-for-2 with two walks.

The game:  In the first inning, Dustan Mohr doubled and scored on a LeCroy single to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  The Tigers got a pair of two-out singles in the bottom of the first but did not score.  Neither team had much of a threat after that until the seventh, when a walk and a single gave Detroit men on first and second with none out.  A popup and a strikeout left them there with two out, a wild pitch advanced them to second and third, but Chris Truby struck out to end the inning.  The Twins got an insurance run in the eighth on doubles by Hocking and Luis Rivas.  The Tigers again threatened in the eighth, getting a pair of one-out singles and a two-out walk to load the bases, but Robert Fick popped up to end the inning.  Detroit did not threaten in the ninth.

WP:  Mays (4-7).  LP:  Sparks (8-16).  S:  Guardado (43).

Notes:  The Twins won with pretty much a B lineup.  Bobby Kielty was again in center replacing Torii Hunter and went 1-for-4.  Mohr was in left replacing Jacque Jones and went 1-for-4 with a double.  LeCroy was the DH rather than David Ortiz.  Michael Cuddyer was at third base replacing  Corey Koskie and went 1-for-3.  Michael Restovich was in right and went 0-for-4.  Todd Sears was at first replacing Doug Mientkiewicz and went 0-for-4.  Denny Hocking was at short replacing Cristian Guzman.

A. J. Pierzynski was 1-for-3 and was batting .304.

This was the second-best game (by game scores) of the season for Mays.  It was topped only by his complete game shutout of Boston on August 16.  He pretty much alternated good and bad games from the middle of August through the end of the season.

It was the major league debut for Michael Restovich.

Javier Valentin was used as a defensive replacement for Pierzynski and went 1-for-1.  It was his first appearance as a Twin, and his first big-league appearance at all, since 1999.  He had remained in the Twins organization all that time, playing in AAA.  He would leave the Twins after this season, spend one year with Tampa Bay, and then be a reserve catcher for Cincinnati from 2004-2008.  His best year was 2005, when he went .281/.362/.520 with 14 homers in 221 at-bats.

Record:  The Twins were 89-63, in first place, leading Chicago by thirteen games.