MINNESOTA 6, DETROIT 3 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Monday, July 29.

Batting stars:  Shane Mack was 2-for-3 with a triple, a double, a hit-by-pitch, and three runs.  Dan Gladden was 2-for-4 with a walk.  Greg Gagne was 2-for-4 with two RBIs.  Brian Harper was 2-for-4.  Kirby Puckett was 2-for-5.

Pitching stars:  David West pitched 7.1 innings, giving up three runs on six hits and two walks and striking out seven.  Rick Aguilera retired all four batters he faced, striking out two.

Opposition stars:  Mickey Tettleton was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.  Tony Phillips was 2-for-5 with a home run (his tenth) and a double.  Rob Deer was 1-for-4 with a home run (his twentieth).

The game:  Phillips led off the game with a double but only got to third base.  In the bottom of the first Gladden singled, went to second on a ground out, and scored on a Puckett single.  The Tigers tied it in the second on Deer's home run, but the Twins took the lead back in the bottom of the second when Mack doubled and scored on Gagne's single.

Detroit took its only lead in the third.  Phillips led off with a home run to tie the score.  Travis Fryman doubled and scored on Tettleton's two-out single to put the Tigers up 3-2.  The Twins tied it in the third on singles by Chuck Knoblauch, Puckett, and Kent Hrbek.

It stayed 3-3, with neither team getting a man past second, until the bottom of the sixth.  Harper got a one-out single and scored on Mack's triple.  Gagne then delivered a two-out RBI single to give the Twins a 5-3 advantage.  The Twins added one more in the eighth when Harper singled, Mack was hit by a pitch, Scott Leius had an infield single, and Gladden drew a bases-loaded walk.

The only Tiger threats after the third were mild ones.  Tettleton hit a one-out double in the sixth but did not advance.  A pair of walks gave them men on first and second with two out in the eighth.  But that was it.

WP:  West (2-2).  LP:  Bill Gullickson (13-6).  S:  Aguilera (27).

Notes:  The Twins went with a standard lineup.  The only substitution was when Leius pinch-hit for Mike Pagliarulo in the eighth and remained in the game at third base.

Puckett raised his average to .332.  Harper went up to .321.  Aguilera's ERA was 2.72.

Gullickson pitched 5.2 innings, allowing five runs on twelve hits and a walk and striking out three.

Gladden was 10-for-24 with three doubles and a home run since coming off the disabled list.  He raised his average from .259 to .274.

The Twins had now won eight out of their last eleven games.

The White Sox defeated Toronto 12-4, so the Twins did not gain any ground on this day.

Record:  The Twins were 59-41, in first place in the American League West, three games ahead of Chicago.