Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game Thirty-seven

KANSAS CITY 3, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA

Batting stars:  Luis Rivas was 2-for-2 with two stolen bases (his fourth and fifth).  Torii Hunter was 2-for-4 with a home run, his fifth.

Pitching stars:  Joe Mays pitched seven innings, giving up three runs on six hits and three walks and striking out two.  J. C. Romero pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.  Juan Rincon pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Jeremy Affeldt struck out eight in six innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and a walk.  Jason Grimsley pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits.  Carlos Beltran was 3-for-4 with a home run (his fourth), a stolen base (his third), and two runs.  Brent Mayne was 2-for-4.

The game:  The Royals scored two in the first inning.  With one out, Joe Randa walked, Carlos Beltran singled, and Mike Sweeney walked, loading the bases.  Raul Ibanez delivered a two-run single, making it 2-0 Kansas City.

Hunter homered with two out in the fourth to get the Twins on the board, but Beltran homered with two out in the fifth to make it 3-1.  With one out in the sixth, Corey Koskie singled and scored from first on a Matthew LeCroy double to cut the margin to 3-2.  LeCroy got to third with two out, but did not score.  In the seventh Dustan Mohr singled and was bunted to second, but did not advance.  The Twins would not get a man past first after that.

WP:  Affeldt (3-1).  LP:  Mays (3-2).  S:  Mike MacDougal (11).

Notes:  LeCroy was behind the plate in place of A. J. Pierzynski.  Bobby Kielty was the DH.

Tom Prince replaced LeCroy in the ninth.  Denny Hocking pinch-ran for Doug Mientkiewicz in the ninth.  Pierzynski pinch-hit for Luis Rivas in the ninth.

Jacque Jones was 0-for-4 and was batting .343.  LeCroy was 1-for-4 and was batting .305.

Mays lowered his ERA to 5.85.  Rincon lowered his ERA to 1.45.

The Twins were 0-for-5 with men in scoring position.

This was a battle between the top two teams in the Central Division.

Record:  The Twins were 20-17, in second place in the American League Central, 3.5 games behind Kansas City.