OAKLAND 4, MINNESOTA 1 IN OAKLAND
Date: Tuesday, May 20.
Batting star: Bobby Kielty was 1-for-3 and was hit by a pitch.
Pitching star: Rick Reed pitched six innings, giving up three runs on eleven hits and two walks and striking out three.
Opposition stars: Tim Hudson pitched eight innings, giving up one run on five hits and no walks and striking out five. Eric Brynes was 3-for-5 with two doubles and two runs. Scott Hatteberg was 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs. Chris Singleton was 2-for-4 with a double and two runs.
The game: The Athletics put two men on in each of the first three innings, but did not score. Instead, it was the Twins who opened the scoring in the fourth, as Cristian Guzman led off the inning with a double and scored on Torii Hunter's two-out single.
That was as good as it got for the Twins, though. With two out in the bottom of the fourth, Singleton and Brynes hit back-to-back doubles to tie the score and Hatteberg delivered an RBI single to make it 2-1 Oakland.
They stranded a couple more guys in the fifth, and the Twins stranded two in the sixth. In the bottom of the sixth, Singleton and Byrnes singled and Eric Chavez walked, loading the bases with one out. A sacrifice fly made it 3-1. In the eighth, Brynes and Hatteberg hit back-to-back doubles to give the Athletics a 4-1 advantage. The Twins had only one hit after the sixth inning.
WP: Hudson (4-1). LP: Reed (2-5). S: Keith Foulke (12).
Notes: Todd Sears was at first base in place of Doug Mientkiewicz. Kielty was the DH.
Jacque Jones was 1-for-4 and was batting .344. Sears was 0-for-4 and was batting .302.
Johan Santana gave up a run in two innings to raise his ERA to 2.67. He had given up at least one run in five of his last six appearances, raising his ERA from 0.95.
Oakland stranded 13 runners, going 3-for-13 with men in scoring position. The Twins stranded just five, going 1-for-7 with men in scoring position.
Foulke was an excellent relief pitcher for five seasons (2000-2004). The first three of those were with the White Sox and the last was with Boston; this was the one in-between. He had an ERA under three in each of those seasons, and it was under 2.40 in three of them. His WHIP was under one for three of those seasons and just barely over one in the other two. He had 162 saves in those five seasons, leading the league in 2003. He only made one all-star team, but twice finished in the top ten in Cy Young voting. He fell off very quickly after 2004, but for five seasons he was about as good as anybody.
Record: The Twins were 25-19, in first place in the American League Central, a half game ahead of Kansas City.