MINNESOTA 15, COLORADO 3 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Thursday, June 12.

Batting stars:  Lew Ford was 4-for-5 with a double and two runs.  A. J. Pierzynski was 3-for-4 with two home runs (his seventh and eighth), three runs, and seven RBIs.  Matthew LeCroy was 3-for-5 with a home run (his sixth), two runs, and three RBIs.  Corey Koskie was 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, two runs, and two RBIs.  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-5 with a triple.  Dustan Mohr was 2-for-4 with two runs.

Pitching stars:  Kenny Rogers pitched eight innings, giving up three runs on nine hits and a walk and striking out three.  Tony Fiore pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Juan Uribe was 3-for-5.  Todd Helton was 2-for-2 with a double and a walk.  Larry Walker was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his sixth.

The game:  This one was over early, as the Twins scored seven runs in the first inning.  Ford led off with a single and scored on Guzman's triple.  Koskie walked and LeCroy had an RBI single.  Doug Mientkiewicz walked to load the bases and Mohr had an RBi single.  Pierzynski then hit a grand slam, making it 7-0 Twins.

The Rockies scored single runs in the second and third.  in the second Greg Vaughn doubled and scored on a Bobby Estalella single.  In the third Helton doubled and scored on a couple of productive outs.  But that was as close as Colorado would come.

The Twins got one in the sixth when Pierzynski singled, went to second on a balk, and scored on Ford's single.  They really put it away in the seventh, getting another seven-run inning.  Koskie led off with a single and LeCroy hit a two-run homer.  With one out Mientkiewicz and Mohr singled and Pierzynski hit a three-run homer.  Luis Rivas and Ford singled and Koskie hit a two-out two-run double, making the score 15-2.

Walker homered in the eighth to round out the scoring at 15-3.

WP:  Rogers (5-2).  LP:  Darren Oliver (3-5).  S:  None.

Notes:  Mohr was in left in place of Jacque Jones.  Ford was in center in place of Torii Hunter.  Bobby Kielty was in right.

Denny Hocking pinch-hit for Mientkiewicz in the eighth inning and stayed in the game at first base.

Ford raised his average to .429.  Hocking was 0-for-1 to drop to .176.

Rogers threw 103 pitches over his eight inning.  Tony Fiore came in to pitch the ninth.  I strongly suspect that, when he entered the game, John Gordon solemnly stated, "This is not a save situation."

Two Rockies in the game had the same name as other, more famous players, even though they had solid careers in their own right.  Bobby Estalella was a reserve catcher for parts of nine seasons, but is not as fondly remembered as the outfielder immortalized by Dave Frishberg in the song "Van Lingle Mungo".  Javier Lopez, who gave up seven runs in this game, was in the first year of what turned out to be a fourteen-year career, but when we say Javier Lopez, most of us think of the Atlanta catcher.

After scoring zero runs two games ago, the Twins scored first seven and then fifteen.  That's baseball.

Record:  The Twins were 37-27, in first place in the American League Central, five games ahead of Kansas City.