KANSAS CITY 14, MINNESOTA 7 IN KANSAS CITY
Date: Tuesday, June 17.
Batting stars: Dustan Mohr was 2-for-4 with a home run (his eighth), a double, a walk, and two runs. Denny Hocking was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk. Tom Prince was 2-for-5 with a two-run homer, his second. Justin Morneau was 1-for-1 with a home run.
Pitching star: LaTroy Hawkins pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a walk and striking out one.
Opposition stars: Ken Harvey was 4-for-5 with three doubles and five RBIs. Raul Ibanez was 3-for-5 with three runs and two RBIs. Mike Sweeney was 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, two runs, and two RBIs. Jeremy Affeldt pitched five innings, giving up one run on five hits and five walks and striking out three.
The game: The Royals scored in the third when Carlos Beltran walked and scored from first on Harvey's double. The Twins loaded the bases in the third but did not score. They did tie it in the fifth when Lew Ford walked, went to third on Hocking's double, and scored on a sacrifice fly. They took the lead in the sixth. Bobby Kielty singled, stole second, and scored on a Luis Rivas triple. Hocking's RBI single then made it 3-1 Minnesota.
Kansas City then exploded for twelve runs in the bottom of the sixth. Two walks and a single loaded the bases. Consecutive singles by Beltran, Ibanez, and Harvey plated four runs. A bunt gave the Twins their first out, but singles by Brent Mayne and Carlos Febles scored two more. Two consecutive hit batsmen brought home another run, Sweeney hit a three-run double, Ibanez had an RBI single, and Harvey had a run-scoring double. It was 13-3, and the game was pretty much over at that point.
The Twins scored two in the seventh on Prince's two-run homer and one in the eighth on a solo shot by Morneau. Harvey doubled home a run in the bottom of the eighth and Mohr homered in the ninth to bring us to the final score of 14-7..
WP: Kris Wilson (3-0). LP: Kenny Rogers (5-3). S: None.
Notes: This was the B lineup. Prince was behind the plate in place of A. J. Pierzynski. Matthew LeCroy was at first base in place of Doug Mientkiewicz. Hocking was at short in place of Cristian Guzman. Ford was in left in place of Jacque Jones. Kielty was the DH.
Mientkiewicz came in for defense in the sixth inning in place of LeCroy. Morneau pinch-hit in the eighth and stayed in the game at first base.
Ford was 1-for-4 and was batting .455. Morneau was 1-for-1 and is batting .364.
Hocking raised his average to .190.
Rogers pitched five innings, allowing seven runs on six hits and four walks and striking out three. His ERA was 5.14. Hawkins lowered his ERA to 2.16. Eddie Guardado allowed a run in one inning to raise his ERA to 3.03.
The Twins stranded 12 runners and were 2-for-9 with men in scoring position. The Royals stranded 5 and were 8-for-14 with men in scoring position.
This was Morneau's first major league home run.
I wonder what the most runs scored against the Twins in one inning is. I doubt that it's twelve, but that can't be too far down the list.
The Twins only had two guys who played in this game whose averages were above .300, and they were both guys who hadn't batted much. However, they had four players who were in the .290s: Mientkiewicz (.299), LeCroy (.298), Mohr (.297), and Corey Koskie (.291).
The Royals were rapidly gaining ground on the Twins.
Record: The Twins were 38-31, in first place in the American League Central, two games ahead of Kansas City.