MILWAUKEE 13, MINNESOTA 1 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Friday, June 27.
Batting stars: Jacque Jones was 2-for-3. Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-4.
Pitching stars: None.
Opposition stars: Matt Kinney pitched a complete game, giving up one run on eight hits and one walk and striking out four. Royce Clayton was 3-for-4 with a double and two runs. Richie Sexson was 3-for-5 with a home run (his twenty-second), two runs, and five RBIs. Scott Podsednik was 3-for-5 with two doubles, a walk, two runs, and two RBIs. John Vander Wal was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer (his eighth), a double, a walk, two runs, and two RBIs. Eddie Perez was 2-for-5 with a home run (his eighth) and two runs. Brooks Kieschnick was 2-for-5 with a home run (his fourth) and two RBIs. Eric Young was 2-for-5.
The game: The Brewers didn't have one big inning, but scored two runs five times and three runs once. It was scoreless until the rhid, when Podsednik hit a two-run double. Kieschnick's two-run single-plus-error made it 4-0 in the fourth. Vander Wal hit a two-run homer in the fifth to make it 6-0.
The Twins got on the board in the sixth when Corey Koskie and Torii Hunter doubled. But Sexson hit a three-run homer in the seventh to bring the score to 9-1. Sexson struck again in the eighth, with a two-run single that increased the lead to 11-1. Kieschnick and Perez hit back-to-back homers in the ninth to make it 13-1.
WP: Kinney (6-6). LP: Kyle Lohse (6-6). S: None.
Notes: Denny Hocking was at second base in place of Luis Rivas. Morneau was the DH.
With a blowout, the Twins made several substitutions. Tom Prince replaced A. J. Pierzynski behind the plate in the eighth. Lew Ford replaced Hunter in center field in the eighth. Bobby Kielty pinch-hit for Jones in the eighth and remained in the game in right field, with Dustan Mohr moving to left. Matthew LeCroy pinch-hit for Koskie in the eighth and went to first base, with Mientkiewicz moving to third.
Ford was 0-for-1 and was batting .364. Koskie was 1-for-3 and was batting .311. Mientkiewicz was batting .303. Jones was batting .302.
Johan Santana allowed three runs in 1.1 innings to raise his ERA to 2.51.
Lohse pitched five innings, allowing six runs (five earned) on eight hits and a walk and striking out four.
Kinney, of course, is an ex-Twin. This was the only time he had a full year as a member of a starting rotation. He was 10-13, 5.19, 1.47 WHIP. He was too much for the Twins on this day, though. As with Mark Buehrle yesterday, the Twins had beaten him up the last time they faced him (6.1 innings, 6 runs), but they couldn't do it a second time. They would not face him again this season.
Record: The Twins were 41-37, in second place in the American League Central, two games behind Kansas City.