MINNESOTA 5, SEATTLE 4 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Monday, July 21.
Batting stars: Torii Hunter was 3-for-4 with a home run, his seventeenth. Chris Gomez was 3-for-4. Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4 with a double and a stolen base, his ninth. Shannon Stewart was 2-for-4 with a double. Jacque Jones was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his seventh.
Pitching stars: Kyle Lohse pitched 6.2 innings, giving up three runs on five hits and two walks and striking out one. Eddie Guardado pitched a perfect inning.
Opposition star: Willie Bloomquist was 2-for-4.
The game: Stewart led off the bottom of the first with a double and scored on a pair of ground outs to give the Twins a 1-0 lead. In the second Jones and Gomez opened with singles and a double play scored a run. Guzman then doubled and scored on a Stewart single to make it 3-0 Twins. Hunter homered in the third to give the Twins a 4-0 advantage.
It looked like that would hold up, as the Mariners did not get a man past first for six innings. With two out in the seventh, however, Mike Cameron doubled, Ben Davis walked, and Mark McLemore hit a two-run double. Bloomquist singled to put men on the corners, and consecutive RBI singles by Ichiro Suzuki and Randy Winn tied the score.
The Twins put men on first and third in the seventh but did not score. In the eighth, however, singles by Hunter and Jones again put men on the corners, and this time Gomez delivered an RBI single to put the Twins ahead 5-4. Seattle went down in order in the ninth.
WP: Juan Rincon (2-3). LP: Arthur Rhodes (2-3). S: Guardado (23).
Notes: A. J. Pierzynski was back behind the plate after missing a couple of games. Gomez remained at third in place of Corey Koskie. Stewart was the DH.
Justin Morneau pinch-hit for Luis Rivas in the seventh and walked. Denny Hocking pinch-ran for him and stayed in the game at second base.
Jones raised his average to .307. Stewart went up to .301.
LaTroy Hawkins gave up a run in a third of an inning and raised his ERA to 2.64. Juan Rincon struck out both men he faced to drop his ERA to 2.96.
Joel Piniero started for the Mariners and pitched 6.2 innings. He gave up four runs on ten hits and a walk and struck out three.
Edgar Martinez walked and singled. In both cases he was forced at second base. He did not bat again, as John Mabry pinch-hit for him in the seventh. I don't know if Martinez injured himself sliding into second or if something else was going on. He would miss the rest of the series, but would be back in the lineup after that.
The Twins had won five in a row and climbed back to .500. This was the first time they had won five in a row since May 4-9.
Record: The Twins were 49-49, in second place in the American League Central, 5.5 games behind Kansas City. They were a half game ahead of third-place Chicago.