MINNESOTA 4, DETROIT 3 IN DETROIT
Date: Friday, August 8.
Batting stars: A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-4 with a double. Shannon Stewart was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his second. Matthew LeCroy was 1-for-4 with a home run, his tenth.
Pitching stars: Johan Santana pitched eight innings, giving up an unearned run on two hits and three walks and striking out five. He threw 118 pitches.
Opposition stars: Craig Monroe was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer (his twelfth) and a walk. Mike Maroth pitched eight innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on seven hits and a walk and striking out two.
The game: In the third, Pierzynski led off with a double and scored on a Michael Restovich triple. A sacrifice fly made it 2-0. Stewart then singled and stole second. Luis Rivas reached on an error. Stewart was caught on the front end of a double steal, but Rivas went to second and scored on Doug Mientkiewicz' single to make it 3-0 Twins. LeCroy homered in the fourth to increase the lead to 4-0.
The Tigers got on the board in the fifth. Monroe walked and Carlos Pena singled, putting men on first and second with none out. An error brought home a run, but a double play took away the chance for a bigger inning for Detroit.
It was still 4-1 through eight, and it appeared the Twins had the game well in hand. In the ninth, however, Dmitri Young hit a one-out double and Monroe followed with a two-run homer, cutting the lead to 4-3. But a strikeout and a fly out ended the game with the Twins still on the right side of the score.
WP: Santana (6-3). LP: Maroth (6-16). S: Guardado (26).
Notes: Stewart was in left with Restovich in right.
Restovich was 1-for-3 and was batting .333. Stewart raised his average to .320. Pierzynski raised his average to .302. Corey Koskie was 0-for-3 and was batting .300.
In his last two starts, Santana pitched fourteen innings and gave up three runs (two earned) on seven hits and six walks, striking out twelve. His season ERA was 3.19.
The Twins once again edged one game over .500. Would they be able to stay over .500 this time?
Record: The Twins were 58-57, in third place in the American League Central, three games behind Chicago. They were 2.5 games behind second-place Kansas City.