MINNESOTA 8, DETROIT 4 IN DETROIT (10 INNINGS)

Date:  Saturday, August 9.

Batting stars:  Jacque Jones was 3-for-5 with two doubles, two runs, and three RBIs.  Corey Koskie was 2-for-3 with two walks and two runs.  A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-4 with a walk.  Torii Hunter was 2-for-5 with a home run (his twenty-first), a stolen base (his fifth), and four RBIs.

Pitching star:  Juan Rincon pitched two shutout innings, giving up three hits and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Alex Sanchez was 3-for-5 with a stolen base, his thirty-fourth.  Warren Morris was 2-for-3.  Brandon Inge was 2-for-4.  Bobby Higginson was 1-for-5 with a home run (his ninth) and three RBIs.  Matt Roney pitched five innings, giving up two runs on three hits and three walks and striking out one.

The game:  It was all Tigers early.  In the first Sanchez singled, stole second, was bunted to third, and scored on a ground out.  In the third Inge singled, was bunted to second, and scored on a Sanchez single.  Later in the inning Higginson hit a two-run homer to make it 4-0 Detroit.

The Twins started their comeback in the fourth.  Doug Mientkiewicz doubled and Koskie walked.  RBI singles by Jones and Pierzynski cut the lead to 4-2.  In the sixth Koskie singled, Jones doubled, and Hunter delivered a two-run single to tie it 4-4.

The Tigers had two singles and a walk in the seventh, had men on first and third in the eighth, and got two singles in the ninth, but could not bring a run across.  In the tenth Mientkiewicz and Koskie walked, Jones hit a two-run double, and Hunter hit a two-run homer, putting the Twins up 8-4.  Detroit got a single in the tenth, but that's all.

WP:  Rincon (3-4).  LP:  Chris Mears (0-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  Stewart was in left, Michael Restovich in right, and Jones at DH.  Dustan Mohr pinch-ran for Jones in the tenth.

Stewart was 1-for-6 and was batting .318.  Restovich was 0-for-2 with three walks and was batting .313.  Jones was batting .309.  Pierzynski was batting .304.  Koskie was batting .303.

Brad Radke started for the Twins and pitched 7.1 innings.  He gave up four runs on eight hits and a walk and struck out three.  His ERA was 5.01.

LaTroy Hawkins retired the only man he faced to drop his ERA to 2.37.

The Twins finally got two games above .500.  Tom Kelly used to say that you can't talk about the pennant race until you get above .500.  We'll see if the Twins could stay above .500 and get into the pennant race.  Although really, given that no one in the division was playing all that well, they were already in the pennant race.

Record:  The Twins were 59-57, in third place in the American League Central, 2.5 games behind Kansas City.  They were two games behind third-place Chicago.