CLEVELAND 9, MINNESOTA 6 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, August 12.

Batting stars:  Shannon Stewart was 3-for-5 with a double.  Matthew LeCroy was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his eleventh.

Pitching stars:  None.

Opposition stars:  Travis Hafner was 3-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs.  Ryan Ludwick was 2-for-4 with two home runs (his eighth and ninth), a walk, three runs, and three RBIs.  Jody Gerut was 2-for-4 with a walk.  Jhonny Peralta was 2-for-4.  Casey Blake was 2-for-5 with a home run, his thirteenth.  Ben Broussard was 2-for-5 with a double.  Angel Santos was 1-for-4 with a home run, his third.  Rafael Betancourt struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.

The game:  Hafner hit a two-run double in the second to put the Indians up 2-0.  The Twins tied it in the third on a two-run strikeout.  With men on second and third, Doug Mientkiewicz struck out.  The ball was not held, and on the throw to first Cristian Guzman scored from third.  The throw from the first baseman was wild, allowing Stewart to score from second and tie it up 2-2.

Cleveland got the lead back in the fourth on Peralta's RBI single.  The Twins took their first and only lead of the game in the fifth when LeCroy hit a two-out two-run homer to put MInnesota up 4-3.

The Indians tied it in the sixth when Ludwick homered.  They went into the lead to stay in the seventh.  Santos led off with a homer, Blake hit a one-out homer, and Ludwick hit a two-out, two-run homer to make it 8-4 Cleveland.

That was pretty much it.  Each team scored in the ninth.  The Indians got an RBI single by Broussard and the Twins got a two-run single by Mientkiewicz.  The Twins had the tying run up to bat with one out, but Corey Koskie fouled out and A. J. Pierzynski fanned to end the game.

WP:  Betancourt (2-1).  LP:  James Baldwin (0-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  LeCroy was behind the plate in place of Pierzynski.  Pierzynski pinch-hit for him in the ninth.  Stewart was in left, Dustan Mohr in right, and Michael Restovich at DH.

Michael Ryan pinch-hit for Guzman in the ninth.  Jacque Jones pinch-hit for Luis Rivas in the ninth.  Chris Gomez pinch-ran for Jones in the ninth.

This was Ryan's first game with the Twins in 2003.  He had played seven games in the majors in 2002.

Ryan was 1-for-1 and was batting 1.000.  Stewart was batting .320.  Restovich was 1-for-3 and was batting .314.  Jones did not have an official at-bat and was batting .305.  Koskie was 1-for-4 and was batting .302.  Pierzynski was 0-for-1 and was batting .300.

Joe Mays started.  He pitched five innings, giving up three runs on eight hits and a walk and striking out three.  His ERA went down to 6.38.

Billy Traber started for Cleveland.  He pitched three innings, giving up two runs on five hits and a walk and striking out three.  This was his rookie season, and the only season in which he pitched more than fifty innings.  He threw 111.2 innings and went 6-9, 5.24, 1.54 WHIP.  He was in 33 games, 18 of them starts.  He had started the season in the bullpen but went into the rotation in early June.  He did substantially better as a reliever:  2-1, 3.52 versus 4-8, 5.68 as a starter.  He then was injured and didn't make it back to the majors until 2006, with Washington.  For his career he was 12-14, 5.65, 1.59 WHIP.

Record:  The Twins were 61-58, in third place in the American League Central, 2.5 games behind Kansas City.  They were two games behind second-place Chicago.