MINNESOTA 8, KANSAS CITY 1 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Sunday, August 24.
Batting stars: Matthew LeCroy was 3-for-5 with three RBIs. Shannon Stewart was 2-for-4 with a double, a stolen base (his fourth, a walk, and three runs. Doug Mientkiewicz was 1-for-2 with a double and three walks. Torii Hunter was 1-for-3 with a home run (his twenty-third) and a walk.
Pitching stars: Johan Santana struck out ten in six innings, giving up one run on six hits and two walks. J. C. Romero struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up one hit. Juan Rincon struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.
Opposition stars: Joe Randa was 2-for-4 with a double. Desi Relaford was 1-for-4 with a home run, his eighth.
The game: Relaford homered in the second to give the Royals a 1-0 lead. The Twins got the run back on Hunter's homer in the bottom of the second. The Twins took the lead in the third. Walks to Stewart and Luis Rivas and a double steal, putting men on second and third with none out. LeCroy hit an RBI single, Corey Koskie had a sacrifice fly, Hunter walked, and Jacque Jones delivered an RBI single to make it 4-1 Minnesota. It went to 5-1 in the fourth when Stewart singled, Mientkiewicz walked, and LeCroy hit another RBI single.
Kansas City loaded the bases in the fifth but did not score. In the bottom of the fifth Cristian Guzman singled, stole second, went to third on a ground out, and scored on Rivas' squeeze bunt to make it 6-1. The Twins added two in the eighth. A. J. Pierzynski singled and Stewart doubled, putting men on second and third. Rivas hit a sacrifice fly and LeCroy had another RBI single to bring the final score to 8-1.
WP: Santana (8-3). LP: Graeme Lloyd (1-4). S: None.
Notes: Jones was in left and Stewart in right. Dustan Mohr pinch-ran for Jones in the fifth and went to right field, with Stewart moving to left.
Stewart was batting .313. Jones was at .308. Mientkiewicz climbed back to an even .300.
Santana lowered his ERA to 2.85. In his last five starts he had pitched 36 innings. He had given up six runs (five earned) on 25 hits and 10 walks while striking out 40.
Royals starter Kevin Appier pitched just two innings, giving up one run on one hit and two walks and striking out one. He was removed due to injury and would not pitch any more in 2003. He had been signed by Kansas City in early August to bolster their rotation to make a playoff run, but he was able to make only four starts for them in 2003.
It was a needed win over a team ahead of them in the standings, but the Twins were still in third place as they headed west for a road trip.
Record: The Twins were 67-63, in third place in the American League Central, 1.5 games behind Chicago. They were a half game behind second-place Kansas City.