CHICAGO 5, MINNESOTA 2 IN CHICAGO
Date: Monday, September 8.
Batting stars: Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-4. Corey Koskie was 2-for-4. Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4.
Pitching star: J. C. Romero pitched 1.2 perfect innings.
Opposition stars: Bartolo Colon pitched a complete game, giving up two runs on ten hits and one walk and striking out four. Carlos Lee was 2-for-4 with a double. Magglio Ordonez was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his ninth.
The game: The White Sox ambushed Twins starter Kyle Lohse, scoring all five of their runs in the first inning. With one out Lee doubled and Frank Thomas walked. A line out made for two down, but Carl Everett singled home a run, Paul Konerko walked to load the bases, Jose Valentin hit a two-run single, Joe Crede singled to re-load the bases, and Miguel Olivo hit a two-run double.
Lohse did not allow a run after that, but the Twins were left playing catch-up the rest of the day and could not do it. They scored twice in the second on a walk to Matthew LeCroy, a double by Torii Hunter (on which LeCroy somehow scored from first), a single by Koskie, and an RBI ground out.
But after that, it was a game of missed opportunities. The Twins left men on second and third in the third, left a man on second in the fourth and fifth, and left a man on third in the seventh. They would not score again, and lost the battle of co-division leaders 5-2.
WP: Colon (13-12). LP: Loshe (12-11). S: None.
Notes: Denny Hocking was again at second in the continued absence of Luis Rivas. Shannon Stewart was in left and Jacque Jones in right. The Twins made no in-game substitutions.
Stewart was 1-for-5 and was batting .313. Jones was 0-for-4 and was batting .304. Mientkiewicz raised his average to .303. A. J. Pierzynski was 1-for-4 and was batting .301.
Lohse ended up pitching six innings, allowing five runs on seven hits and four walks and striking out none. If he could've taken a mulligan for the first inning he'd have had a fine game, but of course the rules don't allow you to do that.
The Twins were 1-for-9 with men in scoring position.
This was Colon's seventh complete game. He would lead the league in 2003 with nine. He threw 117 pitches. His high for a game that season was 132 in a game against Toronto in May.
This was the first of a four-game series between two teams who were tied for first in the division going into this game. The loss obviously dropped the Twins into second. Kansas City was idle.
Record: The Twins were 76-67, in second place in the American League Central, one game behind Chicago. They were 2.5 games ahead of third-place Kansas City.