CHICAGO WHITE SOX 8, MINNESOTA TWINS 2 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Sunday, September 22, 2022
Batting stars: Dustan Mohr was 3-for-5 with a double. Matthew LeCroy was 2-for-4. Michael Restovich was 2-for-4. Luis Rivas was 2-for-5.
Pitching star: Johan Santana pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit and striking out one. LaTroy Hawkins pitched a perfect inning.
Opposition stars: D’Angelo Jimenez was 2-for-4 with a three-run homer (his fourth) and two runs. Frank Thomas was 2-for-4 with a home run (his twenty-seventh) and three RBIs. Magglio Ordonez hit a home run, his thirty-sixth. Mark Buehrle pitched six innings, giving up two runs on nine hits and two walks and striking out three. Antonio Osuna struck out three in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.
The game: The Twins got singles from Rivas and LeCroy in the first, and a passed ball put men on second and third with two out, but a ground out ended the inning. In the bottom of the first, Jimenez singled and Thomas hit a two-run homer, making it 2-0 Chicago.
The Twins got on the board in the second. Michael Cuddyer walked and singles by Restovich and A. J. Pierzynski produced a run. The Twins still had men on first and second with none out, but Denny Hocking popped up a bunt and a double play ended the inning. The White Sox got the run back in the bottom of the inning when Jeff Liefer doubled, went to third on a ground out, and scored on a sacrifice fly, making it 3-1.
The Twins threatened in the third. Mohr led off with a double, but was thrown out trying to go to third on a fly to center. They had a chance to score anyway, as LeCroy singled and Corey Koskie walked, but a ground out ended the inning. Chicago got another run in the bottom of the inning when Jose Valentin walked, went to second on a wild pitch, and scored on a Thomas single, increasing the lead to 4-1. The White Sox put it away in the fourth. Joe Crede and Aaron Rowand hit one-out singles, and with two down Jimenez hit a three-run homer.
The lead was 7-1, and the Twins would not get back into the game. They did get one more run in the fifth, when singles by Rivas and Mohr put men on first and third with none out and a double play brought a run home, but that was it. Ordonez rounded out the scoring with a home run leading off the eighth.
WP: Buehrle (19-11).
LP: Joe Mays (4-8).
S: None.
Notes: LeCroy was at first base in place of Doug Mientkiewicz. Hocking was at short in place of Cristian Guzman. Restovich was in left in place of Jacque Jones. Cuddyer was in right field, with Mohr moving from right to center. Torii Hunter was the DH in place of David Ortiz. The Twins had clinched the division at this point.
Pierzynski was batting .304. He would finish at .300. Restovich was batting .300. He would finish at .308 in 13 at-bats. Javier Valentin, who came in at catcher for Pierzynski late in the game, was batting .667. He would finish at .500 (2-for-4).
Hawkins had an ERA of 2.18. He would finish at 2.13, easily his best season in the majors up to this point. J. C. Romero had an ERA of 1.96. He would finish at 1.89.
We talked about Mays a few days ago. He did pitch much better in the second half of 2002, after he came back from injury. Not great, but his ERA in the second half was 4.52 with a WHIP of 1.30.
Santana made fourteen starts and had thirteen relief appearances in 2002
Jimenez was a future Twin, playing in their farm system in 2010. Another future Twin, Joe Crede, was 1-for-4. I always remember him as “Home Run Greedy Crede” because of a Twins radio commercial at the time.
The Twins out-hit Chicago 12-9, but still lost by six runs. Eleven of the twelve hits were singles. They stranded nine men and went 1-for-12 with men in scoring position.
Record: Chicago was 79-77, in second place, 10.5 games behind Minnesota. They would finish 81-81, in second place, 13.5 games behind Minnesota.
The Twins were 89-66, in first place, 10.5 games ahead of Chicago. They would finish 94-67, in first place, 13.5 games ahead of Chicago.
Random Record: The Random Twins are 7-5 (.583).