KANSAS CITY ROYALS 5, MINNESOTA TWINS 4 IN KANSAS CITY (12 INNINGS)

Date:  Sunday, August 10, 2008.

Batting stars:  Adam Everett was 2-for-4 with two RBIs.  Brian Buscher was 2-for-5 with a double and two runs.

Pitching stars:  Scott Baker struck out seven in seven innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and a walk.  Jesse Crain retired all four batters he faced, striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Mark Teahen was 3-for-5 with a double, a walk, and three runs.  Tony Pena was 2-for-2.  Jason Smith was 2-for-5 with two doubles.  Mitch Maier was 2-for-6.  Joakim Soria struck out four in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.

The game: The Twins took the lead in the third inning.  Mike Lamb walked and singles by Buscher and Everett produced a run.  A bunt moved the runners up, Joe Mauer drew a two-out walk to load the bases, and Justin Morneau was walked to force in a run and put the Twins ahead 2-0.

The lead held until the sixth.  With one out, Maier singled and scored on a single-plus-error by Teahen, who in turn scored on a Jose Guillen single.  Alex Gordon singled, moving Guillen to third, but he was stranded there and the score was tied.  The Twins untied it in the seventh.  Buscher doubled and scored on Everett’s single.  Walks to Denard Span and Nick Punto loaded the bases with one out a ground out by Mauer brought home a run, giving the Twins a 4-2 lead.

The Twins couldn’t hold it.  Matt Guerrier came in to start the eighth but lasted only a third of an inning, giving up singles to Teahen and Billy Butler.  Dennys Reyes came in and threw a wild pitch, cutting the lead to 4-3.  The next batter grounded out, but Ross Gload reached on an error that brought home the tying run.

There was no Manfred Man back then, so they simply played on.  Each team missed a chance in extra innings.  Kansas City had men on second and third with one out in the tenth, but a strikeout and a ground out ended the threat.  The Twins had a man on second with one out in the eleventh, but a ground out and a popup ended the inning.

The Royals put it away in the twelfth.  Craig Breslow, working his third inning of relief, allowed a one-out double to Teahen.  Guillen was intentionally walked, and Pena singled home the deciding run.

WP:  Rob Tejeda (1-2).

LP:  Breslow (0-1).

S:  None.

Notes:  Mike Lamb was at first base in place of Justin Morneau, who was the DH.  Jason Kubel was the closest to a regular DH that year, manning the spot 85 times.  Kubel was in right in this game, with Denard Span, normally in right, shifting to center and Carlos Gomez moving to the bench.  Nick Punto was at second in place of Alexi Casilla.  Punto played most of his games at short that year, but Adam Everett was the shortstop in this game.

Denard Span was batting .316.  He would finish at .294.  Joe Mauer was batting .315.  He would finish at .328.  Brian Buscher was batting .313.  He would finish at .294.  Justin Morneau was batting .308.  He would finish at .300.  Craig Breslow had an ERA of 2.48.  He would finish at 1.63.  Dennys Reyes had an ERA of 2.51.  He would finish at 2.33.

The Twins had seven hits and nine walks but stranded ten.  They went 2-for-10 with men in scoring position.  Kansas City stranded eleven and went 2-for-11 with men in scoring position.

Brian Buscher was another player we thought would be something.  He batted .294 with a .730 OPS in 218 at-bats this year.  However, he was already twenty-seven, so this was as good as he would ever get.  He hit really well in Rochester in both 2007 and 2008, too.  But in 2009, he batted .235 with an OPS of .676 in the majors, and just .180 with an OPS of .499 in AAA.  He would play one more season of AAA ball for Cleveland, and then he was done.

Rob Tejeda was really good for Kansas City in 2008.  Acquired in late June from Texas, he went 2-2, 3.20, 1.04 WHIP in 25 games (39.1 innings).  He continued to pitch well in middle relief/setup in 2009 and 2010.  In 2011, though, he got off to a poor start, and though he pitched well when sent to AAA he never got another chance.  He pitched in the Mexican League for a year, then he was done.

Record:  Kansas City was 54-64, in fourth place in the AL Central, 11.5 games behind Chicago and Minnesota.  They would finish 75-87, in fourth place, 13.5 games behind Chicago.

The Twins were 65-52, tied for first place with Chicago in the AL Central.  They would finish 88-75, in second place, one game behind Chicago due to losing game 163.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 19-13 (.594).