MINNESOTA TWINS 5, ANAHEIM ANGELS 1 IN ANAHEIM
Date: Friday, May 24, 2002.
Batting stars: Jacque Jones was 2-for-3 with a home run (his ninth) and two runs. A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-4 with a home run, his first. Torii Hunter hit a three-run homer, his thirteenth.
Pitching stars: Rick Reed pitched a complete game, giving up one run on three hits and striking out four.
Opposition stars: Brad Fullmer hit a home run, his fourth.
The game: Jacque Jones led off the game with a home run to give the Twins a 1-0 lead. In the third, Jones and Cristian Guzman led off with singles and Torii Hunter hit a two-out three-run homer to put the Twins up 4-0. A. J. Pierzynski homered with one out in the fifth to make it 5-0.
The Twins did not get a hit after the fifth inning, but they didn’t need one. Anaheim had only one hit through the first four innings. Brad Fullmer hit a home run leading off the fifth, to cut the lead to 5-1, but that was the only threat the Angels had. They had only one hit after that, a two-out single in the eighth.
WP: Rick Reed (5-2).
LP: Ramon Ortiz (4-5).
S: None.
Notes: Denny Hocking was at second base. Luis Rivas played the most games there with 93, followed by Hocking with 56.
Torii Hunter was batting .333. He would finish at .289. Dustan Mohr was batting .311. He would finish at .269. Corey Koskie was batting .303. He would finish at .267. A. J. Pierzynski was batting .300. He would finish at .300.
Ramon Ortiz would play for the Twins in 2007.
Rick Reed had a fine year for the Twins in 2002. He went 15-7, 3.78, 1.16 WHIP and led the league in fewest walks per nine innings. It was the last good year he would have. In 2003 he went 6-12, 5.07, and that was his last year in the majors.
The AL West was a tough division in 2002. Anaheim won 99 games, and it wasn’t enough to win, although they were a wild card. Seattle won 93 games and really wasn’t even in the race at the end.
Record: Anaheim was 27-18, in second place in the AL West, three games behind Seattle. They would finish 99-63, in second place, four games behind Oakland.
The Twins were 27-21, tied for first place with Chicago in the AL Central. They would finish 94-67, in first place, 13.5 games ahead of Chicago.
Random Record: The Random Twins are 41-45 (.477).