ANAHEIM 5, MINNESOTA 4 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Sunday, June 2.
Batting stars: Brian Buchanan was 1-for-3 with a home run (his fifth) and a walk. Doug Mientkiewicz was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his third. Corey Koskie was 1-for-2 with two walks.
Pitching stars: LaTroy Hawkins pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk while striking out one. Mike Jackson pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two walks.
Opposition stars: Garret Anderson was 3-for-4 with a walk and two stolen bases, his fourth and fifth. Orlando Palmeiro was 3-for-5 with a triple and a double. Jorge Fabregas was 2-for-4 with a walk.
The game: The Twins left the bases loaded in the first but got on the board in the second on Buchanan's leadoff homer. The Angels loaded the bases in the fourth and took advantage of it, getting RBI singles from Fabregas and Benji Gil to take a 2-1 lead. Scott Spiezio doubled home a run in the fifth and Palmeiro singled one home in the sixth to make the score 4-1. The Twins got one in the seventh, but the Angels got the run right back in the eighth to make it 5-2. Mientkiewicz hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth to cut the lead to 5-4. Koskie followed with an infield single, but the last six Twins were retired to end the game.
WP: Aaron Sele (5-3). LP: Matt Kinney (1-5). S: Troy Percival (9).
Notes: Buchanan was the right fielder...Denny Hocking was at second base, going 0-for-3...Torii Hunter was 0-for-4, dropping his average to .308...A. J. Pierzynski was 1-for-4 and was batting .321...Starter Kinney pitched 5.1 innings, giving up four runs on nine hits and two walks while striking out four...Hawkins dropped his ERA to 1.56...J. C. Romero gave up one hit and no runs in two-thirds of an inning, making his ERA 0.55...Jackson's ERA fell to 1.16...Anaheim starter Sele pitched seven innings, giving up three runs on three hits and four walks while striking out three...Orlando Palmeiro had a fairly long career as a platoon outfielder. A left-handed batter, he had over two thousand at-bats against right-handed pitchers and less than three hundred against lefties. Still, he was a big-leaguer for thirteen seasons, playing with the Angels from 1995-2002, with St. Louis in 2003, and with Houston from 2004-2007. Only twice did he have as many as 300 at-bats, 317 in both 1999 and 2003. He played some at every outfield position but was mostly at the corners. He hit .300 or better four times, although two of those times were when he had fewer than two hundred at-bats. He had very little power, hitting only twelve career homers and never more than three in a season. For his career he batted .274/.351/.350 in 2,335 at-bats. He was never a star or even a regular, but for thirteen seasons a major league team thought he was worth having around.
Record: The Twins were 32-25, in first place, 3.5 games ahead of Chicago and Cleveland.