MINNESOTA 23, CLEVELAND 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, June 4.

Batting stars:  Luis Rivas was 4-for-6 with a double, scoring five times and driving in five.  Dustan Mohr was 4-for-6 with a home run (his third), scoring three times and driving in three.  A. J. Pierzynski was 4-for-6 with a triple and a double, scoring four times.  Jacque Jones was 4-for-6 with a home run (his eleventh), a double, and a walk, driving in five.

Pitching stars:  Rick Reed pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on three hits while striking out five.  Jack Cressend pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.  Bob Wells pitched a perfect inning and struck out one.

Opposition stars:  Jim Thome was 2-for-4 with two home runs, his sixteenth and seventeenth.  Ricardo Rincon pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit.

The game:  Torii Hunter singled in a run in the first.  The Twins scored two in the second to make it 3-0.  Thome homered in the fourth to cut the lead to 3-1, but the Twins scored two in the fourth to make it 5-1.  The Twins then made it a blowout.  Mohr hit a two-run homer in a four-run sixth that made it 9-1.  Rivas had a two-run double in a four-run sixth that made it 13-1.  The Twins then scored ten runs in the seventh.  Corey Koskie hit a home run, Rivas had a two-run single, Jones hit a three-run homer, and Bobby Kielty had a two-run double in the inning.

WP:  Reed (6-2).  LP:  Ryan Drese (5-4).  S:  None.

Notes:  The bottom three in the Twins' order, Mohr, Pieryznski, and Rivas, combined to go 12-for-18 with a home run, a triple, and two doubles.  They scored twelve runs and drove in eight...Denny Hocking started at shortstop, going 0-for-2 with a walk...Rivas made his return to the lineup, playing for the first time since April 3.  He appears to have been healthy...Jones raised his average back over .300 at .306...Hunter was 1-for-4 and was batting .307...Kielty was 2-for-2 with two doubles to raise his average to .320...Mohr raised his average to .321...PIerzynski went up to .333...Rivas was batting .545 (6-for-11)...Drese started for Cleveland and pitched three innings, giving up five runs on seven hits and four walks while striking out two...Charles Nagy struggled through two innings, giving up nine runs on eight hits and two walks...Mark Wohlers pitched a third of an inning, giving up five runs on five hits and one walk while striking out one.

Record:  The Twins were 33-25, in first place by four games over Chicago.