MINNESOTA 6, OAKLAND 0 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Friday, September 6.

Batting stars:  Corey Koskie was 3-for-3 with a home run (his eleventh), a double, and a hit-by-pitch.  Jacque Jones was 2-for-4 with a double.  A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-4 with a double.

Pitching star:  Brad Radke pitched a complete game shutout, giving up six hits and one walk and striking out five.

Opposition stars:  Scott Hatteberg was 2-for-4 with a double.  Eric Chavez was 2-for-4 with a double.  Miguel Tejada was 2-for-4.

The game:  Oakland loaded the bases in the first inning but did not score.  In the bottom of the first, doubles by Jones and Koskie put the Twins ahead 1-0.  The Athletics had men on second and third with one out in the third but did not score.  The Twins went up 2-0 in the bottom of the third, as Luis Rivas tripled and scored on a ground out.  Koskie led off the sixth with a home run to make it 3-0.  The Twins got a couple of clutch hits in the seventh.  With Pierzynski on second and two out, Jones had an RBI single and scored from first on a Cristian Guzman double to make it 5-0.  The Twins' final run came in the eighth, when Torii Hunter doubled, went to third on a ground out, and scored on a wild pitch.  Radke really settled down after the third inning, giving up just two more hits.

WP:  Radke (7-4).  LP:  Cory Lidle (8-10).  S:  None.

Notes:  Jones had gone 7-for-13 with three doubles over his last three games.

Michael Cuddyer played right field and went 0-for-4, dropping his average to .191.

It was Radke's best game of the season, both by game scores and by the eye test.  It was one of two complete games he had in 2002 and his only shutout.  His ERA went below five for the first time all season and was 4.67.

Record:  The Twins were 82-59, in first place, leading Chicago by fourteen games.