DETROIT TIGERS 8, MINNESOTA TWINS 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Wednesday, July 22, 2005.

Batting star:  Luis Rivas was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Jesse Crain pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.  Juan Rincon struck out two in a perfect inning.  Joe Nathan struck out two and walked two in a scoreless inning.

Opposition stars:  Placido Polanco was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.  Craig Monroe was 2-for-4 with a double and two runs.  Nook Logan was 2-for-4 with a double.  Omar Infante was 2-for-5 with a home run (his fourth) and three RBIs.  Ivan Rodriguez was 2-for-5.  Nate Robertson pitched a complete game, giving up an unearned run on five hits and a walk and striking out six.

The game:  The Twins scored first, in the first inning.  Rivas reached third on a single-plus-error and scored on a Lew Ford single.  Detroit had a two-out rally in the second to tie it.  Monroe doubled, Chris Shelton walked, and Infante singled to make it 1-1.

From there it was all Tigers.  Polanco led off the third with a double.  With one out, Rondell White walked and a wild pitch put men on first and third.  RBI singles by Rodriguez and Monroe followed, making it 3-1.  Infante led off the fourth with a home run.  Logan walked and scored on a Brandon Inge double.  He was bunted to third and scored when White reached on an error, making it 6-1.  Another run scored in the fifth when White led off with a walk, went to second on a wild pitch, and scored on a pair of ground outs.  Detroit added one more in the seventh when Shelton scored, Logan reached on an error, Inge walked to load the bases, and Polanco singled home a run.

The Twins did nothing on offense after the first inning.  They only once got a man as far as second, and that was on an error.

WP:  Robertson (3-5).

LP:  Joe Mays (3-3).

S:  None.

Notes:  Mike Redmond was behind the plate in place of Joe Mauer.  Matthew LeCroy was at first base in place of Justin Morneau.  Rivas had lost the second base job at this point, but was playing in place of Nick Punto.  Baseball-reference lists Jason Bartlett as the regular shortstop, but Juan Castro actually played more games there, and played in this one.  With LeCroy at first base, Lew Ford was the DH.

The Twins did not have a .300 hitter in 2005, and no one was batting .300 after this game.

Crain had an ERA of 0.85.  He would finish at 2.71.  J. C. Romero had an ERA of 2.22.  He would finish at 3.47.  Rincon had an ERA of 2.87.  He would finish at 2.45.

Mays was in his last year with the Twins and his last year as a rotation starter.  He’d had an excellent season in 2001, and got a mutli-year contract, but had injury problems immediately thereafter and did not have a good season again.  He was easily the worst starter the Twins had in 2005, going 6-10, 5.65, 1.56 WHIP.  He would be replaced in the rotation in September by rookie Scott Baker.

Future Twins Rondell White and Craig Monroe started for the Tigers.  Monroe was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.  White was 0-for-4 with a walk.

The Random Twins have seen Nate Robertson twice.  He has won one and lost one.

Record:  Detroit was 35-33, in fourth place in the AL Central, 14.5 games behind Chicago.  They would finish 71-9-1, in fourth place, 28 games behind Chicago.

Minnesota was 48-31, in second place, 10 games behind Chicago.  They would finish 83-79, in third place, 16 games behind Chicago.

Random Record:  The Random Twins had their six-game winning streak snapped and are 7-4 (.636).