CHICAGO 14, MINNESOTA 4 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Saturday, September 21.

Batting stars:  Corey Koskie was 2-for-3 with two home runs, his thirteenth and fourteenth.  David Ortiz was 2-for-3 with a home run, his nineteenth.  Michael Restovich hit a pinch-hit home run, his first.

Pitching star:  Mike Jackson pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Magglio Ordonez was 3-for-4 with two home runs, his thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth, scoring three times and driving in four.  Aaron Rowand was 3-for-4.  Carlos Lee was 2-for-4 with a grand slam, his twenty-sixth home run.

The game:  Ordonez hit a two-run homer in the first to give the White Sox a 2-0 lead.  Ortiz homered in the second to cut the lead to 2-1.  Chicago took the game over in the third.  They started the season with back-to-back doubles by D'Angelo Jimenez and Jose Valentin, followed by back-to-back singles by Lee and Ordonez.  The next two batters were retired, but Joe Crede doubled and Rowand singled, making the score 6-1.  Koskie led off the fourth with a homer to make it 6-2, but Ordonez homered leading off the fifth to make it a five-run game again at 7-2.  Koskie hit another homer leading off the sixth, but Valentin hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth to increase the lead to 9-3.  The White Sox scored five more in the seventh, capped by the Lee grand slam.  Restovich hit a pinch-hit home run with one out in the ninth to round out the scoring.

WP:  Jon Rauch (2-1).  LP:  Brad Radke (9-5).  S:  None.

Notes:  Jacque Jones was again out of the lineup, and would not return until September 26.  Dustan Mohr led off and played left field, going 0-for-4.

It was the first major league home run by Restovich.  It was one of three he hit as a Twin and one of six he hit for his career.  It came off Kelly Wunsch.  I suspect he probably remembers it pretty well, even though all it did was make the score 14-4.

Radke pitched just three innings, allowing six runs on nine hits and no walks and striking out three.  His game score was twenty, his lowest of the season.

Jackson lowered his ERA to 2.89.

Rauch was in his rookie season.  It was his fifth major league start.  I don't know if he had the neck tat then, but I'm confident that he was tall.

The Twins had been outscored 24-6 in their last two games.

Record:  The Twins were 89-65, in first place, leading Chicago by 11.5 games.

CHICAGO 10, MINNESOTA 2 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Friday, September 20.

Batting stars:  Michael Cuddyer was 2-for-3 with a double.  Corey Koskie was 1-for-3 with a home run, his twelfth.  David Ortiz was 1-for-3 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  Rick Reed pitched four innings, giving up one run on three hits and no walks and striking out two.  LaTroy Hawkins pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a walk.

Opposition stars:  Paul Konerko was 3-for-4.  Carlos Lee was 2-for-3 with a home run (his twenty-fifth), scoring three times and driving in four.  Dan Wright pitched eight innings, giving up two runs on five hits and a walk and striking out three.

The game:  It looked good for a while.  Koskie homered in the second inning to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  Jose Valentin homered in the fourth to tie it 1-1.  The Twins had men on first and third with none out in the fifth but could only score once, on a David Lamb double play grounder, to make it 2-1.  Then Reed left the game and the roof fell in.  It fell slowly, but surely.  The White Sox got a walk and three singles (two of them infield singles) in the bottom of the fifth to take a 3-2 lead.  In the sixth, four consecutive singles and a sacrifice fly brought home three runs and made it 6-2.  In the seventh, two walks and a single made it 7-2 and Lee hit a three-run homer to put the game out of reach.  The Twins did not threaten after the fifth inning.

WP:  Dan Wright (13-12).  LP:  Juan Rincon (0-2).  S:  None.

Notes:  Michael Ryan made his major league debut in this game, batting leadoff and playing left field in place of Jacque Jones.  He went 0-for-4.

Torii Hunter returned to the starting lineup, going 0-for-3.

Ortiz played first base in place of Doug Mientkiewicz.  Mientkiewicz had not played since September 15, but would be back in the lineup in the next game.

Cuddyer was in right field.

Tom Prince caught, replacing A. J. Pierzynski.  He went 1-for-3.

Lamb played second base in place of Luis Rivas.  He went 0-for-3.

There is no apparent reason for Reed to have come out after four innings and forty-five pitches.  One assumes he was simply being rested in a meaningless game near the end of a long season, with the playoffs coming up.

Rincon made his first appearance as a Twin since August 25.  It did not go well, as he allowed five runs (four earned) on seven hits and a walk in 1.1 innings.  He did not have the best luck, as four of the hits were infield singles.

Kevin Frederick made his first appearance as a Twin since August 6.  It did not go well, either, as he allowed four runs on two hits and two walks in one inning.

Hawkins lowered his ERA to 2.21.

Record:  The Twins were 89-64, in first place, leading Chicago by 12.5 games.

MINNESOTA 2, DETROIT 0 IN DETROIT

Date:  September 18, 2002.

Batting stars:  Denny Hocking was 2-for-2 with a double and a hit-by-pitch.  Matthew LeCroy was 1-for-3 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  Joe Mays pitched six shutout innings, giving up three hits and a walk and striking out two.  Eddie Guardado struck out two in a perfect inning.  Johan Santana struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Ramon Santiago was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his eighth.  Steve Sparks pitched eight innings, giving up two runs on eight hits and a walk and striking out one.  Carlos Pena was 1-for-2 with two walks.

The game:  In the first inning, Dustan Mohr doubled and scored on a LeCroy single to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  The Tigers got a pair of two-out singles in the bottom of the first but did not score.  Neither team had much of a threat after that until the seventh, when a walk and a single gave Detroit men on first and second with none out.  A popup and a strikeout left them there with two out, a wild pitch advanced them to second and third, but Chris Truby struck out to end the inning.  The Twins got an insurance run in the eighth on doubles by Hocking and Luis Rivas.  The Tigers again threatened in the eighth, getting a pair of one-out singles and a two-out walk to load the bases, but Robert Fick popped up to end the inning.  Detroit did not threaten in the ninth.

WP:  Mays (4-7).  LP:  Sparks (8-16).  S:  Guardado (43).

Notes:  The Twins won with pretty much a B lineup.  Bobby Kielty was again in center replacing Torii Hunter and went 1-for-4.  Mohr was in left replacing Jacque Jones and went 1-for-4 with a double.  LeCroy was the DH rather than David Ortiz.  Michael Cuddyer was at third base replacing  Corey Koskie and went 1-for-3.  Michael Restovich was in right and went 0-for-4.  Todd Sears was at first replacing Doug Mientkiewicz and went 0-for-4.  Denny Hocking was at short replacing Cristian Guzman.

A. J. Pierzynski was 1-for-3 and was batting .304.

This was the second-best game (by game scores) of the season for Mays.  It was topped only by his complete game shutout of Boston on August 16.  He pretty much alternated good and bad games from the middle of August through the end of the season.

It was the major league debut for Michael Restovich.

Javier Valentin was used as a defensive replacement for Pierzynski and went 1-for-1.  It was his first appearance as a Twin, and his first big-league appearance at all, since 1999.  He had remained in the Twins organization all that time, playing in AAA.  He would leave the Twins after this season, spend one year with Tampa Bay, and then be a reserve catcher for Cincinnati from 2004-2008.  His best year was 2005, when he went .281/.362/.520 with 14 homers in 221 at-bats.

Record:  The Twins were 89-63, in first place, leading Chicago by thirteen games.

MINNESOTA 7, DETROIT 4 IN DETROIT

Date:  Tuesday, September 17.

Batting stars:  Jacque Jones was 4-for-4 with a home run (his twenty-seventh) and three RBIs.  Luis Rivas was 4-for-4 with a triple.  Corey Koskie was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Brad Radke pitched six innings, giving up three runs on eight hits and no walks with one strikeout.  J. C. Romero pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and striking out one.  Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two hits.

Opposition stars:  Hiram Bocachica was 3-for-5 with a home run (his eighth) and a stolen base (his third).  Bobby Higginson was 2-for-4 with a double.  Omar Infante was 2-for-5 with a double.

The game:  Jones led off the game with a home run.  Later in the inning, Cristian Guzman doubled, went to third on a passed ball, and scored on a ground out to give the Twins a 2-0 lead.  In the fifth, Todd Sears doubled, Rivas singled, and the Twins got RBI singles from Jones and Koskie to make it 4-0.  The Tigers got back into the game in the sixth.  Bocachica led off with a single and stole second.  Infante doubled him in to make it 4-1.  Higginson followed with a single to cut the lead to 4-2.  He went to third on a Carlos Pena doubled and scored on a ground out to narrow the margin to 4-3.  The Twins got a couple of insurance runs in the seventh.  Sears singled and scored on a Rivas triple.  Jones followed with a single to give the Twins a 6-3 advantage.  Bocachica homered in the seventh to make it 6-4, but the Twins got the run back in the eighth on Rivas' run-scoring single.  Detroit threatened in the ninth, putting men on second and third with one out, but a popup and a fly ball ended the game.

WP:  Radke (9-4).  LP:  Shane Loux (0-2).  S:  Guardado (42).

Notes:  Hunter returned to the lineup and went 0-for-2.  He was hit by a pitch in the sixth, however, and left the game.  He would not return until September 20.

This was the major league debut for Todd Sears. A first baseman, he got a September call-up after a big year in Edmonton, when he hit .310/.388/.525 with twenty home runs and thirty-six doubles.  He was with the Twins for about six weeks in 2003, filling in for an injured Doug Mientkiewicz, and batted .246/.324/.369 in 73 at-bats.  Unfortunately for him, the Twins had another first baseman in their minor league system named Justin Morneau.  He was traded to San Diego in September of 2003, and got eight at-bats with the Padres.  He kept playing through 2007 but never made it back to the majors.  His career AAA numbers were .298/.374/.471 in 503 games, leading one to think he could've hit in the majors if he'd been given the chance.  He hit two home runs for the Twins, and I remember that one of them was a tremendous blast which, as I recall, hit the scoreboard or something.  At last report, he was the owner and operations manager of Complete Game Baseball, a baseball instructional school in the Kansas City area.

A. J. Pierzynski was 1-for-4 and was batting .304.

Romero's ERA fell to 1.87.

Guardado's ERA fell to 2.97.

Record:  The Twins were 83-63, in first place, leading Chicago by thirteen games.

MINNESOTA 5, CLEVELAND 0 IN CLEVELAND

Date:  Sunday, September 15.

Batting stars:  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base, his twelfth.  Michael Cuddyer was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.

Pitching stars:  Kyle Lohse struck out eight in six shutout innings, giving up two hits and no walks.  Johan Santana struck out four in two shutout innings, giving up a walk.  Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Cliff Lee pitched 5.1 innings, giving up one run on two hits and four walks and striking out four.  Coco Crisp was 1-for-3 with a stolen base, his third.

The game:  The Twins put men on first and second with none out in the first inning but did not score.  There were no more threats until the sixth, when Guzman walked, was balked to second, stole third, and scored on a sacrifice fly to make it 1-0.  Denny Hocking delivered a two-run single in the seventh to give the Twins a 2-0 lead.  The Indians put men on first and second with two out in the eighth, but did not score.  Doug Mientkiewicz led off the ninth with a single and Cuddyer doubled.  A sacrifice fly scored one run and a wild pitch brought home another to round out the scoring.

WP:  Lohse (13-8).  LP:  Lee (0-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  Matthew LeCroy was the DH rather than David Ortiz.  He was 0-for-3 with an RBI.

Bobby Kielty remained in center field as Torii Hunter was again out of the lineup.  Kielty went 0-for-4.

Cuddyer was in right field.

Tom Prince was the catcher rather than A. J. Pierzynski.  He was 0-for-2 with a walk and an RBI.

Hocking was at second base rather than Luis Rivas.  Hocking was 1-for-4 with two RBIs.

It was Lohse's second-best game of the season by game scores, topped only by his complete game shutout of the White Sox on August 20.

This was the major league debut for Cliff Lee.  He would make another solid start six days later, against Kansas City.  He would make nine starts in 2003, then would go into the rotation permanently in 2004.  As you know, he would go on to become an excellent pitcher.  His best year was 2008, when he went 22-3, 2.54, 1.11 WHIP.  He led the league in wins, winning percentage, ERA, shutouts, FIP, and walks per nine innings and won the Cy Young Award.  He finished in the top seven in Cy Young voting five times and made the all-star team four times.  For his career, he was 143-91, 3.52, 1.20 WHIP.  He pitched in thirteen major league seasons.

Record:  The Twins were 87-63, in first place, leading the White Sox by thirteen games.  Their victory in this game clinched the division title.

MINNESOTA 3, CLEVELAND 2 IN CLEVELAND

Batting stars:  Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-4.  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-5 with a double.  Jacque Jones was 2-for-5 with a double.

Pitching stars:  Rick Reed pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on four hits and two walks and striking out three.  Eddie Guardado struck out two in a perfect inning.  J. C. Romero pitched two-thirds of an inning while facing just one batter, getting him to hit into a double play.

Opposition stars:  Ellis Burks was 2-for-4.  Ben Broussard was 1-for-2 with a home run, his fourth.  Jason Davis pitched 5.2 innings, giving up one run on six hits and two walks and striking out three.

The game:  The Indians had men on first and third with one out in the first but did not score.  The Twins had a man on third with one out in the fifth but did not score.  In the bottom of the fifth, Broussard led off with a home run to break the scoreless tie and Burks singled home a run later in the inning to make it 2-0.  The Twins got on the board in the sixth when David Ortiz doubled and Mientkiwicz singled him in.  Luis Rivas led off the seventh with a walk and Jones doubled to put men on second and third with none out.  Guzman then singled them both home to give the Twins a 3-2 lead.  Cleveland did not get a man past first base after the fifth inning.

WP:  Reed (15-7).  LP:  Carl Sadler (1-2).  S:  Guardado (41).

Notes:  Torii Hunter missed his second consecutive game and was presumably dealing with a minor injury.  He would play about half a game on September 17, but would not really return to the lineup until September 20.  Bobby Kielty was in center field and was 1-for-4.

Reed made his seventh consecutive strong start.  He was 6-1 over that period with an ERA of 1.57.  He lowered his season ERA from 4.63 to 3.74.

Dave Maurer pitched a scoreless inning for Cleveland.  This was the first of two major league appearances he would make in 2002.  The other would be September 25, also against the Twins, when he would give up two runs in a third of an inning.  He had been a September call-up for San Diego in 2000 and done pretty well, going 1-0, 3.68 in 14.2 innings.  That was as good as it ever got for him, though.  He made three appearances for San Diego in 2001, the two referenced above for Cleveland in 2002, and three more for Toronto in 2004.  For his career, he was 1-1, 8.87 in 22.1 innings.  His playing career ended after the 2004 season.

Carl Sadler, the losing pitcher in this game, had a similarly short career.  This was his rookie season.  He came up in late July and did okay, going 1-2, 4.43, 1.28 WHIP.  He started the 2003 season in the majors and stayed for a month and a half.  He posted an ERA of 1.86, which sounds great, but he had a WHIP of 1.66.  He was used as a LOOGY, making 18 appearances but pitching just 9.2 innings, leading one to believe he was often allowing other people's runs to score and then being bailed out by better relievers.  He never made it back to the majors and was done playing after 2005.  His career stats were 1-2, 3.60, 1.40 WHIP in 30 innings (42 games).

Also appearing in this game was another reliever with a short big-league career, Dave Elder.  This was also his rookie season.  He made 15 appearances and pitched 23 innings.  He did all right, going 0-2, 3.13, 1.39 WHIP.  He apparently was hurt much of 2003--he made four (bad) appearances for the Indians and eight at AAA, but that was it.  He never made it back to the majors and was done playing after 2006.  His line is 1-3, 4.62, 1.62 WHIP in 25.1 innings (19 games).

Record:  The Twins were 86-63, in first place, leading Chicago by twelve games.

CLEVELAND 12, MINNESOTA 5 IN CLEVELAND

Date:  Friday, September 13.

Batting stars:  Matthew LeCroy was 2-for-3 with two two-run homers, his sixth and seventh.  Jacque Jones was 2-for-5 with a home run, his twenty-sixth.  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-5 with a double.

Pitching stars:  Johan Santana struck out three in 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up two hits and no walks.  Tony Fiore pitched a perfect inning and struck out one.  Mike Jackson pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Jim Thome was 3-for-4 with a home run (his forty-fifth) and four RBIs.  Travis Fryman was 3-for-5 with a home run (his tenth) and two doubles.  Terry Mulholland pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on six hits and two walks and striking out five.

The game:  The Indians jumped on Eric Milton in the first inning, scoring five runs. Ellis Burks had an RBI single, Thome hit a three-run homer, and Fryman hit a solo home run.  Cleveland didn't let up in the second, scoring four more as Thome had an RBI single and Karim Garcia hit a three-run homer.  It stayed 9-0 until the sixth, when Garcia had a run-scoring ground out, Fryman hit an RBI double, and Josh Bard drove in a run with a single, making the score 12-0.  The Twins finally got on the board in the seventh, as LeCroy hit a two-run homer.  They got their final three runs in the ninth, as LeCroy hit another two-run homer and Jones hit a solo home run to make it look like a slightly better game than it was.

WP:  Mulholland (3-1).  LP:  Milton (13-9).  S:  None.

Notes:  Bobby Kielty was in center field, with Torii Hunter not in the lineup.  Kielty went 1-for-4.

A. J. Pierzynski started the game at catcher, with LeCroy replacing him in the fifth inning.  Pierzynski was back in the lineup the next day, so presumably he was just given the rest of the day off in a blowout.

This was, as one might guess, the worst game Milton had this season.  He pitched 1.2 innings, allowing nine runs on eight hits and a walk and striking out one, giving him a game score of three.  It was the fifth time he'd had a game score below twenty.  One might say that when he was bad, he was really bad.

Fiore got his ERA below three at 2.96.

Mulholland had started the season with the Dodgers.  He was traded in late July with two other players for Paul Shuey.

This game featured the major league debut of reliever Alex Herrera.  He pitched in five games, worked 5.1 innings, and had an ERA of zero.  I don't know whether, had his career ended then, that would've been a record.  As it turned out, however, he was with the Indians for about three weeks in July of 2003.  He was unscored upon in his first seven appearances, giving him a career ERA of zero through eleven innings, but then gave up seven runs in his next three games, covering just 1.1 innings.  Those next three games were his last three games, as he went back to AAA and never made it back to the majors.  He kept pitching for a long time, though, as he was active in the Venezuelan Winter League through the 2014-2015 season.  For his big league career, his ERA was 5.11 in 12.1 innings (fifteen games).  But I suspect Cleveland fans were pretty excited about him for a little while.

Record:  The Twins were 85-63, in first place, leading Chicago by twelve games.

MINNESOTA 8, DETROIT 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Wednesday, September 11.

Batting stars:  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4 with a home run (his ninth) and three RBIs.  Corey Koskie was 1-for-3 with a triple and a walk.  Torii Hunter was 1-for-2 with a double and three RBIs.

Pitching stars:  Brad Radke pitched seven innings, giving up one run on three hits and no walks and striking out three.  Bob Wells pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Steve Sparks pitched 4.1 scoreless innings of relief, giving up one hit and two walks and striking out two.  George Lombard was 2-for-4 with a home run, his fifth.  Carlos Pena was 1-for-3 with a home run, his seventeenth.

The game:  The Twins jumped on Tigers starter Mark Redman (an ex-Twin, of course) early.  Cristian Guzman hit a two-run homer in the first inning to give the Twins a 2-0 lead.  They then scored six runs in the second to put the game away.  They had men on first and third with two out.  Guzman singled in a run.  Two walks followed, the latter with the bases loaded to make the score 4-0.  Hunter then hit a three-run double and scored on a Doug Mientkiewicz single to make it 8-0.  Detroit got on the board when Pena ht a home run in the fifth and Lombard homered leading off the ninth to round out the scoring.

WP:  Radke (8-4).  LP:  Redman (8-15).  S:  None.

Notes:  Matthew LeCroy was the DH, rather than David Ortiz.  He was 0-for-2 with two walks.

Tom Prince was the catcher, rather than A. J. Pierzynski.  He was 1-for-3 with a walk.

Denny Hocking was at second base, rather than Luis Rivas.  He was 1-for-4.

As you may have guessed by now, this was a day game.

It was Radke's second consecutive excellent game.  In those two games, he pitched sixteen innings and gave up one run on nine hits and one walk and struck out eight.  In those two games, his ERA came down from 5.15 to 4.44.

Redman lasted only 1.2 innings, giving up eight runs on six hits and three walks and striking out two.  It was his worst game of the season and was also his last appearance of the season.  That leads one to think he may have been injured, but I didn't have time to check that out.

This was one of only two relief appearances for Steve Sparks in 2002.  He made thirty starts that season.

Record:  The Twins were 85-61, in first place, leading Chicago by fourteen games.

MINNESOTA 11, DETROIT 4 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, September 10.

Batting stars:  Dustan Mohr was 3-for-4 with a home run (his twelfth) and a double.  Cristian Guzman was 3-for-5 with a triple and three runs.  A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-3 with a triple and a double.

Pitching stars:  Johan Santana pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.  Tony Fiore pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit.  LaTroy Hawkins pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Carlos Pena was 2-for-4 with a triple.  Robert Fick was 2-for-4.  Mike Rivera was 2-for-4.

The game:  Torii Hunter hit a two-out three-run homer in the first inning to give the Twins a 3-0 lead.  The Tigers came back with two in the second, as Pena hit an RBI triple and scored on a ground out.  With two out and none on in the fourth, Doug Mientkiewicz doubled, Mohr singled, and Pierzynski circled the bases on a triple-plus-error to give the Twins a 6-2 lead.  Detroit came back again in the fifth, getting a two-run homer by Omar Infante to cut the lead to 6-4.  The Twins got back-to-back RBI doubles by Corey Koskie and David Ortiz in the bottom of the fifth to make it 8-4 and scored three in the sixth to put the game out of reach.  Mohr led off the inning with a home run, Pierzynski doubled, Guzman tripled, and Ortiz doubled.

WP:  Kyle Lohse (12-8).  LP:  Shane Loux (0-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  Pierzynski raised his average to .305.

The Twins had fifteen hits, eleven of them for extra bases.  They had seven doubles, two triples, and two home runs.

Hunter's home run was his twenty-eighth.

Lohse struck out seven in five innings, but allowed four runs on nine hits and no walks.

Hawkins lowered his ERA to 2.28.

This was the first major league appearance for Shane Loux.  It did not go well--he lasted four innings and allowed six runs (five earned) on six hits and no walks with three strikeouts.  Loux made three starts for the Tigers in 2002, going 0-3, 9.00.  He came back to make eleven appearances the next year, going 1-1, 7.12.  He then did not make it back to the majors until 2008, when he appeared in seven games for the Angels.  That was his only successful season, as he went 0-0, 2.81 in sixteen innings.  The next year, he made eighteen appearances (six starts) and went 2-3, 5.86.  He then did not make it back to the majors until 2012, when he was with San Francisco.  He was in nineteen games, going 1-0, 4.97.  Give the guy credit for perseverance.  He was only in 58 games, but it was over five seasons and over a period of eleven years.  In fact, he kept pitching through 2015, when he was a Sugar Land Skeeter.  Last season, he was the pitching coach for the Missoula Osprey in the Arizona organization.

Record:  The Twins were 84-61, in first place, leading Chicago by thirteen games.