MINNESOTA 2, SEATTLE 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Wednesday, August 28.

Batting stars:  Doug Mientkiewicz was 3-for-3.  Torii Hunter was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his twenty-sixth.  Dustan Mohr was 1-for-2 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  Johan Santana pitched seven innings, giving up one run on five hits and three walks and striking out five.  J. C. Romero pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two hits and a walk and striking out one.  Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Joel Pineiro pitched six innings, giving up two runs on eight hits and a walk and striking out three.  Bret Boone was 2-for-3 with a home run (his twenty-first) and a walk.  Mike Cameron was 3-for-4.

The game:  Boone homered in the first inning to give the Mariners a 1-0 lead.  Each team put two men on in the second but did not score.  Each team put two men on in the fourth and did not score.  Seattle put two men on in the sixth and did not score.  In the bottom of the sixth, however, Corey Koskie led off with a single and Hunter hit a one-out two-run homer to give the Twins a 2-1 lead.  In the eighth the Mariners had two singles and a walk, loading the bases with one out, but John Olerud hit into a double play to end the threat.  Cameron hit a leadoff single in the ninth but did not move from first base.

WP:  Santana (8-5).  LP:  Pineiro (13-5).  S:  Guardado (38).

Notes:  Hunter's average was .301.

A. J. Pierzynski was 0-for-3 and was also batting .301.

It was Santana's best start in a month.  For his reward, he was sent to the bullpen.  Eric Milton was back from the disabled list, someone had to go to the bullpen, and it was the kid.  I understand that you weren't going to send Brad Radke or Rick Reed to the pen, but Joe Mays certainly wasn't getting much accomplished.  To his credit, while Santana wasn't happy about the situation, he pitched very well in relief in September, posting a 1.50 ERA in 18 innings.

Romero's ERA was 1.51.

Guardado's ERA was 2.62.

Joel Pineiro was in the middle of a three-year run in which he went 36-20, 3.10.  He struggled from 2004-2008, but he hung in there, and teams kept giving him chances.  In 2009-2010 he put together another good run, going 25-19, 3.64.  He pitched in twelve seasons, and in about half of them he was a pretty good pitcher.

Record:  The Twins were 80-54, in first place, leading Chicago by sixteen and a half games.

MINNESOTA 5, SEATTLE 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, August 27.

Batting stars:  Torii Hunter was 3-for-4 with a home run, his twenty-fifth.  Jacque Jones was 2-for-4 with a home run, his twenty-fourth.  A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-4 with a triple.

Pitching stars:  Joe Mays pitched six innings, giving up two runs on nine hits and three walks with one strikeout.  LaTroy Hawkins pitched a perfect inning.  Eddie Guardado pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Desi Relaford was 2-for-3 with a double.  Carlos Guillen was 2-for-4.  Dan Wilson was 2-for-4.

The game:  Wilson singled home a run in the first inning to give the Mariners a 1-0 lead.  The Twins started the third with a single, a double, and a single, but only scored once, as Pierzynski singled home a run to tie it 1-1.  Seattle went ahead 2-1 in the top of the fourth, as Desi Relaford doubled home a run.  The Twins took the lead for good in the bottom of the fourth.  Hunter tied it with a home run, Doug Mientkiwicz singled, and Pierzynski delivered a two-out run-scoring triple to give the Twins a 3-2 advantage.  Jones led off the fifth with a homer to make it 4-2.  Hunter drove in the game's final run with an infield single in the seventh.  The Mariners missed on a lot of promising starts to innings.  They had men on first and second with one out in the second, started the third with two singles, left a man on second in the fourth, had men on first and second starting off the fifth, and got a pair of one-out singles in the sixth.  They hit into three double plays and were 2-for-11 with men in scoring position.

WP:  Mays (3-5).  LP:  Ismael Valdez (7-10).  S:  Guardado (37).

Notes:  Hunter got his average back over .300 at .301.

Pierzynski was batting .303.  The triple was his fifth of the season.  He would hit six in 2002, a quarter of his career total.

Hawkins' ERA went to 2.22.

J. C. Romero pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a walk.  His ERA fell to 1.53.

Guardado's ERA dropped to 2.67.

We will not have a player profile today, and may not have one for the remainder of this series.  I enjoy doing them, but they take a lot of time.  It's Ash Wednesday, which means the start of Lent coming on, which means mid-week worship services to prepare.  Unfortunately, I only get the same number of hours in the day that everyone else does.  Such is life.

Record:  The Twins were 79-54, in first place, leading Chicago by sixteen and a half games.

KANSAS CITY 4, MINNESOTA 2 IN KANSAS CITY

Date:  Sunday, August 25.

Batting stars:  Bobby Kielty was 2-for-3 with a walk.  Dustan Mohr was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his tenth.

Pitching star:  Tony Fiore pitched two shutout innings, giving up four hits and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Miguel Ascencio pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on five hits and two walks and striking out four.  Neifi Perez was 3-for-4 with a double and a stolen base, his eighth.  Raul Ibanez was 2-for-2 with two walks and a home run, his twenty-second.

The game:  Chuck Knoblauch homered leading off the bottom of the first to give the Royals a 1-0 lead.  Michael Tucker homered leading off the bottom of the second to make it 2-0.  Ibanez homered in the bottom of the third to make it 3-0.  The Twins got a pair of one-out singles in the fourth, but a double play took them out of the inning.  In the sixth, doubles by Tucker and Perez made it 4-0 Kansas City.  The Twins cut the lead in half in the seventh, as Mohr hit a two-run homer to make it 4-2.  The Twins did not get a man past first base after that.

WP:  Ascencio (3-4).  LP:  Kyle Lohse (11-8).  S:  Roberto Hernandez (24).

Notes:  Torii Hunter was given the day off, with Kielty playing center field.

A. J. Pierzynski was also given the day off, with Tom Prince catching.  He was 0-for-2 with a walk.

This was the last of Cristian Guzman's twenty-three game hitting streak.  He was 35-for-97, for an average of .361.  His season average went up from .259 to .278 during the streak.

Lohse pitched five innings, giving up three runs on five hits and four walks and striking out three.

Fiore lowered his ERA to 2.85.

Knoblauch's home run was his fourth of the season.  He was 1-for-5 in the game and was batting .215.

Tucker's home run was his twelfth.

This was Miguel Ascencio's rookie season, and his only full season in the major leagues.  He was signed as a free agent by Philadelphia in 1998.  He had a strong year in high A in 2001 and was taken by Kansas City in the Rule 5 draft.  The Royals kept him in the majors all season, giving him 21 starts and using him in relief 10 times.  He did about as well as you could expect from a twenty-one-year-old who'd never pitched above Class A, going 4-7, 5.11, 1.62 WHIP.  He started 2003 in the Royals' rotation and did a little better in eight starts, going 2-1, 5.21, 1.55 WHIP.  Then, however, he hurt his elbow and needed Tommy John surgery.  He not only missed the rest of the season but also missed all of 2004 and does not look as if he ever truly came back from it.  He signed with San Diego for 2005 but clearly still wasn't healthy, making just three poor starts in AAA before being released.  The Rockies signed him for 2006 and he made three major league appearances in April, but that was the end of his major league career.  He was in AAA the rest of 2006, in AA and AAA with Houston in 2007, and was mostly in AA with Boston in 2008.  His major league record was 7-8, 5.12, 1.61 WHIP.  We'll never know if he'd have developed into a good pitcher had he stayed healthy.  No information about what Miguel Ascencio is doing now was readily available.

Record:  The Twins were 78-54, in first place, leading Chicago by sixteen games.

MINNESOTA 6, KANSAS CITY 5 IN KANSAS CITY

Date:  Saturday, August 24.

Batting stars:  Denny Hocking was 3-for-3 with three doubles and a walk.  David Ortiz was 3-for-5.  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4 with a double.

Pitching stars:  LaTroy Hawkins pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two hits and striking out one.  J. C. Romero pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one.  Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two hits and a walk and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Joe Randa was 3-for-5 with a double.  Mike Sweeney was 3-for-5.  Carlos Beltran was 2-for-5 with a double.

The game:  Ortiz singled home a run in the first to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  In the second, Luis Alicea had a two-run single and another run scored on a ground out to put the Royals up 3-1.  Bobby Kielty hit a two-run homer in the third to tie it 3-3.  The Twins went into the lead in the fourth.  Hocking led off with a double and scored on a Guzman double.  Ortiz then singled home a run to make it 5-3 Twins.  Beltran doubled home a run in the bottom of the fourth to cut the lead to 5-4.  Guzman's sacrifice fly in the sixth to give the Twins 6-4.  The Royals put together a two-out rally in the bottom of the sixth, getting a double from Aaron Guiel and singled from Beltran and Sweeney to cut the margin to 6-5, but left the tying run on third.  The Royals again got the tying run to third in the eighth, getting a walk from Luis Ordaz and a single from Sweeney, but Raul Ibanez grounded out to end the threat.  With two out in the ninth, Chuck Knoblauch and Kit Pellow singled and Ordaz walked to load the bases, but Guardado struck out Guiel to end the game.

WP:  Brad Radke (6-3).  LP:  Paul Byrd (14-10).  S:  Guardado (36).

Notes:  Ortiz was at first base, with Doug Mientkiewicz out of the lineup.  Matthew LeCroy was the DH, going 0-for-3 with a walk.

Hocking was at second base, with Luis Rivas out of the lineup.

Torii Hunter was 0-for-5, dropping his average to .298.  It was the first time he had been below .300 since June 27.  He would briefly get back above .300, but would fall under that mark for good by the end of August.

A. J. Pierzynski was 1-for-4 and was batting .302.

Radke struggled through 5.2 innings, giving up five runs on eleven hits and a walk and striking out two.

Hawkins lowered his ERA to 2.25.

Romero's ERA fell to 1.55.

Guardado's ERA was 2.72.

Byrd was the starter for Kansas City.  He struck out six in six innings, but gave up six runs on nine hits and three walks.

This was the last year of infielder Luis Alicea's career.  It was a better one than you might remember, covering thirteen seasons.  He was drafted by St. Louis in the first round in 1986.  He made his major league debut in late April of 1988, taking over the second base job after Tom Herr was traded.  He fielded the position well, but did not hit and went back to AAA in late July, coming back as a September call-up.  He would not get back to the majors until 1991.  He struggled through a mediocre year in AAA in 1989 and had an injury-plagued 1990.  He was batting .393 in 121 at-bats in Louisville when he was called up in 1991.  He was with the Cardinals the rest of the season but was used almost exclusively as a pinch-hitter, getting just eleven games at second base as Joe Torre played Jose Oquendo and Geronimo Pena at second.  He was a semi-regular second baseman for the Cardinals from 1992-1994, sharing time with Pena, and did fairly well.  His best year there was the last one, when he batted .278/.373/.459.  He was traded to Boston for the 1995 season and had a solid year for them, but was put on waivers at the end of 1996 spring training as the Red Sox preferred to go with Jeff Frye.  St. Louis claimed him and put him back at second, where he again did a solid job.  He went to Anaheim for 1997, was with Texas from 1998-2000, and was with the Royals from 2001-2002.  His first couple of years and his last one drive his career averages down, but for most of his career he would generally bat about .270, have an OBP in the .360s, and hit 15-20 doubles.  That's not going to get you on the all-star team, but it's a solid contribution.  He was a major and minor league coach for a while, and at last report operated the Crush It Baseball Academy in West Palm Beach.

Record:  The Twins were 78-53, in first place, leading Chicago by seventeen games.

MINNESOTA 9, KANSAS CITY 2 IN KANSAS CITY

Date:  Friday, August 23.

Batting stars:  A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-5 with a double and three RBIs.  Corey Koskie was 2-for-4 with a walk.  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Rick Reed pitched seven innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on six hits and striking out five.  Mike Jackson struck out two in two perfect innings.

Opposition stars:  Raul Ibanez was 2-for-4 with a double.  Michael Tucker was 1-for-4 with a triple.  Scott Mullen pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit.

The game:  The Twins scored five in the second to put the game out of reach early.  With one out, Doug Mientkiewicz and Bobby Kielty singled and Pierzynski had an RBI double to put the Twins on the board.  A ground out made it 2-0.  The Twins then got consecutive two-out RBI singles from Guzman, Koskie, and David Ortiz to take a 5-0 lead.  The Royals got both of their runs in the fourth, when Ibanez doubled and scored on a Tucker triple.  Tucker later scored on an error.  Pierzynski singled home a run in the fifth to make it 6-2.  In the sixth, Jacque Jones singled and scored on a single-plus-error by Guzman.  Koskie singled to move Guzman to third and a double play brought him home to round out the scoring.  Kansas City got a one-out single in the sixth and did not get a baserunner after that.

WP:  Reed (12-6).  LP:  Jeff Suppan (8-14).  S:  None.

Notes:  Torii Hunter was 0-for-3 to make his average .301.

Pierzynski raised his average to .302.

Guzman had a twenty-one game hitting streak going.  Starting with the first of August, he was 32-for-89, a .360 batting average.  It was nearly all singles, with just four doubles and two home runs.  He had ten RBIs and had drawn two walks during the streak.

In his last three starts, Reed had pitched 23 innings and giving up just four runs (three earned) on 17 hits and 1 walk with 16 strikeouts.  He won all three games and had an ERA of 1.57.

Suppan pitched five innings, giving up nine runs on ten hits and five walks with no strikeouts.  It was the fourth consecutive poor start for Suppan, who gave up 25 runs in 22.1 innings for an ERA of 10.07.  He lost all four.

This was the best year of left-handed reliever Scott Mullen's career.  He was drafted by Kansas City in the seventh round in 1996.  He was a starting pitcher until 2000, when he was switched to relief.  He had a fine season in Omaha that year and was called up at the end of August.  He pitched very well in relief for the Royals until his last game of the season, when he gave up four runs in an inning and raised his ERA from 0.96 to 4.35 (10.1 innings).  He did not have a good year in Omaha in 2001 but was called up to Kansas City in mid-August anyway.  Again, he did well until the end, giving up three runs in one inning to raise his ERA from 2.00 to 4.50 (10 innings).  He started 2002 in Omaha again, but this time was brought up in mid-June and pitched well through the end of the season (although he again had a poor last game).  He went 4-5, 3.15, 1.33 WHIP.  It apparently didn't impress anyone, though, as he was back in Omaha at the start of 2003 and, after a brief call-up in May, was traded to the Dodgers.  He made on appearance for them, on August 3, and never appeared in the majors again.  He kept pitching, though.  He went to Japan for 2004, came back to the United States for 2005, but made just one AAA appearance before going back to Japan for the balance of the season, and was in AAA for Atlanta in 2006.  His major league record is 4-5, 4.66, 1.64 WHIP in 75 games (67.2 innings).  If you took out the last game of each of his big league seasons, his numbers would be 4-4, 3.06 in 71 games (61.2 innings).  I don't know that it would've made a difference in his career--he walked too many and lacked a strikeout pitch, walking 35 and striking out 35 in his career.  It would sure make his career numbers look better, though.  He was a high school baseball coach at his alma matter in  Beaufort, South Carolina for two seasons, winning a regional coach of the year both times.  He resigned in 2013, however, and no information regarding what Scott Mullen has been doing since then was readily available.

Record:  The Twins were 77-53, in first place, leading Chicago by seventeen games.

MINNESOTA 8, KANSAS CITY 6 IN KANSAS CITY

Date:  Thursday, August 22.

Batting stars:  Cristian Guzman was 3-for-5 with a home run (his eighth), a double, and three RBIs.  Luis Rivas was 2-for-4 with a home run (his fourth) and a double.  Jacque Jones was 2-for-5 with a home run, his twenty-third.

Pitching stars:  Johan Santana pitched six innings, giving up three runs on six hits and two walks and striking out five.  J. C. Romero retired all four batters he faced, striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Raul Ibanez was 3-for-5 with three RBIs.  Mike Sweeney was 2-for-3 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch.  A. J. Hinch wsa 2-for-4 with a double.

The game:  The Twins jumped on Kansas City starter Runelvys Hernandez for three runs in the first inning.  Jones led off the game with a home run.  Guzman followed with a double.  With two out, Torii Hunter had an RBI single and stole second.  Doug Mientkiewicz doubled him home to make it 3-0.  Raul Ibanez singled home a run in the bottom of the first to make it 3-1.  In the third, Carlos Beltran homered and Ibanez delivered another RBI single to tie it 3-3.  It stayed tied until the fifth, when Rivas doubled and scored on a Guzman single to give the Twins a 4-3 lead.  Guzman struck again in the seventh, hitting a two-run homer to make it 6-3.  The Twins added two more in the eighth on a two-run homer by Rivas.  They needed them, because the Royals scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth.  Luis Ordaz and Chuck Knoblauch singled, putting men on first and third with one out.  Beltran grounded out, bringing in a run.  Mike Sweeney walked, followed by singles by Joe Randa and Ibanez, making the score 8-6 with men on first and third.  Kit Pellow then hit a fly ball to deep center field to end the game.

WP:  Santana (7-5).  LP:  Hernandez (3-2).  S:  Eddie Guardado (35).

Notes:  I suspect there were not very many games in which Guzman and Rivas combined for two home runs, two doubles, and five RBIs.

Torii Hunter was 1-for-4 to make his average .303.

A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-4 to get his average back up to .301.

Tony Fiore pitched two-thirds of an inning without giving up a run, getting his ERA back down to 2.92.

Romero lowered his ERA to 1.58.

Eddie Guardado came in with two out in the ninth and the score 8-5.  He gave up the single to Ibanez, then retired Pellow to end the game.  He lowered his ERA to 2.77.

This was the sixth major league start for Runelvys Hernandez.  In his first five, he had gone 3-1, 3.03.  In his next five, including this one, he would go 1-3, 6.10.  He was twenty-four at this point, having been signed as a free agent in 1997.  My guess is that he was in a foreign developmental league for a while, because b-r.com doesn't give anything for him until 2001, when he was at Class A Burlington.  He was pitching well in AA Wichita in 2002 when the Royals called him up in late July.  Overall, his 2002 numbers weren't bad for a rookie with that little experience:  4-4, 4.36, 1.36 WHIP.  He got off to a tremendous start in 2003, going 4-0, 1.36 in six April starts.  He then got hurt, struggled through three May starts, went on the disabled list for two months, and was never the same pitcher again.  He tried to come back in July, making seven starts, but then missed the entire 2004 season with Tommy John surgery.  We've heard a lot of success stories from pitchers after Tommy John surgery, but he wasn't one of them.  He struggled through a poor 2005, was no better in 2006 (when he went back to AAA for a month and a half, and then became a free agent.  He was signed and released three times in 2007, by Boston, the Yankees, and PIttsburgh, not appearing in the majors with any of them.  He signed with Houston for 2008 and got four more starts in the majors, but did not pitch well in any of them.  He pitched in Korea in 2009, in Mexico in 2010, and played winter ball through 2012-13.  Then Runelvys left the building for good.  His record was 25-36, 5.50, 1.55 WHIP in 454.2 innings (82 starts), but his is truly a story of what might have been.  No information about what Runelvys Hernandez is doing these days was readily available.

Record:  The Twins were 76-53, in first place, leading Chicago by sixteen games.

CHICAGO 10, MINNESOTA 1 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Wednesday, August 21.

Batting stars:  Matthew LeCroy was 2-for-4.  Denny Hocking was 1-for-3 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  Mike Jackson pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one.  LaTroy Hawkins struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up two hits.

Opposition stars:  Magglio Ordonez was 3-for-5 with a home run (his twenty-ninth) and a double.  Willie Harris was 3-for-4 with a home run, his second.  Jose Valentin was 2-for-5 with two home runs, his eighteenth and nineteenth, driving in five.  Mark Buerhle pitched seven innings, giving up one run on seven hits and a walk and striking out five.

The game:  The Twins scored first, getting consecutive two-out singles from Torii Hunter, LeCroy, and Bobby Kielty to take a 1-0 lead.  It was all White Sox after that, and it didn't take long for them to control the game.  Valentin hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the first to make it 2-1.  In the second, Aaron Rowand hit an RBI single which was followed by Valentin's second homer, this a three-run shot that made it 6-1.  The only thing even resembling a threat that the Twins had after that was in the fourth, when they put men on first and second with two out.  Harris homered in the bottom of the fourth, Mark Johnson had a two-run single in the fifth, and Ordonez homered in the eighth to close out the scoring.

WP:  Buehrle (16-9).  LP:  Joe Mays (2-5).  S:  None.

Notes:  LeCroy was again the DH, with David Ortiz out of the lineup.

Denny Hocking was again in the lineup at third, replacing Corey Koskie.  This was the second consecutive game Koskie missed, but he would be back in the lineup the next day.

The two non-regulars who started went 3-for-7 with a walk.  The seven regulars who started went 5-for-25.

Hunter was 1-for-3 to make his average .303.

Coming off a complete game shutout, in which he threw 121 pitches, Joe Mays had his shortest outing of the season.  He lasted just two innings, giving up six runs (five earned) on five hits and no walks and striking out one.  He threw 53 pitches.  It was not, however, his worst game of the season, at least by game scores.  He'd already had two worse games and had one more to come.

Hawkins lowered his ERA to 2.28.

On July 23, the Twins scored six runs on ten hits off Mark Buehrle.  In his next two games against them, he allowed one run on twelve hits in sixteen innings.  Buehrle was 19-12 in 2002 with an ERA of 3.58 and a WHIP of 1.24.  He made the all-star team but did not get any Cy Young votes.  At first that seemed odd--not that he did not win the award, but that he did even get token consideration.  It must be said, though, that the four pitchers who did get votes--Barry Zito, Pedro Martinez, Derek Lowe, and Jerrod Washburn--all had better seasons.

No player profile today.  There just wasn't anyone I felt like writing one for.  I thought about doing Willie Harris, but for whatever reason, I just couldn't make myself care about Willie Harris while I was writing this.  Maybe tomorrow.

Record:  The Twins were 75-53, in first place, leading Chicago by fifteen and a half games.

MINNESOTA 5, CHICAGO 0 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Tuesday, August 20.

Batting stars:  Jacque Jones was 2-for-3 with a home run (his twenty-second), a walk, and a stolen base (his sixth).  David Ortiz was 2-for-4.  Torii Hunter was 1-for-3 with a walk and stolen base, his twenty-first.

Pitching star:  Kyle Lohse pitched a complete game shutout, giving up four hits and two walks and striking out eight.  He threw 124 pitches.

Opposition stars:  Mark Johnson was 1-for-1 with two walks.  Matt Ginter pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit.  Antonio Osuna pitched a perfect inning.

The game:  Jones led off the game with a home run to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  Lohse gave up a pair of singles in the first inning and gave up just two more hits the rest of the game.  The Twins took a 4-0 lead in the third.  An error and a walk put men on first and second with none out and Cristian Guzman singled home a run.  A double steal put men on second and third and Hunter delivered a two-run single.  The Twins added one more run in the sixth on a Dustan Mohr single.  The White Sox had men on first and third with two out in the first but only had a man in scoring position one other time.  That was in the fifth, when a bunt single and an error again put men on first and third with two out.  The bunt single was the last hit Chicago would get.

WP:  Lohse (11-7).  LP:  Jim Parque (1-3).  S:  None.

Notes:  Matthew LeCroy made his first appearance since July 31, playing as the DH.  He went 0-for-4.

Ortiz played first base, with Doug Mientkiewicz out of the lineup.

Denny Hocking was at third base, with Corey Koskie out of the lineup.  He went 0-for-4.

Tom Prince was the catcher, with A. J. Pierzynski out of the lineup.  He went 0-for-3.

The 85 game score was easily Lohse's best of the season.  His next highest was 68, when he struck out nine in six shutout innings in Seattle on July 6.

Parque started for the White Sox and pitched 5.1 innings, giving up five runs (four earned) on five hits and two walks and striking out four.  It was his third start of the season, and he would get only one more.

Memory told me that Jim Parque was a fairly decent pitcher.  Memory was wrong, as he had only one season with an ERA under five.  The White Sox took him in the first round in 1997.  It wasn't entirely his fault.  He had an excellent season in high A in 1997 and also made two AAA starts.  He wasn't that good in them, but he was twenty-two and in his first year of pro ball.  In 1998 he made eight starts at AAA Calgary, going 2-3, 3.94, 1.54 WHIP, and then was rushed to the majors and placed in the White Sox' rotation.  As one might expect, he wasn't very good, going 7-5 but with a 5.10 ERA and a 1.63 WHIP.  In the rotation for all of 1999, his numbers were similar.  2000, however, seemed to represent a significant improvement, as he went 13-6, 4.28, although still with a high WHIP of 1.49.  That was as good as it would get for him, though.  An injury forced him to miss most of 2001, as he made only five starts.  In 2002 he had a poor year in AAA, but Chicago brought him up anyway and put him in the starting rotation for the month of August.  He was a free agent after the season and signed with Tampa Bay.  He started 2003 in the Devil Rays' rotation, but after five starts he was sent to AAA, where improved to mediocre.  That was his last stint in the majors, but he pitched in AAA for the Diamondbacks in 2004 and for Seattle in 2007.  For his career, he was 31-34, 5.42, 1.64 WHIP in 544.1 innings.  He appeared in 103 games, 97 of them starts.  It's possible that he would've done better if he'd been allowed to learn pitching in the minors.  It's also possible that he was just getting things figured out when injuries threw him off track.  It's also possible, of course, that he just really was never all that good to begin with.  He is the founder of Big League Edge, which proclaims that it is "baseball's premier player developer", of Kent, Washington.

Record:  The Twins were 75-52, in first place, leading Chicago by sixteen and a half games.

MINNESOTA 7, CHICAGO 3 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Monday, August 19.

Batting stars:  Jacque Jones was 3-for-4 with two home runs (his twentieth and twenty-first) and a double, scoring three times and driving in three.  Doug Mientkiewicz was 3-for-4 with a home run, his tenth.  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4 with a home run, his seventh.

Pitching stars:  Tony Fiore pitched three shutout innings, giving up two hits and a walk and striking out two.  Bob Wells pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Aaron Rowand was 3-for-5 with a double.  Mike Porzio pitched 4.2 innings of relief, giving up one run on two hits and striking out four.  Carlos Lee was 1-for-5 with a two-run homer, his twentieth.

The game:  The long ball was really prominent in this game.  Jones and Guzman led off the game with back-to-back homers and David Ortiz hit a one-out homer to give the Twins a 3-0 lead.  Jones hit a two-run homer in the second to make it 5-0.  In the bottom of the third, with two out and a man on second, Lee and Magglio Ordonez hit back-to-back homers to cut the Twins lead to 5-3.  The Twins opened the fifth with a Jones double and a Guzman single, putting men on first and third.  Then came the only non-homer run of the game, as Jones scored on a double play to make the score 6-3.  Mientkiewicz homered in the sixth to round out the scoring at 7-3.  The White Sox had men on first and second with two out in the sixth but did not otherwise threaten after that.

WP:  Brad Radke (5-3).  LP:  Gary Glover (5-6).  S:  None.

Notes:  Ortiz' home run was his sixteenth of the season.

Torii Hunter was 0-for-4, dropping his average to .303.

A. J. Pierzynski was 0-for-4 to make his average .298.  It was the first time he had been below .300 since July 24.

Radke pitched five innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and one walk with three strikeouts.

Fiore's ERA fell to 2.95.  It was the first time it had been under 3.00 since June 28.

For the White Sox, Glover pitched four innings, giving up six runs on eight hits and no walks with no strikeouts.

Ordonez' home run was his twenty-eighth.

Left-hander Mike Porzio appeared in three major league seasons.  He was signed by the Cubs as a free agent in 1993.  He was released three times, by the Cubs, Boston, and Baltimore, and spent four years in independent leagues before he made his major league debut.  He spent 1998 in Class A with Atlanta and Colorado, was jumped all the way to AAA at the start of 1999 and was promoted to the majors in July of that year.  His readiness is somewhat questionable--in 35 AAA games of relief, he was 5-1, 3.38, but with a WHIP of 1.73, mostly due to the fact that he walked 30 batters in 42.2 innings.  He appeared in 16 games for the Rockies, pitched 14.2 innings, and posted an ERA of 8.59 with a WHIP of 2.11.  It would be three years before he got to the majors again.  He spent 2000 mostly in AA with Colorado and was in AAA with the White Sox in 2001.  He made the major league club out of spring training in 2002 and did well in his first six appearances, but did poorly in his next four and was sent back to AAA.  He came back to the majors at the start of August and had a tremendous month, posting an ERA of 1.10 and a WHIP of 0.55 in 10 appearances (16.1 innings).  That was pretty much his career highlight, as he went back to being Mike Porzio in September, posting an ERA of 6.75.  He was mostly back in AAA in 2003, making three starts for the White Sox in July.  That was it for his major league career, but he continued to pitch for several more years.  He was apparently injured most of 2004, making just three minor league appearances in the Cleveland organization.  He was in AA with Atlanta in 2005 and then pitched for Bridgeport in the Atlantic League until 2010.  His major league record was 3-3, 5.90, 1.58 WHIP.  He pitched 71,2 innings in 51 games.  He did have one really good month, though, and it's one more really good month than a lot of people have.  Mike Porzio is now a scout for the Milwaukee Brewers.  He also owns The Clubhouse Baseball and Softball Training Academy in the greater New York area.

Record:  The Twins were 74-52, in first place, leading Chicago by fifteen and a half games.

MINNESOTA 6, BOSTON 2 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Sunday, August 18.

Batting stars:  Doug Mientkiewicz was 3-for-4 with a double and a home run, his ninth.  Torii Hunter was 2-for-4.  Corey Koskie was 2-for-4.

Pitching stars:  Rick Reed struck out seven in seven innings, giving up two runs on six hits and no walks.  J. C. Romero struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.  Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit.

Opposition stars:  Shea Hillenbrand was 2-for-4 with a double.  Manny Ramirez was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.  Cliff Floyd was 1-for-4 with a home run, his twenty-fourth.

The game:  Singles by Jacque Jones and Koskie and a David Ortiz sacrifice fly put the Twins ahead 1-0 in the first inning.  The Red Sox tied it in the second, as Ramirez doubled and scored on a Brian Daubach single.  Mientkiewicz led off the bottom of the second with a home run to put the Twins back on top 2-1.  The Twins loaded the bases with one out in the fourth, getting singles from Hunter and Mientkiewicz and a walk to Dustan Mohr, but could only score one on an A. J. Pierzynski fielder's choice.  That made the score 3-1, where it stayed until the seventh, when Floyd led off with a home run to cut the margin to 3-2.  The Twins finally took control in the eighth.  Singles by Cristian Guzman and Ortiz put men on first and second with one out.  Hunter singled home one run, Mientkiewicz doubled home another, and a sacrifice fly made the score 6-2.  Boston could manage only a Carlos Baerga single in the ninth.

WP:  Reed (11-6).  LP:  John Burkett (10-7).  S:  None.

Notes:  As we get later in the season, the Twins seem to be going more and more with a set lineup.

Hunter raised his average to .305.

Pierzynski was 0-for-3 to make his average .302.

Reed was in the second of a streak of eight starts in which he would give up two or fewer runs.  He would lower his ERA from 4.63 to 3.71 over that stretch.

Romero lowered his ERA to 1.61.

First baseman/outfielder Brian Daubach had a few years in which he was a pretty good player and probably should've had more.  He was drafted out of high school by the Mets in the 17th round in 1990 and took quite a while to get to the majors.  He spent two years in rookie ball and three in Class A, not reaching AA until 1995.  He repeated AA in 1996 and had his first really good year, batting .296/.403/.507 with 22 home runs.  He was still just twenty-four, but the Mets gave up on him and allowed him to become a free agent.  He signed with Florida and spent all of 1997 at AAA, hitting 40 doubles and 21 home runs and posting an OPS of .877.  You'd think that would've at least gotten him a September call-up, but the Marlins stuck with Jeff Conine, who batted .242/.337/.405.  Back in AAA in 1998, he had a monster year, batting .316/.421/.634 with 45 doubles and 35 home runs.  He finally did get a September call-up that year, playing in all of ten games and getting fifteen at-bats as this time the Marlins chose to play Derrek Lee (.233/.318/.414) at first base.  After two years in which Daubach showed he was clearly too good to be in AAA, and with the team in need of a first baseman, the Marlins chose to release him after the 1998 season.  He signed with Boston and showed why he should've been in the majors earlier, batting .294 with an OPS of .921 with 33 doubles and 21 home runs.  He finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting behind Carlos Beltran (the runaway winner), Freddy Garcia, and Jeff Zimmerman.  He was twenty-seven by this time, though, so his future was somewhat limited.  He stayed with the Red Sox for four seasons, over which he batted .266 with a slugging average of .493 and hit 84 home runs.  That was as good as it would get for him, though.  He was a free agent after the 2002 season and never played regularly again.  He signed with the White Sox, where he was stuck behind Paul Konerko, went back to Boston in 2004, was with the Mets in 2005, spent 2006 in AAA with the Cardinals and then was done.  He had four fine years, though, and almost certainly would've had one or two more if he'd been given the chance.  One wonders if Daubach got crosswise with someone in the organization or if the Marlins just couldn't recognize a good thing when it was staring them in the face.  He has stayed in baseball as a minor league manager and coach, and was the batting coach for the AAA Syracuse Chiefs last season.

Record:  The Twins were 73-52, in first place, leading Chicago by fourteen and a half games.