CLEVELAND 8, MINNESOTA 3 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Thursday, August 14.
Batting stars: Matthew LeCroy was 3-for-4 with a home run, his twelfth. Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4.
Pitching star: Joe Mays pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.
Opposition stars: Brian Anderson pitched 8.1 innings, giving up one run on six hits and two walks. Travis Hafner was 4-for-5 and hit for the cyle, including his eighth home run. He scored three times and drove in two. Ben Broussard was 3-for-5 with a double. Jhonny Peralta was 2-for-4 with two doubles and two runs. Angel Santos was 2-for-4 with a double and a stolen base. Casey Blake was 2-for-5 with a home run (his fourteenth), a double, and three RBIs.
The game: Hafner homered in the second to put the Indians up 1-0. In the second, Peralta and Blake doubled to make it 2-0.
It stayed 2-0 until the seventh, when Cleveland took control. Hafner had an infield single-plus-error, was bunted to third, and scored on Peralta's double. Santos then doubled to make it 4-0. With two out, Blake hit a home run to make it 6-0.
The Indians added to their lead in the eighth. Broussard singled, Hafner had an RBI triple, and Josh Bard had a run-scoring single to increase the lead to 8-0.
The Twins avoided the shutout in the ninth. LeCroy hit a one-out home run. Jacque Jones doubled, Michael Restovich had an infield single, and a sacrifice fly made it 8-2. An error put men on second and third and Guzman singled home a run to conclude the scoring.
WP: Anderson (9-9). LP: Brad Radke (8-10). S: None.
Notes: LeCroy was behind the plate in place of A. J. PIerzynski. Denny Hocking was at first base in place of Doug Mientkiewicz. Chris Gomez was at second base in place of Luis Rivas. Shannon Stewart was in left, Dustan Mohr in right, and Jones at DH.
Michael Ryan replaced Stewart in left in the ninth. Michael Restovich went to right in the ninth, with Mohr moving to center and Torii Hunter coming out of the game. Rivas pinch-ran for Jones in the ninth.
Ryan made an out for the first time all year and was batting .667. Stewart was 0-for-4 and was batting .314. Restovich was 1-for-1 and was batting .308. Jones was 1-for-4 and was batting .307.
Radke pitched pretty well for six innings, but his line was 6.1 innings, five runs, nine hits, no walks, and three strikeouts. His ERA was 5.09. James Baldwin allowed three runs in one inning and his ERA went to 5.40. Mays lowered his ERA to 6.33.
Rick Reed made his first relief appearance of the season, pitching two-thirds of an inning and giving up no runs.
Santos' stolen base was the only one of his major league career. An infielder, he appeared in 41 games and had 99 plate appearances. He batted .207/.245/.370.
With a three-game losing streak, the Twins were in danger of dropping back to .500.
Record: The Twins were 61-60, in third place in the American League Central, four games behind Kansas City. They were two games behind second-place Chicago.