CHICAGO 5, MINNESOTA 2 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Monday, September 8.

Batting stars:  Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-4.  Corey Koskie was 2-for-4.  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4.

Pitching star:  J. C. Romero pitched 1.2 perfect innings.

Opposition stars:  Bartolo Colon pitched a complete game, giving up two runs on ten hits and one walk and striking out four.  Carlos Lee was 2-for-4 with a double.  Magglio Ordonez was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his ninth.

The game:  The White Sox ambushed Twins starter Kyle Lohse, scoring all five of their runs in the first inning.  With one out Lee doubled and Frank Thomas walked.  A line out made for two down, but Carl Everett singled home a run, Paul Konerko walked to load the bases, Jose Valentin hit a two-run single, Joe Crede singled to re-load the bases, and Miguel Olivo hit a two-run double.

Lohse did not allow a run after that, but the Twins were left playing catch-up the rest of the day and could not do it.  They scored twice in the second on a walk to Matthew LeCroy, a double by Torii Hunter (on which LeCroy somehow scored from first), a single by Koskie, and an RBI ground out.

But after that, it was a game of missed opportunities.  The Twins left men on second and third in the third, left a man on second in the fourth and fifth, and left a man on third in the seventh.  They would not score again, and lost the battle of co-division leaders 5-2.

WP:  Colon (13-12).  LP:  Loshe (12-11).  S:  None.

Notes:  Denny Hocking was again at second in the continued absence of Luis Rivas.  Shannon Stewart was in left and Jacque Jones in right.  The Twins made no in-game substitutions.

Stewart was 1-for-5 and was batting .313.  Jones was 0-for-4 and was batting .304.  Mientkiewicz raised his average to .303.  A. J. Pierzynski was 1-for-4 and was batting .301.

Lohse ended up pitching six innings, allowing five runs on seven hits and four walks and striking out none.  If he could've taken a mulligan for the first inning he'd have had a fine game, but of course the rules don't allow you to do that.

The Twins were 1-for-9 with men in scoring position.

This was Colon's seventh complete game.  He would lead the league in 2003 with nine.  He threw 117 pitches.  His high for a game that season was 132 in a game against Toronto in May.

This was the first of a four-game series between two teams who were tied for first in the division going into this game.  The loss obviously dropped the Twins into second.  Kansas City was idle.

Record:  The Twins were 76-67, in second place in the American League Central, one game behind Chicago.  They were 2.5 games ahead of third-place Kansas City.