CLEVELAND 13, MINNESOTA 2 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Saturday, July 5.
Batting stars: Matthew LeCroy was 1-for-4 with a home run, his ninth. Corey Koskie was 1-for-3 with a home run, his fourteenth.
Pitching stars: None.
Opposition stars: Casey Blake was 5-for-5 with two home runs (his ninth and tenth), two doubles, three runs, and seven RBIs. Milton Bradley was 4-for-4 with a home run (his seventh), a walk, three runs, and two RBIs. Ben Broussard was 2-for-4 with a double and three runs. Matt Lawton was 2-for-5 with a home run (his thirteenth), two runs, and two RBIs. Brian Anderson pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on six hits and a walk and striking out four.
The game: Lawton started the scoring with a first-inning home run. Blake had a two-run double later in the inning, and another run scored on a ground out to make it 4-0. LeCroy got the Twins on the board with a home run in the second, but the Indians got the run back in the third on Blake's RBI single.
The onslaught continued in the fourth. Lawton had an RBI single and Bradley hit a two-run homer. Koskie homered in the bottom of the fourth to make it 8-2, but Brandon Phillips had an RBI single in the fifth to get the run back again.
The Twins never got back into the game. Blake homered in the seventh to make it 10-2. Blake hit a three-run homer in the ninth to bring us to the final score of 13-2.
WP: Anderson (6-6). LP: Joe Mays (8-6). S: None.
Notes: Dustan Mohr remained in left field in place of Jacque Jones, with Bobby Kielty in right. Justin Morneau pinch-hit for Doug Mientkiewicz in the eighth and stayed in the game at first base. Chris Gomez pinch-hit for Koskie in the eighth and stayed in the game at third. Denny Hocking replaced Torii Hunter in center field in the ninth.
Koskie was batting .305.
Mays lasted just three innings, allowing five runs on six hits and a walk. His ERA was 6.57. Johan Santana also pitched poorly, allowing four runs on six hits in three innings, although he did strike out six. His ERA was 2.86.
This was Anderson's second stint with Cleveland. He had pitched for them in 1996-1997, but was unprotected and was taken by Arizona in the expansion draft. He signed with Cleveland as a free agent before the 2003 season, but was traded to Kansas City in late August with a player to be named later for two guys you never heard of (Trey Dyson and Kieran Mattison, neither of whom made the majors). He pitched well in seven starts down the stretch for the Royals, then had two poor seasons before calling it a career.
The Twins had lost five of six and seven of ten.
Record: The Twins were 44-42, in second place in the American League Central, 2.5 games behind Kansas City. They were just two games ahead of third-place Chicago.