TORONTO 2, MINNESOTA 1 IN TORONTO
Date: Sunday, September 29.
Batting stars: Shane Mack was 1-for-3 with a walk.
Pitching star: Scott Erickson pitched an eight-inning complete game, giving up two runs on five hits and three walks and striking out two. He threw one hundred pitches.
Opposition stars: Todd Stottlemyre pitched 6.1 innings, giving up one run on four hits and three walks and striking out none. Candy Maldonado was 1-for-2 with a walk. Devon White was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.
The game: The Blue Jays scored both of their runs in the first inning. White led off with a double. A sacrifice/fielder's choice put men on first and third. A ground out made it second and third, and a walk to John Olerud loaded the bases. A sacrifice fly scored one and Maldonado's single brought home another, making it 2-0 Toronto.
The Twins put men on first and second in the second but did not score. That was their only real threat until the seventh, when Gene Larkin led off with a double and scored on a Paul Sorrento single. Jarvis Brown pinch-ran for Sorrento and went to second on a ground out. With two out Randy Bush singled, but Brown was thrown out trying to score. That was the last chance to tie the game the Twins had.
WP: Stottlemyre (14-8). LP: Erickson (19-8). S: Duane Ward (20).
Notes: Larkin was at first base in place of Kent Hrbek. Junior Ortiz was behind the plate in place of Brian Harper.
Sorrento pinch-hit for Ortiz in the seventh. Brown then pinch-ran for Sorrento. He stayed in the game and went to right field, with Mack going to left. Bush pinch-hit for Dan Gladden in the seventh. Lenny Webster then came into the game to catch.
Kirby Puckett was 0-for-4 and was batting .319. Mack was batting .307. Bush was 1-for-1 and was batting .301. Erickson lowered his ERA to 3.27.
I'm not sure I understand the play that ended the seventh inning. Brown was on second with two out. The play-by-play for Bush's at-bat says, "Single to C (ground ball); Brown out at Hm (C-3B). The best I can figure out is that Bush hit a dribbler out in front of the plate and was safe at first. Brown then took to big a turn around third base, was trapped off, and was tagged out. I'm not sure if that's what happened, but it's my best guess.
The White Sox lost to Seattle 2-1, so despite the loss, the Twins clinched the division.
Record: The Twins were 92-63, in first place in the American League West, eight games ahead of Chicago.
Boston lost to Milwaukee, putting the Blue Jays in first place by 4.5 games.