MINNESOTA 5, MILWAUKEE 2 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Saturday, June 28.
Batting stars: Torii Hunter was 3-for-4 with a home run (his eleventh), a stolen base (his third), two runs, and two RBIs. Corey Koskie was 2-for-4 with a home run, his twelfth. Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-4.
Pitching stars: Kenny Rogers struck out six in six innings, giving up one run on six hits and two walks. LaTroy Hawkins pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and striking out one. Eddie Guardado pitched a perfect inning.
Opposition stars: Scott Podsednik was 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Keith Ginter was 2-for-4.
The game: The Brewers put men on first and second with none out in the second but did not score. It cost them, as the Twins got two in the bottom of the second. Hunter led off with a home run, Mientkiewicz singled, Bobby Kielty walked, and Luis Rivas had an RBI single to make it 2-0 Twins.
It stayed 2-0 until the fifth, when Eddie Perez doubled and scored on a two-out single by Podsednik to cut the lead in half at 2-1. The Twins got the run back in the bottom of the fifth when Koskie homered to make it 3-1.
Milwaukee opened the sixth with consecutive singles but did not score. In the seventh, however, Eric Young doubled and scored on Podsednik's two-out single to again cut the lead to one run at 3-2. In the seventh, however, the Twins used the stolen base to score twice. Cristian Guzman singled, stole second and third, and scored on Hunter's single. Hunter then stole second and scored on a Mientkiewicz single, making the score 5-2.
That pretty much iced the game. The Brewers got a single in the eighth but never brought the tying run up to bat.
WP: Rogers (7-3). LP: Dave Burba (0-1). S: Guardado (20).
Notes: Matthew LeCroy was behind the plate in place of A. J. Pierzynski. Kielty was in right field. Justin Morneau was the DH.
Lew Ford pinch-hit for Morneau in the seventh. Tom Prince replaced LeCroy behind the plate in the eighth.
Ford was 0-for-1 and was batting .353. Koskie raised his average to .314. Mientkiewicz went up to .307.
Hawkins lowered his ERA to 1.83. Guardado went down to 2.76.
Burba was apparently injured at the start of the season, as this was his first game of 2003. He would make only two starts, although he would appear in fifteen games in relief. He pitched 5.2 innings, giving up three runs on nine hits and a walk and striking out three.
It seems like every time I do a Twins/Brewers game Scott Podsednik plays a key role, making me wonder if he was a Twins killer. Not really. For his career he batted .285/.328/.381, not bad numbers but nearly identical to his career numbers generally. In 2003, however, he batted .440/.500/.600 against the Twins, so he was certainly a Twins killer that season.
Record: The Twins were 42-37, in second place in the American League Central, one game behind Kansas City.