COLORADO 5, MINNESOTA 0 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Tuesday, June 10.
Batting star: Justin Morneau was 2-for-4.
Pitching stars: Tony Fiore pitched a perfect inning. Micheal Nakamura pitched a perfect inning.
Opposition stars: Jason Jennings pitched 7.2 scoreless innings, giving up three hits and four walks and striking out seven. Greg Vaughn was 2-for-4 with a home run and a double. Charles Johnson was 1-for-3 with a home run, his seventh. Preston Wilson was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer, his fifteenth.
The game: Singles by Juan Uribe and Jay Payton and a three-run homer by Wilson put the Rockies up 3-0 in the first inning. Johnson homered leading off the second to make it 4-0. Vaughn homered with two out in the sixth to make it 5-0.
And that was that. The Twins put runners on first and second with one out in the second, but a strikeout and a ground out stranded them. They put men on first and second with two out in the fifth, but a fly out ended that inning. A pair of walks put runners on first and second with two out in the eighth, but a ground out took care of that threat.
WP: Jennings (5-5). LP: Brad Radke (5-6). S: None.
Notes: Bobby Kielty was in right field. Morneau made his major league debut at DH. The Twins made no in-game lineup substitutions.
Morneau was, of course, batting .500. Jacque Jones was 0-for-4 and was batting .309.
Radke had the first inning trouble we came to expect from him. For the game he struck out eight in seven innings, allowing five runs on seven hits and a walk. His ERA was 5.61. He would have one more bad game, then start the process of gradually bringing his ERA down to a more respectable level.
Nakamura has now appeared in three games in a row. His ERA came down to 6.00. Fiore had an ERA of 5.06.
Jason Jennings was a mainstay in the Rockies rotation for five seasons. He was the Rookie of the Year in 2002, going 16-8, 4.52, 1.46 WHIP. We assume people looked at the won-lost record and attributed the ERA and WHIP to pitching in Denver. It also didn't hurt that in his first game, he pitched a complete game shutout and had three hits, including a home run. He would post ERAs over five each of the next three seasons, but remained in the Rockies' rotation. His best season as a Rockie was actually his last one, 2006, when he went 9-13, 3.78, 1.37 WHIP. He was traded to Houston after that season and was awful for them, going 2-9, 6.45. He became a free agent and signed with Texas. He appeared in just six games for them in an injury-plagued 2008, not pitching well, but had a half-way decent season for them out of the bullpen in 2009. He again dealt with injuries in 2010. He had an excellent season with independent Grand Prairie in 2011, but then decided to call it a career. At last report he was living in Frisco, Texas and operating a baseball training center there.
Record: The Twins were 35-27, in first place in the American League Central, 3.5 games ahead of Kansas City.