LOS ANGELES 2, MINNESOTA 1 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Sunday, May 1.
Batting star: Shannon Stewart was 2-for-4 with a home run, his second.
PItching stars: Johan Santana pitched eight innings, giving up two runs on two hits and two walks and striking out seven. Juan Rincon pitched a perfect inning.
Opposition stars: Bartolo Colon pitched 7.1 scoreless innings, giving up two hits and no walks and striking out seven. Vladimir Guerrero was 1-for-4 with a home run, his sixth. Jose Molina was 1-for-3 with a home run.
The game: There were no hits on either side until the fourth, when Guerrero hit a two-out home run to give the Angels a 1-0 lead. The Twins got their first hit in the fifth when Stewart led off with a single, but nothing came of it. Molina led off the sixth with a home run to make it 2-0.
The Twins threatened in the eighth. With one out, Jacque Jones singled, Michael Cuddyer singled, and pinch-hitter Joe Mauer walked, loading the bases. PInch-hitter Matthew LeCroy hit into a double play, and the inning was over. The Twins got on the board when Stewart led off the ninth with a home run, but the next three batters went out and the game was over.
WP: Colon (4-2). LP: Santana (4-1). S: Francisco Rodriguez (6).
Notes: Mike Redmond was behind the plate in place of Joe Mauer.
Luis Rivas was at second base. He was still the regular second baseman at this point, but was about at the end of the run. By the end of the season, Nick Punto would be the regular second baseman.
Juan Castro was at shortstop. He did end up playing the most games there, 73, but by the end of the season would be replaced by Jason Bartlett.
Lewwwwww Ford was in right field, with Jones moving to DH. LeCroy and Ford did most of the DHing in 2005, playing 63 and 44 games there, respectively.
Justin Morneau was batting .400. He would finish at .239. This was his first full season. Jones was batting .352--he would finish at .249. Mauer was batting .304--he would finish at .294, which led the team. LeCroy was batting .302--he would finish at .260. The Twins batted .259, which was next-to-last in the league. Boston led at .281.
Jones led in home runs with 23, with Morneau right behind at 22. LeCroy hit 17, Torii Hunter 14, Cuddyer 12, and Stewart 10. The Twins hit 134 home runs, which was twelfth in the league. Texas led with 260, well ahead of second-place New York at 229.
Santana was the clear ace of the staff, going 16-7, 2.87. Carlos Silva was 9-8, 3.44--this was the year he walked an incredible 9 batters in 188.1 innings. Two of the walks were intentional, so you could say he really only walked 7. Brad Radke was 9-12, 4.04 and Kyle Lohse was 9-13, 4.18. The weak link was Joe Mays, who was 6-10, 5.65. The Twins kept him in the rotation until September, when he finally replaced by rookie Scott Baker.
The Twins had an excellent bullpen. Joe Nathan was 7-4, 2.70, 43 saves. The team's only other save went to Jesse Crain, who was 12-5, 2.71. Juan Rincon was 6-6, 2.45 and J. C. Romero was 4-3, 3.47. Matt Guerrier also contributed, going 0-3, 3.39.
The Twins were fifth in the league in ERA at 3.71. Cleveland led at 3.61. The Twins were second in WHIP at 1.23, just behind Cleveland's 1.22.
I wonder what the record is for most runs in a game where all the runs came by solo home runs. I don't suppose this is all that close, but it would be interesting to know.
This loss snapped a five-game winning streak. They would lose two more, then win the next four.
Record: The Twins were 15-9, in second place in the American League Central, 2.5 games behind Chicago. They would finish 83-79, in third place, 16 games behind Chicago.
The Angels were 14-11, in first place in the American League West, one game ahead of Oakland. They would finish 95-67, in first place, seven games ahead of Oakland.
Rewind record: The Twins are 55-50 in Random Rewind games.
