MINNESOTA 9, TORONTO 3 IN TORONTO
Date: Sunday, April 13.
Batting stars: Cristian Guzman was 3-for-4 with two doubles and three runs. Tom Prince was 2-for-4 with a stolen base (!). Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-4. Matthew LeCroy was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer. Michael Cuddyer was 1-for-4 with a home run.
Pitching stars: Joe Mays pitched six innings, giving up three runs on three hits and four walks and striking out two. Johan Santana struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit. Juan Rincon pitched a perfect inning, striking out one.
Opposition stars: Eric Hinske was 1-for-2 with a double and two walks. Josh Phelps was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.
The game: Carlos Delgado led off the second with a walk, went to second on a wild pitch, and scored on Hinske's one-out double. Orlando Hudson hit a two-out RBI single to put the Blue Jays up 2-0. The Twins came right back in the top of the third. With one out, Prince got to second on a bunt single-plus-error. He then stole third and scored on a ground out. Jacque Jones singled, went to second on a passed ball, and scored on Guzman's double. Corey Koskie followed with an RBI single and the Twins had a 3-2 lead.
Toronto got a pair of one-out walks in the fourth, but a double play took them out of the inning. In the fifth Guzman doubled, went to third on a ground out, and scored on a sacrifice fly to increase the Twins' lead to 4-2. Cuddyer homered in the fifth to make it 5-2.
The Blue Jays got a run back in the seventh. Phelps doubled and Hinske walked, putting men on first and second with none out. The next two batters were retired, but Chris Woodward singled to cut the Twins lead to 5-3. But the Twins put the game away in the eighth. Jones was hit by a pitch and Guzman singled. The next two batters struck out, but Mientkiewicz hit an RBI single and LeCroy delivered a three-run homer, making the score 9-3. The last seven Toronto batters went out to end the game.
WP: Mays (2-1). LP: Mark Hendrickson (1-2). S: None.
Notes: Prince was behind the plate in place of A. J. Pierzynski. Cuddyer remained in right field.
Dustan Mohr pinch-hit for Jones in the ninth.
Jones was 1-for-3 and was batting .364. Prince raised his average to .333.
It's still very early in the season, of course, but the Twins started three players with averages below .200. Torii Hunter was 0-for-3 and was batting .116, Cuddyer and LeCroy each raised their averages to .188.
Prince created a run in the third in Rickey Henderson-like fashion. A bunt single, moving to second on a wild throw, stealing third, scoring on a ground out. This was the last of nine stolen bases Prince had in his career. It was also the last stolen base attempt in his career. He was 9-for-17 in stealing bases. His season high was three, in 2001.
Hendrickson pitched 6.1 innings, allowing five runs on eight hits and no walks. He struck out seven. This was his first full season. Hendrickson pitched a really long time for someone who wasn't very good. If you throw out his rookie year, when he pitched just 36.2 innings, he had only two seasons in which his ERA was under 4.50 and six seasons in which it was over five. He had only one season in which his WHIP was less than 1.40 (1.39) and four seasons in which it was over 1.50. For his career he was 58-74, 5.03, 1.46 WHIP. Yet, he was in the big leagues for ten years, appeared in 328 games (166 starts) and pitched 1169 innings.
This was quite a start to the season. Four three-game series. Swept Detroit. Swept by Toronto. Swept by New York. Swept Toronto. Now, they would go home to play Detroit. Would there be another series sweep? We shall see.
Record: The Twins were 6-6, in third place in the American League Central, four games behind Kansas City. The Royals finally lost a game, making their record 9-1.