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Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Seventy-seven

CHICAGO 15, MINNESOTA 7 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Tuesday, June 25.

Batting stars:  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4 with a home run (his fourth) and a double.  Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-4.  Dustan Mohr was 1-for-4 with three RBIs.

Pitching star:  Mike Jackson pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up two hits.

Opposition stars:  Magglio Ordonez was 4-for-5 with a double and a stolen base (his sixth), scoring three times and driving in five.  Paul Konerko was 3-for-4 with a home run (his seventeenth), scoring three times and driving in three.  Ray Durham was 3-for-5 and scored three times.

The game:  The Twins led a couple of times early.  They loaded the bases with one out in the first, but only scored one on a fielder's choice to take a 1-0 lead.  In the second the White Sox got five singles to score three runs and take a 3-1 lead.  The Twins came back in the third.  With two out and none on, Matthew LeCroy singled, Corey Koskie was hit by a pitch, Mohr hit a two-run double, and Mientkiewicz had an RBI single to give the Twins a 4-3 lead.  It was downhill from there, though.  Josh Paul hit a two-run double in a three-run fifth to put the White Sox up 6-4.  They scored three more in the sixth to make it 9-4.  In the sixth, the Twins put men on second and third with one out, but could only score one on a ground out to cut the lead to 9-5.  Ordonez hit a two-run single in the seventh to make it 11-5.  Guzman homered leading off the bottom of the seventh to bring the Twins within five at 11-6, but in the ninth Ordonez hit a two-run double followed by Konerko's two-run homer.  The Twins again put men on second and third in the bottom of the ninth, but a sacrifice fly scored the only run of the inning.

WP:  Mark Buehrle (11-5).  LP:  Eric Milton (8-6).  S:  None.

Notes:  LeCroy was the DH, going 1-for-4 with a walk.  His average was now .337...Tom Prince was behind the plate, going 1-for-4...Jacque Jones was 0-for-4 to drop his average to .304...Mohr's average was now .303...Jackson's ERA fell to 1.95...Milton lasted just 4.2 innings, giving up six runs on eight hits and two walks and striking out one...Buehrle pitched six innings, giving up six runs on eight hits and two walks and striking out one...Sorry, there's no player profile today.  I don't really have the time, and I don't see anyone who played in this game in whom I'm particularly interested at the moment.  Maybe tomorrow I'll feel differently.

Record:  The Twins were 43-34, in first place by six games over Chicago.

 

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Seventy-six

MINNESOTA 5, CHICAGO 4 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Monday, June 24.

Batting stars:  Corey Koskie was 2-for-3 with a double.  Luis Rivas was 2-for-3 with a double and a stolen base, his third.  Jacque Jones was 2-for-5 with a double.

Pitching stars:  Matt Kinney pitched six innings, giving up four runs (one earned) on six hits and three walks with no strikeouts.  LaTroy Hawkins struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.  Eddie Guardado pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Jose Valentin was 2-for-4 with a home run, his tenth.  Royce Clayton was 2-for-4 with two stolen bases, his second and third.  Magglio Ordonez was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his thirteenth.

The game:  The Twins made two errors in the third, leading to three unearned runs.  Two of them scored on a home run by Ordonez.  Three Twins singles in the bottom of the third got one of the runs back, as Doug Mientkiewicz got a run-scoring hit.  It stayed 3-1 until the sixth, when Valentin led off the inning with a home run to make it 4-1.  Rivas singled in a run in the bottom of the sixth to cut the margin to 4-2.  In the seventh, Torii Hunter delivered a two-out two-run homer to tie the game.  In the eighth, the first two Twins were retired.  Rivas then drew a one-out walk, went to second on a wild pitch, and scored on Jones' double to put the Twins ahead.  The White Sox went down in order in the ninth.

WP:  Hawkins (3-0).  LP:  Bob Howry (0-1).  S:  Guardado (22).

Notes:  Hunter's home run was his eighteenth...Jones raised his average to .308...Dustan Mohr was 0-for-4, making his average .305...A. J. Pierzynski was 0-for-3 with a walk, dropping his average to .321...Hawkins' ERA fell to 1.70...Guardado's ERA was now 2.21...Royce Clayton was another favorite of mine for reasons I don't remember any more.  He was certainly not a great ballplayer, but he played for a very long time.  He got a September call-up with San Francisco in 1991 and became the Giants' starting shortstop in 1992.  He remained the starter there through 1995.  He appears to have been an adequate but not exceptional defender.  On offense, he had very little power, drew some but not a large number of walks, and so even when he hit for a decent average he did not make that much of an offensive contribution.  He was traded to St. Louis after the 1995 season and was the Cardinals' starting shortstop through the end of July in 1998.  He made his only all-star team in 1997, a year in which he really was no better or worse than any other year in his career.  He was traded to Texas at the 1998 July trade deadline and had his best year for the Rangers in 1999, batting .288/.346/.445 with fourteen home runs.  He matched that home run total in 2000, but his other numbers dropped to .242/.301/.384, numbers which are much closer to his career totals.  He was the White Sox from 2001-2002, Milwaukee in 2003, Colorado in 2004, Arizona in 2005, Washington and Cincinnati in 2006, and Toronto and Boston in 2007.  He was a starting shortstop all of those years except the last one, and he began the year as a starter then.  For his career he batted .258/.312/.367.  He played in 2108 major league games over seventeen seasons.  He never had an OPS over .800 and most years was below .700.  But he almost never got hurt, and while he never had a great year he never had an awful one, either.  He was someone whose name you could write down on the lineup card every day and know what you were going to get, enabling you to focus on other areas.  While that doesn't qualify him for the Hall of Fame, there is value in it, and there are a lot of managers who would be happy to have a shortstop like that.

Record:  The Twins were 43-33, in first place, seven games ahead of Chicago.

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Seventy-five

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MINNESOTA 5, PHILADELPHIA 1 IN PHILADELPHIA

Date:  Sunday, June 23.

Batting stars:  Corey Koskie was 3-for-4 with a double, a home run (his seventh), and a stolen base (his sixth).  Torii Hunter was 1-for-1 with a three-run homer, his seventeenth.  Bobby Kielty was 1-for-3 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  Johan Santana struck out five in 4.2 innings, giving up one run on two hits and six walks.  Tony Fiore pitched three shutout innings, giving up only a walk and striking out two.  Travis Miller pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Randy Wolf pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and no walks and striking out six.  Todd Pratt was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.

The game:  The Twins left two on in the second and the third, finally breaking through in the fourth on a Koskie home run to take a 1-0 lead.  The Phillies tied it in the bottom of the fourth on two walks and a Scott Rolen single.  Philadelphia loaded the bases in the fifth on three walks, but Fiore came in to strike out Pat Burrell and end the threat.  Dustan Mohr led off the sixth with a home run to put the Twins ahead 2-1.  The Twins put the game out of reach in the ninth when Hunter, who had not started but had come in for defense in the bottom of the eighth, hit a three-run homer to make it 5-1.

WP:  Fiore (6-2).  LP:  Wolf (3-6).  S:  None.

Notes:  The Twins won with one of Ron Gardenhire's B lineups.  Jacque Jones and Hunter both were out of the lineup, with Mohr in left, Kielty in center, and Brian Buchanan in right.  A. J. Pierzynski also sat out, with Matthew LeCroy behind the plate.  Cristian Guzman went into the leadoff spot and LeCroy batted fourth...Mohr was 1-for-4 to make his average .311...LeCroy was 1-for-3 and was batting .342...Kielty raised his average to .325...Fiore dropped his ERA to 2.12...This was Miller's fourth appearance of the season.  He had thrown three scoreless innings, giving up two hits and two walks and striking out two...Hunter's home run came off a rookie who pitched the last two innings.  The rookie's name was Carlos Silva.  Twenty-three at the time, he had a really good year out of the bullpen for the Phillies, going 5-0, 1 save, 3.21, 1.31 WHIP.  He was not as good in 2003, and after the season he was traded to the Twins along with Nick Punto and a player to be named later (Bobby Korecky) for Eric Milton.  The Twins, of course, made him a starter.  He was fairly good in 2004 and then had his astonishing 2005 season, in which he simply did not issue walks.  Out of the 749 batters he faced, he walked exactly nine.  Two of those were intentional walks, so in reality he only walked seven.  He walked 0.4 batters per nine innings.  He led all of baseball in K/W ratio despite the fact that he only struck out 71 batters in 188.1 innings, simply because he almost never allowed a walk.  If there was a Pitch To Contact Hall of Fame, Carlos Silva would be in it just based on this one incredible season.  He pitched for two more seasons for the Twins, then became a free agent and went to Seattle.  He didn't take his magic with him, as he pitched poorly in 2008 and was injured much of 2009.  He was traded to the Cubs before the 2010 season and had a good year for them, going 10-6, 4.22, 1.27 WHIP.  After that, though, injuries came back to get him.  The Cubs released him in late March of 2011.  He signed with the Yankees but made just a handful of minor league appearances before being released.  He tried to come back with the Red Sox in 2012, but just couldn't do it.  He made one winter ball appearance in 2014 and then was done for good.  At last report, he was living in Medina. Minnesota.  He was not a star, but he will always be remembered fondly by Twins fans of that era.

Record:  The Twins were 42-33, in first place by six games over Chicago.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–December 18

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Ty Cobb (1886)
Dick Coffman (1906)
Gino Cimoli (1929)
Moose Skowron (1930)
Zoilo Versalles (1939)
Steve Hovley (1944)
Drew Coble (1947)
Roy Howell (1953)
Jim Clancy (1955)
Scott Bailes (1961)
Willie Blair (1965)
Joe Randa (1969)
Jose Rodriguez (1974)
Byron Buxton (1993)

Drew Coble was an American League umpire from 1982-1999.

We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to cheaptoy.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–December 18 →

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Seventy-four

MINNESOTA 4, PHILADELPHIA 1 IN PHILADELPHIA (11 INNINGS)

Date:  Saturday, June 22.

Batting stars:  Luis Rivas was 2-for-4 with a double.  Matthew LeCroy had a pinch-hit double.  Dustan Mohr drove in two with a pinch-hit single.

Pitching stars:  Rick Reed pitched seven shutout innings, giving up two hits and no walks and striking out five.  LaTroy Hawkins struck out two in a perfect inning.  Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Terry Adams pitched seven innings, giving up one run on three hits and three walks and striking out three.  Mike Lieberthal hit a home run, his fifth.

The game:  There was no score until the third, when Reed walked, a force out followed, a Cristian Guzman single-plus-error put men on second and third, and a Doug Mientkiewicz ground out put the Twins on the board.  Reed kept the Phillies offense silent through seven innings, giving up just two hits and only once allowing a man past first base.  He threw just 91 pitches, but was removed after seven for J. C. Romero.  It's hard to second-guess the move, as Romero had an ERA of under one, but it didn't work, as Lieberthal led off the eighth with a home run to tie it 1-1.  The Twins wasted a leadoff double by Rivas in the tenth.  In the eleventh the first two Twins batters went out.  A. J. Pierzynski and Bobby Kielty then singled, LeCroy delivered a pinch-hit RBI double, Rivas was intentionally walked, and Mohr brought home two insurance runs with a single.  In the bottom of the eleventh, Travis Lee led off with a single and Jimmy Rollins was hit by a pitch with two out, bringing the tying run to the plate.  Guardado retired Marlon Anderson on a fly ball to end the game.

WP:  Hawkins (2-0).  LP:  Dan Plesac (2-3).  S:  Guardado (21).

Notes:  Brian Buchanan started in right field, with Kielty coming in for defense in the eighth.  Buchanan was 1-for-3...Denny Hocking started at third in place of Corey Koskie.  He went 0-for-4 and was replaced by pinch-hitter LeCroy in the eleventh...Jacque Jones was 0-for-5 with a walk and was batting .306...Pierzynski was 1-for-5 to make his average .325...Hawkins' ERA was now 1.77...Guardado was at 2.27...Romero, despite giving up the home run, had an ERA of 0.82...The Twins had just four hits through the first ten innings...This was one of two seasons in which Terry Adams was used as a starter.  He was a starter early in his minor league career, but was moved to the bullpen in 1994, when he was still in Class A with the Cubs.  He had a terrific 1995 in AA, made seven appearances in AAA, and came up to the majors in August, making 18 appearances in relief for the Cubs.  He didn't do very well, but he was in the majors to stay.  He had a fine year in 1996, going 3-6, 2.94, 1.32 WHIP in 69 games (101 innings).  The rest of his career, though, he was pretty mediocre.  He was traded to the Dodgers after the 1999 season and went 6-9, 3.52, although with a WHIP of 1.41.  He moved into the Dodgers' starting rotation in the second half of 2001 and did okay, although nothing special.  He was a free agent and signed with Philadelphia, who kept him in the rotation for the first half of 2002, then moved him back to the bullpen.  He made some really good starts, but he also made some really bad ones.  He had an excellent year in 2003 in relief for the Phils, going 1-4, 2.65, 1.34 WHIP.  That was as good as it would get for him.  He signed with Toronto as a free agent for 2004, was traded to Boston in July, signed back with Philadelphia as a free agent in 2005, and was released after sixteen games.  He gave it one more try with Pittsburgh in 2006, but was unimpressive in AAA.  For his career, he was 51-62, 4.17, 1.46 WHIP with 42 saves.  As a starter, he was 14-15, 4.52, 1.45 WHIP in  41 starts.  He spent eleven years in the big leagues, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at.  At last report, he was helping coach high school baseball in his home town of Semmes, Alabama.

Record:  The Twins were 41-33, in first place by five games over Chicago.

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Seventy-three

PHILADELPHIA 3, MINNESOTA 0 IN PHILADELPHIA

Date:  Friday, June 21.

Batting star:  A. J. Pierzynski was 1-for-2 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  Kyle Lohse pitched six innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on five hits and two walks and striking out five.  Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Brandon Duckworth struck out nine in four shutout innings, giving up four hits and a walk.  Jeremy Giambi was 2-for-3 with a double.

The game:  Tomas Perez singled home a run in the second to put the Phillies up 1-0.  Philadelphia added two runs in the seventh, getting a run-scoring single by Travis Lee and a sacrifice fly.  The Twins had only one hit through five innings.  They only twice got a man as far as second base.  The first time came in the second, when Torii Hunter singled and stole second.  A walk put men on first and second, but Denny Hocking grounded out to end the threat.  The other time came in the seventh, when the Twins got two-out singles by Dustan Mohr and Pierzynski.  Bobby Kielty then pinch-hit and struck out to end the inning.  The last seven Twins were retired, five by strikeout.  There was also a stretch in the second through sixth innings in which twelve consecutive Twins were retired.

WP:  Duckworth (4-4).  LP:  Lohse (6-5).  S:  Jose Mesa (19).

Notes:  The Twins were now 6-7 in interleague play and had lost three in a row...With no DH, David Ortiz played first base, replacing Doug Mientkiewicz.  He was 0-for-4...Hocking was at second in place of Luis Rivas.  He went 0-for-2...Jacque Jones was 0-for-4 to make his average .311...Hunter was 1-for-4 and was batting an even .300...Mohr was 1-for-3, making his average .309...Pierzynski raised his average to .328...Travis Miller pitched a third of an inning and did not give up a run, keeping his ERA at zero through three appearances (two innings)...Mike Jackson retired both batters he faced to make his ERA 2.05...Guardado lowered his ERA to 2.34...2002 was Brandon Duckworth's only full season in the majors.  This was his best game of the season, at least by game scores.  Despite that, it was not a good year for him, as he went 8-9, 5.41.  He had come up to the majors in 2001, making 11 starts and going 3-2, 3.52, 1.25 WHIP.  He had pitched very well in AAA that season and very well in AA in 2000, so the Phillies likely thought they really had something.  They didn't.  He struggled again in 2003 and was traded to Houston after the season as part of a deal for Billy Wagner.  He struggled through two seasons with the Astros, splitting both of them between the majors and AAA, became a free agent, and signed with Pittsburgh.  They sent him to AAA, where he pitched very well.  By now, though, he was thirty years old and should have been expected to do well in AAA.  He was sold to Kansas City in June and was promoted to the majors, but remained the same pitcher he had been.  The Royals tried him in a relief role in 2007 and he perhaps did a little better, but not enough to matter.  He made seven more starts with Kansas City in 2008 and then his big league career was at an end.  He kept pitching, and in fact had some pretty good years in AAA from 2010-2012 with Philadelphia and Boston, but never got a call-up.  He pitched in Japan in 2012 and 2013, then hung up the spikes for good.  At last report, he was a scout for the Yankees.  For his major league career he was 23-34, 5.28, 1.53 WHIP in 511 innings (134 games, 84 starts).

Record:  The Twins were 40-33, in first place by four games over Chicago.

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Seventy-two

METS 3, MINNESOTA 2 IN NEW YORK

Date:  Thursday, June 20.

Batting stars:  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, his sixth.  Corey Koskie was 1-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.

Pitching stars:  Eric Milton struck out six in four shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk.  J. C. Romero pitched a perfect inning, striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Steve Trachsel pitched 8.1 innings, giving up two runs on five hits and no walks and striking out seven.  Edgardo Alfonso was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer and a walk.  Mike Piazza was 1-for-4 with a home run, his fourteenth.

The game:  There was no score through five, and neither team even got a man to third base in that time.  With two out and none on in the sixth, Piazza hit a home run to give the Mets a 1-0 lead.  With two out in the eighth, Alfonso hit a two-run homer to make it 3-0.  With one out in the ninth, the Twins got consecutive singles from David Ortiz, Jacque Jones, and Guzman to load the bases.  Doug Mientkiewicz popped up, but Corey Koskie delivered a two-run double down the right-field line. I have no idea if there was any chance for the speedy Guzman to score from first.  If there was, though, the Twins should've taken it, because Torii Hunter struck out to end the game.

WP:  Trachsel (5-6).  LP:  Tony Fiore (5-2).  S:  Benitez (17).

Notes:  There is no apparent reason for Milton to have left the game after four innings.  One assumes that he might have had a minor injury.  He did not miss a start...Jones was 1-for-4 to make his average .316...Hunter was 1-for-4 and was batting .301...Bobby Kielty was 0-for-3 to make his average .325...A. J. Pierzynski was also 0-for-3, dropping his average to .327...Romero's ERA fell to 0.65...Steve Trachsel had an extremely long career.  He was rarely really good, but he was rarely really bad, either.  He was consistently average for a long period of time.  That's not a criticism--an average pitcher can be a very valuable man.  Teams have lost pennants because they couldn't find an average starting pitcher to fill out their rotation.  From 1995-2007 he made between 28 and 34 starts every season.  Three times he had an ERA under 4.00, twice he had an ERA above 5.00, and most of the rest of the time he was in the mid-fours.  His ERA+ was between 80 and 120 every year but one.  For his career, he was 143-159, 4.39, ERA+ of 99, FIP of 4.88.  He made only one all-star team, in 1996, and never got a Cy Young vote.  He simply was a guy who you could put down in the starting rotation every year and know you were going to get thirty starts and that they would be of legitimate major league quality.  Every manager in both leagues would love to have a pitcher like that.

Record:  The Twins were 40-32, in first place, four games ahead of Chicago.

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Seventy-one

METS 4, MINNESOTA 2 IN NEW YORK

Date:  Wednesday, June 19.

Batting stars:  Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4 with a double.  Brian Buchanan was 1-for-2 with a walk.

Pitching stars:  Tony Fiore pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up two hits.  J. C. Romero struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Al Leiter struck out eight in 7.1 innings, giving up one run on five hits and striking out four.  Mike Piazza was 2-for-3 with a double and two walks.  Jeromy Burnitz was 2-for-3.

The game:  There was no score until the fifth, when two singles and a walk loaded the bases for the Twins with one out.  Pitcher Matt Kinney popped up to short center field, but Luis Rivas was hit by a pitch to bring in a run.  Guzman then grounded into a double play.  The Twins would regret getting only one, because the Mets came back with two in the bottom of the fifth.  Piazza singled home the first run and a ground out brought in the second.  It stayed 2-1 until the eighth, when Tony Tarasco hit a two-run homer.  Pinch-hitter  A. J. Pierzynski singled home a run in the ninth to make it 4-2.  The Twins had the tying run on base with two out, but pinch-hitter Matthew LeCroy struck out to end the game.

WP:  Leiter (7-6).  LP:  Kinney (2-6).  S:  Armando Benitez (16).

Notes:  Buchanan was in right field, with Dustan Mohr in left and Jacque Jones getting the day off.  Rivas batted leadoff and was 1-for-3 with a hit-by-pitch...Tom Prince started behind the plate in place of Pierzynski.  He was 0-for-2 with a walk...Kinney pitched 4.1 innings, giving up two runs on five hits and three walks while striking out three.  You can make an argument that the Twins should've pinch-hit for him in the fifth, when he came up with the bases loaded and none out.  If Ron Gardenhire had known they were only going to get one run out of it, and that he was going to pull Kinney in the fifth, he likely would have.  Obviously, though, you don't know that as play is going on.  Kinney had shutout the Mets on just two hits through four innings, so it was not unreasonable to leave him in the game...Torii Hunter was 0-for-3 with a walk and was batting .302...Mohr was 0-for-4 to make his average .310...Romero had his ERA fall to 0.66...Jeromy Burnitz is another pretty fair ballplayer that time seems to have forgotten.  He got started late, but this isn't a case of a team holding a player down too long--Burnitz didn't have a good year at AAA until 1995, when he was 26.  By this time he had moved on from the Mets, who drafted him in the first round in 1990 and had given him some big league playing time in 1993 and 1994, to Cleveland.  During the 1996 season the Indians traded him to Milwaukee, and that's where he really had success.  He was a regular outfielder for the Brewers from 1997-2001 and batted .258/.362/.508 with 165 home runs, and average of 33 per season.  He was traded to the Mets for 2002 and really didn't do a lot for them, batting just .215/.311/.365 with 19 homers.  He had a fine first half for the Mets in 2003, but they traded him to the Dodgers and he struggled in the second half.  A free agent, he signed  with Colorado for 2004 and had an excellent year, batting .283 and slugging 37 home runs.  He went to the Cubs in 2005 and fell to .258 with 24 homers.  He signed with Pittsburgh for 2006, but had a down year and retired.  He wasn't a Hall of Famer or anything, but he played for parts of 14 seasons and batted .253/.345/.481 with 315 home runs, and that's not too shabby.

Record:  The Twins were 40-31, in first place by five games over Chicago.

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Seventy

MINNESOTA 6, NEW YORK METS 1 IN NEW YORK

Date:  Tuesday, June 18.

Batting stars:  Cristian Guzman was 3-for-5 with a double.  A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-4 with a double and a home run, his fourth.  Dustan Mohr was 2-for-4 with a double and a home run, his fifth.

Pitching stars:  Johan Santana struck out seven in six innings, giving up one run on three hits and a walk.  LaTroy Hawkins struck out two in two shutout innings.  Travis Miller pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Roger Cedeno was 2-for-4.  Bobby Jones and Mark Corey each pitched a scoreless inning.

The game:  With two out and none on in the second, the Twins got consecutive doubles from Mohr, Pierzynski, and Luis Rivas to take a 2-0 lead.  Mohr led off the fourth with a home run to make it 3-0.  Torii Hunter led off the sixth with a home run to increase the lead to 4-0.  The Mets got on the board in the bottom of the sixth on an Edgardo Alfonso RBI single.  The Twins added two runs in the ninth.

WP:  Santana (2-1).  LP:  Jeff D'Amico (4-6).  S:  None.

Notes:  Jacque Jones was 2-for-5 to raise his average to .314...Hunter was 1-for-4 with a home run (his sixteenth) and was batting .305...Mohr raised his average to .317...Santana was 0-for-2 at the plate...Mets' starter D'Amico pitched six innings, giving up four runs on eight hits and no walks and striking out four...This was Travis Miller's first appearance for the Twins this season.  He had been with the Twins off and on every season since 1996.  He had only two full seasons with them, 2000 and 2001.  He had been a starter through 1997, then moved to the bullpen in 1998.  His major league ERAs were good from 1998-2000, but he never had a season with a WHIP of less than 1.43.  He would make only five appearances for the Twins in 2002 and was released on June 26, signing a few days later with the Cubs.  The Cubs released him a month later and he signed with Cleveland.  He was with Cincinnati and Milwaukee in 2003 but never played in the majors with anyone but the Twins.  His big league numbers are 7-18, 5.05, 1.66 WHIP in 267.1 innings.  He appeared in 203 games, 14 of them starts.

Record:  The Twins were 40-30, in first place by five games over Chicago.