MINNESOTA 8, MILWAUKEE 3 IN MILWAUKEE
Date: Sunday, June 22.
Batting stars: Denny Hocking was 3-for-4 with a home run, a triple, a walk, and three runs. Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-4 with two doubles. Corey Koskie was 2-for-5 with a two-run homer, his eleventh. Torii Hunter was 1-for-5 with a home run, his tenth. Justin Morneau was 1-for-1 with a pinch-hit home run, his second.
Pitching stars: Johan Santana pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit. LaTroy Hawkins retired all four men he faced, striking out one. Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.
Opposition stars: Eddie Perez was 3-for-4. Geoff Jenkins was 3-for-5 with a home run (his sixteenth), a double, two runs, and two RBIs.
The game: With one out in the first Hocking walked and Koskie hit a two-run homer to give the Twins a 2-0 lead. The Brewers got one back in the bottom of the first when Scott Podsednik tripled and scored on a Jenkins single. The Twins scored in the second when Dustan Mohr walked, went to third on a Tom Prince double, and scored on a ground out. They got one more in the third on two singles and a double play, leaving the score 4-1.
Jenkins homered in the fourth to cut the lead to two, but Hocking homered in the fifth to build it back to three. In the sixth Jenkins doubled, went to third on a Richie Sexson single, and scored on a sacrifice fly to cut it to two again at 5-3.
It was all Twins after that. In the seventh Bobby Kielty walked, went to second on a wild pitch, and scored on Jacque Jones' double to make it 6-3. Milwaukee put men on second and third with one out in the bottom of the seventh but did not score. Hunter homered in the eighth and Morneau homered in the ninth to bring us to the final of 8-3.
WP: Kenny Rogers (6-3). LP: Matt Kinney (5-6). S: None.
Notes: Prince was behind the plate in place of A. J. Pierzynski. Hocking was at short in place of Cristian Guzman. There was no DH. Kielty and Morneau were used as pinch-hitter for pitchers.
Morneau was batting .353. Mientkiewicz was batting .306. Jones was at .303. Koskie was up to .302.
Rogers pitched five innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and one walk and striking out none. His ERA was at 5.16.
Santana's ERA was 2.15. Hawkins fell to 2.02. Guardado was down to 2.93.
Ex-Twin Matt Kinney started for the Brewers. He lasted 6.1 innings but allowed six runs on seven hits and three walks and struck out five.
The Twins managed to salvage one game of the three-game series. They would now go home to face the White Sox.
Morneau's first two career home runs were pinch-hit home runs. That can't be terribly common.
Record: The Twins were 40-34, in first place in the American League Central, one game ahead of Kansas City.