Tag Archives: third place

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game One Hundred Thirty

MINNESOTA 8, KANSAS CITY 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Sunday, August 24.

Batting stars:  Matthew LeCroy was 3-for-5 with three RBIs.  Shannon Stewart was 2-for-4 with a double, a stolen base (his fourth, a walk, and three runs.  Doug Mientkiewicz was 1-for-2 with a double and three walks.  Torii Hunter was 1-for-3 with a home run (his twenty-third) and a walk.

Pitching stars:  Johan Santana struck out ten in six innings, giving up one run on six hits and two walks.  J. C. Romero struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.  Juan Rincon struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Joe Randa was 2-for-4 with a double.  Desi Relaford was 1-for-4 with a home run, his eighth.

The game:  Relaford homered in the second to give the Royals a 1-0 lead.  The Twins got the run back on Hunter's homer in the bottom of the second.  The Twins took the lead in the third.  Walks to Stewart and Luis Rivas and a double steal, putting men on second and third with none out.  LeCroy hit an RBI single, Corey Koskie had a sacrifice fly, Hunter walked, and Jacque Jones delivered an RBI single to make it 4-1 Minnesota.  It went to 5-1 in the fourth when Stewart singled, Mientkiewicz walked, and LeCroy hit another RBI single.

Kansas City loaded the bases in the fifth but did not score.  In the bottom of the fifth Cristian Guzman singled, stole second, went to third on a ground out, and scored on Rivas' squeeze bunt to make it 6-1.  The Twins added two in the eighth.  A. J. Pierzynski singled and Stewart doubled, putting men on second and third.  Rivas hit a sacrifice fly and LeCroy had another RBI single to bring the final score to 8-1.

WP:  Santana (8-3).  LP:  Graeme Lloyd (1-4).  S:  None.

Notes:  Jones was in left and Stewart in right.  Dustan Mohr pinch-ran for Jones in the fifth and went to right field, with Stewart moving to left.

Stewart was batting .313.  Jones was at .308.  Mientkiewicz climbed back to an even .300.

Santana lowered his ERA to 2.85.  In his last five starts he had pitched 36 innings.  He had given up six runs (five earned) on 25 hits and 10 walks while striking out 40.

Royals starter Kevin Appier pitched just two innings, giving up one run on one hit and two walks and striking out one.  He was removed due to injury and would not pitch any more in 2003.  He had been signed by Kansas City in early August to bolster their rotation to make a playoff run, but he was able to make only four starts for them in 2003.

It was a needed win over a team ahead of them in the standings, but the Twins were still in third place as they headed west for a road trip.

Record:  The Twins were 67-63, in third place in the American League Central, 1.5 games behind Chicago.  They were a half game behind second-place Kansas City.

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game One Hundred Seven

MINNESOTA 10, BALTIMORE 9 IN MINNESOTA (10 INNINGS)

Date:  Thursday, July 31.

Batting stars:  A. J. Pierzynski was 4-for-6.  Luis Rivas was 3-for-5 with a stolen base (his ninth), two runs, and three RBIs.  Shannon Stewart was 2-for-5 with a double, a walk, a hit-by-pitch, and two RBIs.  Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-5 with two walks.  Michael Restovich was 2-for-6 with two runs.

Pitching stars:  Juan Rincon struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up a walk.  LaTroy Hawkins pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Robert Machado was 4-for-5.  Jay Gibbons was 3-for-6 with a home run (his seventeenth) and three runs.  Jose Leon was 3-for-5.  Deivi Cruz was 2-for-5 with a home run (his thirteenth), a double, two runs, and five RBIs.  Brian Roberts was 2-for-5 with a double and a hit-by-pitch.

The game:  The Twins loaded the bases in the second but did not score.  In the third, Rivas led off with a single, stole second, and scored on a pair of infield grounders to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  The Orioles came right back in the fourth on singles by Jeff Conine and Gibbons and Cruz' three-run homer.  But the Twins came back in the bottom of the fourth.  Singles by Restovich, Cristian Guzman, Stewart, and Rivas plated two runs to tie it 3-3.

The Twins went back into the lead in the fifth.  Singles by Pierzynski, Restovich, and Guzman plated one run, Stewart was hit by a pitch to load the bases, and a sacrifice fly made it 5-3 Twins.  But Baltimore came back in the sixth inning.  Gibbons and Jose Leon singled, and both scored on a Cruz double to tie it.  Machado's RBI single put the Orioles ahead.  A walk and a hit batsman loaded the bases and a sacrifice fly made it 7-5 Baltimore.

The Orioles added to their lead in the seventh.  Gibbons led off with a homer, and two-out singles by Machado, Larry Bigbie, and Roberts increased the margin to 9-5.  But the Twins came back in the bottom of the seventh.  Chris Gomez walked and scored from first on Stewart's double.  Stewart went to third on the throw home and scored on a ground out to make it 9-7.  The Twins loaded the bases in the eighth but did not score.

In the ninth Rivas led off with a single and Mientkiewicz walked.  The next two batters struck out, but Pierzynski singled in a run to make it 9-8 and move the tying run to second.  Restovich struck out, but the third strike was not held and catcher Brook Fordyce threw wildly to first, allowing Mientkiewicz to score the tying run.  Twins baseball!

Baltimore went down in order in the top of the tenth.  Guzman led off the home half with a single and Stewart walked.  A bunt moved the runners up, an intentional walk loaded the bases, and Jacque Jones delivered a single to bring home the deciding run.

WP:  Hawkins (9-3).  LP:  Travis Driskill (3-4).  S:  None.

Notes:  Gomez was at third in the continued absence of Corey Koskie.  Stewart was in left.  Dustan Mohr was in center in place of Torii Hunter.  Restovich was in right.

Todd Sears pinch-hit for Gomez in the eighth but did not bat, as a pitching change prompted Ron Gardenhire to use Matthew LeCroy to pinch-hit for Sears.  Denny Hocking then pinch-ran for LeCroy and stayed in the game at third base.  Hunter pinch-hit for Mohr in the ninth and stayed in the game in center field.

Restovich was batting .385.  Stewart was batting .315.  Jones was 1-for-5 and was batting .311.

Kenny Rogers pitched five innings and allowed seven runs on ten hits and a walk and struck out three.  His ERA was 5.24.  Joe Mays allowed two runs in 1.2 innings to raise his ERA to 6.50.  Hawkins lowered his ERA to 2.53.

Jason Johnson started for the Orioles.  He pitched 4.2 innings, allowing five runs on eleven hits and two walks and striking out two.  He's another guy who pitched for years without ever accomplishing anything.  His lowest ERA in a season was 4.09, in 2001.  In his eleven years in the majors he ERA was over 5.00 seven times and was 6.00 or more three times.  His career numbers are 56-100, 4.99, 1.49 WHIP.  Yet, he pitched 1357 innings and appeared in 255 games, starting 221 of them.

The Twins finished July on a bit of a high note, winning their last two.  However, they were still below .500 and in third place with only two months of the season left.

Record:  The Twins were 53-54, in third place in the American League Central, 4.5 games behind Kansas City.  They were 3.5 games behind second-place Chicago.

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game One Hundred Four

CLEVELAND 3, MINNESOTA 2 IN CLEVELAND (14 INNINGS)

Date:  Sunday, July 27.

Batting stars:  Doug Mientkiewicz was 3-for-5 with two doubles and a walk.  Jacque Jones was 2-for-4.  Luis Rivas was 2-for-5 with a double.  Shannon Stewart was 2-for-7.

Pitching stars:  Rick Reed pitched seven innings, giving up one run on six hits and no walks and striking out four.  LaTroy Hawkins pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.  Juan Rincon pitched four innings, giving up one run on four hits and three walks and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Tim Laker was 3-for-5.  Coco Crisp was 3-for-7.  Casey Blake was 2-for-6 with two doubles.  Jhonny Peralta was 1-for-6 with a home run.  Jason Davis pitched nine innings, giving up two runs on ten hits and two walks and striking out four.  Ex-Twin Jack Cressend pitched two innings, giving up one hit and striking out one.

The game:  Lots of missed opportunities early.  The Twins put men on first and second with one out in the first.  The Indians put a man on second with one out in the first and had men on second and third with one out in the second.  The Twins finally got on the board in the third, but missed a chance for more.  Stewart led off with a single and Luis Rivas followed with a double, putting men on second and third with none out.  They could only score once, however, and that was on a wild pitch which gave the Twins a 1-0 lead.  Cleveland promptly tied it in the bottom of the third when Peralta led off the inning with a home run.

The Twins got the lead back in the sixth when A. J. Pierzynski led off with a double and scored on Stewart's single.  They held the lead until the ninth, when the Indians tied it without getting a hit.  Milton Bradley walked and Ben Broussard reached on an error on a bunt.  Laker sacrificed the men to second and third, Ryan Ludwick was intentionally walked to load the bases, and Victor Martinez hit a sacrifice fly, tying the score 2-2.

The Twins got a man to third with two out in the tenth but did not score.  The Indians loaded the bases with two out in the tenth but did not score.  The Twins had a man on second with two out in the twelfth and did not score.  Cleveland had men on first and second with one out in the twelfth and a man on second with one out in the thirteenth and did not score.

The game ended in the fourteenth.  Casey Blake hit a one-out double and went to third on a ground out.  Bradley was intentionally walked and took second on defensive indifference and Zach Sorensen walked.  Laker then singled to left to bring home the deciding run.

WP:  Rafael Betancourt (1-1).  LP:  Rincon (2-4).  S:  None.

Notes:  Chris Gomez was again at third in place of Corey Koskie.  Stewart was in right.  Todd Sears was the DH.

Dustan Mohr replaced Jones in left in the eighth.  I don't know if Jones was hurting or if it was simply a defensive substitution, but Jones did not miss any games.  Justin Morneau pinch-hit for Mohr in the thirteenth, with Denny Hocking going to left.

Jones raised his average to .313.  Stewart was batting .309.

Reed's game score of 65 is one that he topped only once in 2003, when he pitched a three-hit shutout of Kansas City in May.

Hawkins lowered his ERA to 2.50.

Cressend came up to the Indians on July 1 and had a tremendous half-season, going 2-1, 2.51, 1.14 WHIP in 33 games (43 innings).  It seemed as if, at age twenty-eight, he had finally found something.  If he did, though, he lost it again the next year.  He went 0-1, 6.32, 2.04 in eleven games (15.2 innings) in 2004 and never made it back to the majors after that.

The Twins had three players on their roster, Mientkiewicz, Morneau, and Sears, whose primary position was first base.  They also had Matthew LeCroy, who could play some first base.  That's really not the recommended way to construct a roster.

With the loss, the Twins feel deeper into third place.

Record:  The Twins were 51-53, in third place in the American League Central, 6.5 games behind Kansas City.  They were 2.5 games behind second-place Chicago.