May 22, 2001: Doug Mientkiewicz’s four-hit outburst keys Twins’ win over Mariners

Two first-place American League teams clashed for the first time in 2001 when the Seattle Mariners battled the Minnesota Twins in Minneapolis on May 22. The AL West Division’s Mariners, who held an 11-game advantage over the second-place Oakland Athletics with a 32-11 record, were paced by their 27-year-old rookie leadoff hitter, Ichiro Suzuki. A seven-time batting champion in nine years playing in Japan, Suzuki entered the game hitting .365 in his first 43 games for Seattle.

The AL Central’s Twins, seeking their first winning season since 1992, were 16 games over .500 at 29-13. They were spearheaded by the batting and fielding skills of their 27-year-old first baseman, Doug Mientkiewicz. Selected in the fifth round of the 1995 June amateur draft out of Florida State University, Mientkiewicz made his major-league debut with the Twins on September 18, 1998. He batted .229 in 118 games in 1999 and spent most of 2000 in the minor leagues. In 2001 Mientkiewicz returned to the Twins as a full-time starter and surged to an early-season .388 average.

Mientkiewicz began the season batting eighth, then moved to seventh, then fifth, but was hitting third in the Twins lineup on May 22 for only the second time in 2001. Manager Tom Kelly, in what turned out to be the final season of his 16-year tenure in Minnesota’s dugout, conducted a pep talk with his position players on the field before the game, then presented the lineup. Right fielder Matt Lawton, the Twins’ regular third-place hitter, moved to cleanup, with third baseman Corey Koskie going from fourth to fifth.1

Pitching ace Brad Radke was on the mound for the Twins. The 28-year-old right-hander was in his seventh season with Minnesota. A 20-game winner in 1997 and a 1998 All-Star, Radke was gunning for his majors-leading eighth win of 2001. He surrendered a two-out single to Edgar Martinez in the Seattle first and a two-out double to Stan Javier in the second, but kept the Mariners off the scoreboard through the first three innings. Mientkiewicz’s stretch off the bag saved shortstop Cristian Guzmán an error on Mark McLemore’s groundout to end the third

The Twins failed to push across any runs in the first two innings against Mariners starter Paul Abbott, but in the third their offense exploded, knocking Abbott from the game. A.J. Pierzynski initiated the onslaught with a line-drive single to left. Guzmán and Denny Hocking followed with back-to-back singles to load the bases for Mientkiewicz, who had doubled in the first. Mientkiewicz jumped on the first pitch and lined a single to right, scoring Pierzynski and Guzmán with Minnesota’s first two runs. “No question, the biggest change is in his aggressiveness,” Twins coach Paul Molitor said of Mientkiewicz.2

The Twins’ Lawton walked to reload the bases. Koskie drove Abbott’s first pitch down the right-field line for a double, driving in two runs and putting the Twins up 4-0. Torii Hunter struck out, but Jacque Jones singled to left, plating Lawton with the inning’s fifth run.

Luis Rivas hit a sacrifice fly to right, Pierzynski doubled to left and the Twins were on top 7-0. Mariners manager Lou Piniella pulled Abbott and summoned Ryan Franklin to pitch to Guzmán. “All I had to do was keep it close, and I couldn’t do that,” said Abbott, a Twin from 1990 through 1992. “Every mistake I made became a single to left, a groundball through the hole.”3

Guzmán greeted Franklin with a line-drive double to right. Pierzynski scooted home with the eighth run, and when Hocking grounded out, the inning was finally over. “It was a lot of fun,” said Radke. “The eight runs were a lot of fun.”4

Seattle came storming back the next two innings, drawing within one. John Olerud stroked a one-out single in the fourth and Bret Boone reached on a throwing error by shortstop Guzmán. Mike Cameron worked the count to 3-and-1, then belted a long drive over the left-center-field wall to make the score 8-3. It was Cameron’s eighth homer of the season.

In the fifth, the Mariners batted around and racked up four more runs. Dan Wilson singled and was erased at second on Suzuki’s grounder. McLemore and Martinez singled to load the bases. Olerud lined a hit to right-center driving home Suzuki and McLemore, and Martinez scored on Boone’s line-drive double to the left-center-field gap. Minnesota’s lead was down to 8-6.

Bob Wells replaced Radke and walked Cameron. Javier plated Olerud with a fly ball to left, and Carlos Guillén grounded out to end the inning. “It was unbelievable,” said Koskie. “When you go up 8-0 and you know Brad is pitching, you start to think it’s another one in the win column.”5

The Twins were able to muster only two hits off Franklin and Norm Charlton over the next four innings. Koskie stroked a two-out single in the fourth and Mientkiewicz doubled to right-center in the sixth. Neither crossed the plate as the score remained 8-7.

Seattle mounted a rally in the seventh but couldn’t score. Wells hit Boone and walked Javier, then was replaced by Héctor Carrasco. Guillén walked to load the bases. Piniella sent left-hander Al Martin in to pinch-hit for Wilson, and Kelly countered with southpaw Eddie Guardado. Piniella then pulled Martin back and sent in David Bell to hit. Bell nearly missed a grand slam with a long foul before flying out to left to end the inning.6

Guardado set down the Mariners in order in the top of the eighth and Charlton – a 13-year veteran on his second tour in Seattle – returned for his second inning of work in the bottom half of the inning.

Charlton walked Rivas and Guzman doubled down the right-field line. After Hocking walked to load the bases for Mientkiewicz, Piniella lifted left-hander Charlton in favor of righty Jóse Paniagua. “Doug Mientkiewicz was up and he’s hitting .500 against lefties,” Piniella said. “Paniagua has a sinker and we wanted the groundball, a double play.”7

Mientkiewicz swung at Paniagua’s first pitch and bounced a grounder over first baseman Olerud’s head for a two-run single. “If we’re on grass, not Astroturf, that ball is a double play,” said Paniagua.8 It was Mientkiewicz’s second four-hit game of the season; he was 4-for-4 against the New York Yankees three weeks earlier, on May 2.

Lawton followed with a double that scored Hocking, and Mientkiewicz raced home with the fourth run on Hunter’s groundout. “It just seems like every time we’re in a tough situation, it’s his turn to hit,” said Pierzynski about Mientkiewicz. “And he’s stepping up and responding to the situation for us, in some big games, too.”9

With the Twins holding a 12-7 lead, Guardado returned for the ninth. He surrendered back-to-back singles to Olerud and Boone, so Kelly turned to closer LaTroy Hawkins to finish the game. Cameron singled to load the bases.

Javier hit into a force play at home, but Guillén singled to left, driving in two runs. Tom Lampkin, who replaced Wilson at catcher, doubled to drive in Javier and Suzuki’s sacrifice fly narrowed the score to 12-11.

Hawkins worked the count to 2-and-2 on McLemore, then struck him out on a high fastball. “We don’t quit,” Piniella said.10 “We got ourselves in a hole against a good team, but we didn’t go down easy.”11

After the game Kelly praised his first baseman. “Doug had a super night. [He] got a big hit for us early and got us a big hit in the eighth. We needed both of them and a little bit more,” Kelly said.12 Mientkiewicz’s four hits raised his batting average to .403, and his season ending .306 tally was the best full-season mark of his career. He was 11th in the AL in 2001 with a .387 on-base percentage and 39 doubles and was selected as the AL’s Gold Glove first baseman.13

Minnesota tumbled from first in June and was outdistanced by the Cleveland Indians. Seattle finished with a major-league-record 116 wins, matching the single-season total set by the 1906 Chicago Cubs. Suzuki finished with a .350 average and was selected as both the American League Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year; he also received Gold Glove, and Silver Slugger Awards.

Seattle defeated Cleveland in the first round of the playoffs but fell to the Yankees in the American League Championship Series.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Victoria Monte and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Doug Mientkiewicz, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN200105220.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2001/B05220MIN2001.htm

Notes

1 LaVelle E. Neal III, “Redman Has Strained Tricepts Muscle,” Minneapolis Star-Tribune, May 23, 2001: C7.

2 Dan Barreiro, “Twins Have a Star, Too,” Minneapolis Star-Tribune, May 23, 2001: C1.

3 Larry Larue, “Twins Hold On,” Tacoma News Tribune, May 23, 2001: C1.

4 LaVelle E. Neal III, “Baserunners Stay Busy in Victory Over Mariners,” Minneapolis Star-Tribune, May 23, 2001: C1.

5 Neal, “Baserunners Stay Busy in Victory Over Mariners.”

6 Larue.

7 Larue.

8 Larue.

9 Barreiro.

10 “Twins Survive Mariners’ Storm,” St. Cloud (Minnesota) Times, May 23, 2001: 1D.

11 Larue.

12 Barreiro.

13 In 12 major-league seasons with seven teams, Mientkiewicz batted .271 in 1,087 games. He had six career four-hit games, including three with Minnesota.