KANSAS CITY, Missouri (REUTERS) — Eric Milton kept Ron Gardenhire undefeated as manager of the Minnesota Twins.
The lefthander combined with three relievers on a three-hitter as the Twins blanked the Kansas City Royals 1-0, for their second win of the season.
Milton (1-0) was nearly flawless in his first start of the year, allowing just two hits over seven innings with no walks and two strikeouts.
He gave up two-out singles to Carlos Beltran and Mike Sweeney in the bottom of the first, then retired the final 19 batters he faced.
The Twins scored the game’s only run in the third. Jacque Jones led off with a single off Dan Reichert (0-1), moved up on Cristian Guzman’s sacrifice, took third on Doug Mientkiewicz’s groundout and scored on David Ortiz’s single to left field.
Minnesota center fielder Torii Hunter preserved the lead by leaping above the fence to rob Sweeney of a home run with one out in the seventh.
J.C. Romero and Bob Wells combined to pitch the eighth before Eddie Guardado recorded the final three outs for his second save.
Reichert surrendered six hits over seven innings with eight strikeouts.
Minnesota, which survived Major League Baseball’s attempt at contraction in the offseason, opened the 2002 campaign with an 8-6 victory over the Royals on Monday.
CINCINNATI (REUTERS) — Corey Patterson had three hits and drove in four runs and Kerry Wood struck out 10 in five innings as the Chicago Cubs routed the Cincinnati Reds, 10-3.
Sammy Sosa and Todd Hundley homered for the Cubs, who scored four times in the fourth and sixth innings.
Patterson had an RBI double in the third, a run-scoring base hit in the fourth and a two-run single in the sixth that gave Chicago a 9-2 advantage.
Wood (1-0), who struck out the side in the first and third innings, allowed two runs and three hits while walking four.
The 24-year-old righthander recorded his 20th double-digit strikeout performance and improved to 6-0 lifetime against the Reds.
Both benches emptied in the ninth after reliever Luis Pineda hit Hundley in the hip with a fastball, two batters after nipping Roosevelt Brown with a pitch. Plate umpire Mike Everitt immediately ejected Pineda and nothing more than words were exchanged between the clubs.
Cincinnati starter Elmer Dessens (0-1) was tagged for four runs and five hits over 3 2/3 innings.
