I did not expect Joe Mays to pitch even acceptably on Tuesday, so his performance completely took me by surprise. While he only struck out three batters, Mays walked none and only allowed four hits over 8 innings. One run scored on an error by Cristian Guzman when Guzman allowed a grounder to go through his legs in the third inning. Mays had a small advantage over the Angels in that he had not faced Anaheim this year. Also while I didn't think he'd perform well yesterday, Mays occasionally puts together very good outings; however he's been very inconsistent even when healthy this season. Mays jumped from 160.1 IP in 2000 to 233.2 IP in 2001, so there's nothing unexpected about the injuries that limited him to 95.1 IP this year.

The Angels generally played well. Kevin Appier didn't pitch particularly poorly, but the Twins were able to post five hits in five innings and Appier also walked three batters, giving Minnesota a 2-1 lead by the end of the fifth. In the fourth inning Ben Molina fielded a Torii Hunter sacrifice bunt for an out despite the bat landing almost on top of the ball after Hunter let go of the handle.

A fan ran out onto the field from the left field stands into centerfield in the 8th inning. Mike Scioscia argued that the incident occurred on the third strike of the first out rather than after the end of Orlando Palmeiro's at-bat. Nonetheless Palmeiro was not given another chance at the plate. Mays didn't appear even slightly ruffled by the interruption as he promptly retired both Adam Kennedy and David Eckstein by inducing them to ground out to Guzman at shortstop.

Angel pitcher Ben Weber, who pitched so poorly in the Division Series, struck out both the batters he faced at the end of the eighth, but the Angels were unable to score the run necessary to tie the game. Announcers Thom Brennaman and Steve Lyons speculated that Weber didn't notice the noise in the Metrodome since he has triplets at home; Dennis Cook, another Anaheim pitcher not on the playoff roster due to arm problems, also has triplets.

The Metrodome sported several clever signs, including one with three misspellings of Go Mientkiewicz crossed out, followed by a line just reading "Go Doug". Mientkiewicz walked once in the game but he was stranded on first base and didn't provide any other offense.

Anaheim and Minnesota are very evenly matched, but we still believed the Angels could win the series without even returning to Minnesota. However we picked Anaheim thinking the Angels could take Mays in the Metrodome. With their Game One win, Minnesota has narrowed the gap even further, and the longer this series lasts, the faster the Giants may win the World Series.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in baseball, the labor agreement has once again meandered onto the scene. You may recall that after the agreement was reached, we discussed the effect that the new CBA would have on trading. The elimination of free agent compensation in the agreement gave clubs not in the playoff race little reason to retain pending free agents.

Many general managers and even some owners were heard complaining about the lack of draft pick compensation after the agreement was announced. Rumors surfaced last week that compensation hadn't been eliminated after all, and then Baseball America ran a story by Alan Schwarz yesterday explaining what happened. In summary, the two sides agreed to eliminate free agent compensation and instituted a higher level of compensation for unsigned draft picks. However before signing the agreement, they discovered that they didn't have the same opinion on the details of the changes, particularly regarding the timing of when the changes would take effect. Consequently, the same committee that will study the worldwide draft will discuss this matter. Until the committee agrees otherwise, baseball will revert to their former policies on the matters under discussion.

Since we discussed the September trades under the impression that there would be no free agent compensation, I wanted to revisit them briefly. The primary implication of this change in the agreement is that several teams, such as the Kansas City Royals, won't lose as much by not having traded pending free agents. While Kansas City likely would have acquired a better package in trade, they should now receive free agent compensation draft picks for an A player in Paul Byrd.

Under the new agreement, we awarded White Sox's GM Ken Williams extra credit for his trades, so we'll now have to take away those bonus points. With free agent compensation still in place, Williams' trades merely represent the hasty dumping of players for whom he could have received more substantial packages if he'd dealt them earlier in the season when their value was higher.

The various moves of the Brewers and Cubs hold up despite the changes since they received value that was comparable or better to what free agent compensation would have brought them had they retained the players. Also, neither team has to worry about offering arbitration to free agents to secure potential compensation.