Why the Stros just missed out on capitalizing on a monumental collapse of the NL Central leader the Twins took advantage of a huge collapse of the Detroit Tigers getting swept by the lowly KC Royals to take the AL Central. Even though both Twins and Tigers are in the playoffs the implications of this are huge. The Twins now have homefield in the first round against the Oakland A's while the Tigers have to travel to NY to face the Yankees. http://www.startribune.com/509/story/714049.html Division champs Last update: October 01, 2006 – 4:56 PM The Twins took home another AL Central championship today and Joe Mauer became the first catcher to win an American League batting title by getting two hits in Minnesota's 5-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox. About 35 minutes after Minnesota's game ended, the Kansas City Royals completed a big comeback and beat the Detroit Tigers 10-8 in 12 innings — giving the Twins their fourth division title in five years. After starting the season just 25-33, they will open the playoffs at home Tuesday against AL West champion Oakland with ace Johan Santana on the mound. The Twins huddled in the dugout after their game to watch the end of Detroit's game. When Esteban German got the go-ahead hit in the 12th for the Royals, Minnesota players leaped from the bench, spilled onto the field and starting high-fiving and hugging in a mass celebration. Fans at the Metrodome who were still on their feet cheered loudly, "Lets Go Royals!" and exchanged high-fives with players who went into the stands to give congratulations. The Twins began the day tied with Detroit for first place, but they needed a victory AND a Tigers loss to win the division title because Detroit won the season series against the Twins. Detroit takes the AL wild card and will begin the postseason Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium. Mauer went 2-for-4 to finish the season at .347, beating out New York's Derek Jeter (.343), for the batting crown, and Torii Hunter homered for the Twins, who trailed the Tigers by 12.5 games on May 27. All but left for dead, they finished the season a stunning 71-33 to come into the final weekend all square with Detroit. Both teams lost the first two games of their respective series, and more than 45,000 in attendance at the Metrodome were hoping the Royals could help their club just one more time. They certainly did. In a wild atmosphere at the Dome, the crowd was at once cheering on hometown boy Mauer and the Twins while keeping an eye glued on the scoreboard to watch the play-by-play being posted for the Royals and Tigers. The energy was sapped early when Detroit led 7-4, but the crowd got loud when the Royals rallied to take an 8-7 lead in the eighth. It was the fifth inning when that score popped up on the board, and Mauer, who was the DH on Sunday, had to step out of the box and call for time to let things settle down. He stepped back in and calmly ripped a single to left. Mauer came into the day leading Jeter by just .001 in the AL batting title race. Jeter went 1-for-5 against Toronto to finish at .343. The St. Paul native with the sweet left-handed swing and sideburns struck out in the first inning, but doubled down the left-field line to start a rally in the fourth and left after his single in the fifth clinched it. Only three catchers have won the batting title, the last being Ernie Lombardi with the Boston Braves in 1942. Lombardi won it with Cincinnati in 1938, and Cincinnati's Bubbles Hargrave was the first to do it in 1926. But the Twins had bigger goals than Mauer's batting title in mind Sunday. Carrying a 5-1 lead into the eighth, and with Kansas City and Detroit tied in the 10th, the Metrodome speakers blared Bon Jovi's "Living On A Prayer," hoping for one more comeback in a season full of them. Though he said he was determined to finish the season strong and not make it easy for the Twins, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen didn't send out his A-list lineup on Sunday despite having more than 24 hours between games. Guillen sat Jermaine Dye, Paul Konerko and Joe Crede, no doubt helping Carlos Silva (11-15) cruise through 5 1-3 innings. Silva has had a lackluster season and is competing with inconsistent rookie Matt Garza for the fourth spot in the playoff rotation behind Santana, rookie Boof Bonser and veteran Brad Radke, provided Radke's problematic shoulder holds up. After Garza was roughed up on Saturday, Silva most likely earned a spot on Sunday, allowing one run and five hits. He left to a standing ovation with a 5-1 lead in the sixth, and all eyes turned to the scoreboard and chants of "Let's Go Royals!" filled the stands. Silva got plenty of help from his offense in this one. After giving up an RBI single to Gload in the first, the Twins backed Silva up with a three-run fourth highlighted by Hunter's 31st homer of the year, a two-run shot, that barely reached the seats in left for a 3-1 lead. Javier Vazquez (11-12) gave up four runs and eight hits in 4 2-3 innings for the White Sox, who are going home early after winning the World Series for the first time in 88 years last season. Notes: Radke, who has said he will retire after the season, was honored before the game and received a thunderous standing ovation from the home fans. The Twins surprised him with a jet ski, and manager Ron Gardenhire urged Radke to reconsider. ... Twins 2B Luis Castillo had two hits in his return after missing four games with a sore knee.
This stinks. Now the Yankees have an easier time of it in the 1st round because the Tigers will roll over and play dead. My main hope of the playoffs are: 1 Yankees Lose 2 Yankees Lose 3 Mets Lose Anybody but the Yankees in the AL and I'm pulling for the Padres in the NL.
I agree that this might ultimately prove to be beneficial to the Yankees, since they won't have to face the Twins/A's in the first round. As for the Mets, I wouldn't worry about them at all, they took a huge hit with Pedro going down, I don't think they will recover.
I disagree about the Mets. Take Pedro, Beltarn, and the batboy off the team, and they still have 10X's more talent than any1 else in the NL. I'm not so sure about the bat boy though.
I thought the same thing about the 1998 Astros.. That team even had a practically unhittable Randy Johnson. The Mets have garbage for starting pitching and in the playoffs, pitching wins. Problem is that none of the NL teams can pitch but for some reason I just feel like the Mets will flame out. This upcoming world series will just be flat out domination by the AL. The last two have been sweeps but at the least the games were close. This time the AL will be winning by 5 runs every game.
This team just flat out dominated... Justin Morneau : MVP Joe Mauer : Batting Champ Johan Santana : Cy Young (Led the AL in Wins, ERA, Ks, and IPs) Ron Gardenhire : Manager of the Year and Liriano would have won ROY for sure had he not been injured. also consider Joe Nathan blew only 2 saves this season and didn't register a loss all year. Torii Hunter is having a career year, the young hitters like Tyner and Bartlett stepped it up big time. I'm freaking pumped.
the mets' starters are a joke. they may be talented enough to get past that but should they be the best of a group of sh!tty NL teams to reach the world series they will certainly get rolled by anyone in the AL. if i have to go for some team with the stros out, it'll be the twins.
Same here, and I like Oakland as well. Both Minnesota and Oakland are both very scrappy, underpaid, and play in dumps that they refer to as "stadiums." I love teams that can get by despite the gigantic inequality in spending that exists in baseball. Now I'm not sure who to root for in the ALDS between the Twins and As.
I wish the MLB would end effective immediately, the players strike, or the owners stage a lockout. And I hope the Hall of Fame goes bankrupt. Let the real sport (NBA) begin...if only to spare the world from Tim McCarver.
yeah that's basically my reasoning. i go with the twins over oakland because i like watching great pitching and santana is a beast. i love a good changeup.
How in God's name does that clown still have a job? He's just painfull to listen to. It's bad enough that he's boring and waste's our team with irrelevant crap, but he also manages to mispronounce names, make up stuff that didn't happen, and slander any team that's not named the New York Yankees.
