Transcripts

text | pdf |

---

JON GORDON: Radke pitched 6 and 2/3 dominant innings, and the Twins survived a nausea inducing ninth inning Oakland rally for the chance to play the Yankee killing Anaheim Angels for the American League pennant. The Twins not only beat a team with 103 wins, they did it with a tiny payroll and a threat of contraction hanging over their heads, and a history of mostly poor play since their World Series victory in 1991. Radke, a veteran of some truly awful Twins teams, says he thought this day might come.

BRAD RADKE: It's kind of a hope that one of these years we're going to do something special. And I felt a couple of years ago that the talent that they were bringing in was going to be good for us. We just had to wait around for a few years.

JON GORDON: On a sunny, hot afternoon in Oakland, Matthew LeCroy drove home one run and scored another as the Twins got two early runs to support Radke, who got two of Minnesota's three wins in the series. A.j. Pierzynski's 2-run ninth inning homer off A's closer Billy Koch and David Ortiz's RBI double gave the Twins a comfortable 5 to 1 lead. But in the bottom of the ninth, A's rookie second baseman Mark Ellis with a 3-run homer against Minnesota closer Eddie Guardado to pull Oakland back within a run. Then pinch hitter Randy Velarde singled with two outs. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire.

RON GARDENHIRE: I remember I said something on the airplane last night when we got-- we were flying and I said, OK, boys, I'm going to bring a bunch of extra barf bags in case anybody needs one for tomorrow's game. I promise you, my desk in there has barf bags on it. That's what it was like. It was really like that.

JON GORDON: But ultimately, Guardado hurled a pretty good pitch to Ray Durham, who fouled out to second baseman Denny Hocking to end the game, igniting a clubhouse champagne party.

RON GARDENHIRE: That's the way the game is supposed to be played in the fifth game of a series. Great pitching matches. We got to the bullpen, which has been our strength all year long, and then we finally got some late base hits late in the game to get some big hits and knock in some runs. They come back in the bottom and they've got the tying run on first and the winning run at home plate. That's baseball at its finest.

JON GORDON: The Twins beat the A's at their own game. Starting pitching. Oakland aces Mark Mulder and Barry Zito pitched OK in the series, but not great. Tim Hudson bombed in both appearances. Radke's first postseason games were stellar, and Eric Milton also stymied the A's. MVP candidate Miguel Tejada finished a measly 3 for 21 at the plate and blundered his way around the infield.

The Twins, a subpar road team, were expected to flounder in Oakland, but they took two of three there. The small crowds may have helped the Twins, who drew more fans in the Metrodome in two games than the A's drew at home in three. Pierzynski claims he would have liked a bigger audience in Oakland.

A.J. PIERZYNSKI: It was disappointing to see that. I don't know what the number was today, 31 maybe, 30,000,

SPEAKER. 32,

A.J. PIERZYNSKI: 32. It was is disappointing, especially at game 5 on a Sunday afternoon. I know the Raiders were playing, the Niners were playing, and the Giants are playing, but you would think that they could pack it out.

JON GORDON: The Twins will likely see bigger crowds in Anaheim, a hungry team that hasn't tasted the playoffs since 1986 and had never won a playoff series until knocking off the New York Yankees on Saturday. The Angels won five more regular season games than the Twins, but Minnesota will host the first two of the series by virtue of winning their division, while the Angels finished second to the vanquished A's.

Game one will be at the Metrodome tomorrow. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, who fought to eliminate the Twins before the season, hasn't decided whether to attend the first game in the Metrodome. But Selig claims to be delighted for the Twins success and says, quote, "The rest of it, the history of what happened before. It's in the past now". In Oakland, Jon Gordon, Minnesota Public Radio.