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WILLIAM WILCOXEN: The Twins came into Game 5 of the American League Championship Series determined to score runs. Their production in each of the two previous games in Anaheim had been singular, one run in each game. By the second inning of Game 5, Minnesota had doubled that output and held the lead over the Angels for the first time in three games. While they were happy to get on the scoreboard first, center fielder Torii Hunter says the Twins stayed focused on the task ahead of them.

TORII HUNTER: We had the two run lead. We really didn't think about anything. We just tried to play every inning and try to get some more runs, because we need more runs, I mean, no telling what those guys can do.

WILLIAM WILCOXEN: The Angels got a run back in the third inning on an Adam Kennedy home run, then took a three to two lead in the fifth when Kennedy hit another homer. When the Twins starting pitcher Joe Mays got in trouble in the sixth, manager Ron Gardenhire brought relief pitcher Johan Santana in from the bullpen, and he quickly disposed of the Angels threat. Then, in their half of the seventh, the Twins scored three runs to regain the lead.

Things were looking bright for Minnesota. It didn't last. The bottom of the seventh inning was a catastrophe for the Twins relievers. Not since the Hoover administration had a baseball team allowed 10 runs in a single inning of a postseason game. The Angels hit nine singles in the seventh. There was also a walk, a hit batsman, a wild pitch, and the third home run of the game for Adam Kennedy, a player who hit only seven homers in the entire regular season. In the Twins dugout, Gardenhire shook his head in amazement.

RON GARDENHIRE: We've got some pretty good pitchers out there. I mean, it's not like we're throwing double-A guys out there, but we're throwing our best bullpen guys. And we just couldn't get it done today. And you've just got to tip your hat to the other side over there. Our bullpen has been as good as anybody's all year long, and we couldn't stop them two nights in a row. We just couldn't stop them.

WILLIAM WILCOXEN: Catcher A.J. Pierzynski helped four different Twins relievers strategize what to do to bring an end to an inning that, for the Twins, seemed as interminable as it was excruciating.

A.J. PIERZYNSKI: It's a shame because we battled back, we scored off their unscorable bullpen, and we had the lead, and we battled. And once they got rolling in the seventh inning, we tried everything and the different pitches, different pitchers and just didn't seem to work.

WILLIAM WILCOXEN: By the time the seventh inning did finally end, it was all over, but the shouting. Although the shouting never really stopped in Anaheim. The Angels lost the first game in this best of seven series, then beat the Twins four straight times. Joe Mays, who was the winning pitcher in Game 1, says the Twins were loose rather than tense after starting the series with a victory.

JOE MAYS: I think after that, everybody kind of relaxed a little bit, and then they took two-- next two right from us. And it made it a little tough. I think the guys might have tensed up a little bit. But today, I mean, it was balls to the wall. I mean, you had nothing to lose. They backed us into a corner, and we went out there and try our best. And just today wasn't our day.

WILLIAM WILCOXEN: When it was over, the Twins tried to ease the bitterness of the loss by taking note of how the sweet the 2002 season was. That was the approach taken by team president Jerry Bell.

JERRY BELL: We had a good year. We can't forget that. We had a very good year. There's only four teams playing today, and we were one of them. So I think that's what I'll remember. We'll carry this into next year. And we still have a young team, and we'll be there next year. We have a good chance.

WILLIAM WILCOXEN: This was the Twins best season and first playoff appearance since their last World Series title in 1991. It came in a year when the team nearly became extinct. A court ruling upholding their lease at the Metrodome foiled Major League Baseball's plan to downsize by eliminating the Twins and Montreal Expos. After winning the Central Division and reaching the American League's Championship Series, Pierzynski said the Twins have nothing to apologize for.

A.J. PIERZYNSKI: It was a long season. It was a great season as a team. And we know played well. We didn't give up. We have nothing to hang our heads about. It's just a shame it had to end this way.

WILLIAM WILCOXEN: A Major League Baseball season is an Odyssey that begins with spring training in February and continues through October's playoffs and World Series. Every day along the way, players share games, practices, meals, flights and hotels with one another. This was a coming of age season for the Twins 26-year-old right fielder Dustan Mohr. He says his strongest memories of the year will be of sharing the battles and the fun with his teammates.

DUSTAN MOHR: We knew in spring training, we were capable. It's a special thing to be a part of, as young as we are, and as good a group of guys as we have. The hardest part is not losing. It's the disappointment that I know that we all feel together right now because we work so hard to get to this point. It just didn't work out for us. But we'll be back again next year.

WILLIAM WILCOXEN: Left fielder Jacque Jones plans to apply his memories of this year in future baseball seasons.

JACQUE JONES: I'm going to remember all the things that we accomplished in the situation that we were in. And I'm going to remember it as a learning experience.

WILLIAM WILCOXEN: There's a consensus among the Twins that they'll be wiser for this year's experience, but it's not easy for them to specify just what it is they learned. Even their manager, Gardenhire, has trouble with that, though.

RON GARDENHIRE: I'll have to sit back and think about those questions. Right now, you don't feel like you learned a whole hell of a lot because we got beat. But I know we learned something new. We got some experience. Everybody talks about experience. We got it. We got experience. We got past the first-- we got past the Oakland A's, which was pretty good.

WILLIAM WILCOXEN: Upsetting the A's to advance beyond the first round of the playoffs was the highlight of the season for several of the Twins, who seemed to thrive on the idea that they were not expected to win. That motivation may be diminished next year as baseball's leading authorities adjust their expectations of the Twins, but first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz is already anticipating the team will again have trouble getting its due respect.

DOUGH MIENTKIEWICZ: I'm sure they'll just say that we're in the weakest division. We should win it. But that was a big part of us. Beating Oakland, man, was not just for us, but for our division to say, you know what, there's some pretty good teams in our division too, and we took care of that. So this can only help us. We got a taste. We know how to react now. It's not going to be new to us anymore. And hopefully, they bring us all together.

WILLIAM WILCOXEN: The Angels are champions of the American League for the first time in their 41 year history. They'll represent the League in the World Series against either the San Francisco Giants or the Saint Louis Cardinals of the National League. In Anaheim, I'm William Wilcoxen, Minnesota Public Radio.