ANAHEIM 13, MINNESOTA 5 IN ANAHEIM
Date: Sunday, October 13.
Batting stars: A. J. Pierzynski was 3-for-3. Dustan Mohr was 2-for-4 with a double. Corey Koskie was 1-for-3 with a walk.
Pitching star: Kyle Lohse pitched a perfect inning, striking out one.
Opposition stars: Adam Kennedy was 4-for-4 with three home runs and five RBIs. Scott Spiezio was 3-for-4 with a home run, scoring three times and driving in three. Tim Salmon was 3-for-4.
The game: With two out in the first, Koskie walked, took second on a wild pitch, and scored on a David Ortiz double. It went to 2-0 in the second when Mohr doubled and Pierzynski singled. Kennedy led off the third with a home run to cut the lead to 2-1. Spiezio led off the fifth with a homer and Kennedy hit a one-out home run to put the Angels in front 3-2. With one out in the seventh, consecutive singles by Doug Mientkiewicz, Mohr, and Pierzynski loaded the bases. Bobby Kielty walked to tie it up, a wild pitch put the Twins ahead 4-3, and Jacque Jones delivered a sacrifice fly to give the Twins a 5-3 advantage.
Then came That Inning. You are totally excused if you want to skip this paragraph. Johan Santana, who had come in with one out in the sixth, started the inning. He gave up singles to Spiezio and Bengie Molina, and then Kennedy hit a three-run homer to give the Angels a 6-5 lead. LaTroy Hawkins came in and gave up consecutive singles to David Eckstein, Darin Erstad, and Tim Salmon, loading the bases. J. C. Romero came in and walked Garret Anderson, making the score 7-5. Troy Glaus struck out for the first out, but Shawn Wooten singled to make it 8-5, a wild pitch brought home a run, and Spiezio had a two-run single to increase the lead to 11-5. Bob Wells came in and gave up singles to Chone Figgins and Kennedy, loading the bases again. Eckstein was hit by a pitch and Erstad had an RBI ground out, making it 13-5. Alex Ochoa then struck out to finally end the inning. It was all over but the crying at that point.
WP: Francisco Rodriguez. LP: Santana. S: None.
Notes: Mohr was again in right field.
The Twins made a couple of defensive substitutions in the eighth. Tom Prince came in to catch, replacing Pierzynski. Michael Cuddyer came in to play right field, replacing Torii Hunter, with Mohr moving to center. Not that it was likely to matter, but it seems strange to run up the white flag in an elimination game, even when you're way behind.
Ron Gardenhire again used four relief pitchers in an inning. This time, though, he was just desperately looking for someone who could get an out. My recollection (and recollection can be faulty) is that a lot of the balls in That Inning weren't hit all that hard. Everything just found a hole. Maybe today, with all the defensive shifts, it would've worked out differently. Who knows? But at the time, there just was nothing anyone could do.
Record: Anaheim won the best-of-seven series four games to one.