Posted by Vic king on 10/4/2009, 4:48 pm, in reply to "the train pulls into the dome tuesday..."
Jason Kubel hit two three-run homers and Delmon Young added a pair of solo home runs Sunday to lead the Twins past Kansas City and into a one-game playoff against Detroit.
The Twins are heading to a one-game tiebreaker to determine the American League Central title, just like last year, only this time it’ll be against the Detroit Tigers at 4 p.m., Tuesday at the Metrodome.
The Twins and Tigers both won Sunday, remaining tied atop the standings after 162 games. The Twins got two home runs apiece from Jason Kubel and Delmon Young Sunday to defeat the Kansas City Royals 13-4 before an announced crowd of 51,155 at the Metrodome.
The Tigers defeated the Chicago White Sox 5-3 in Detroit, in a game that started on hour earlier. For Tuesday’s tiebreaker the Twins will send 15-game winner Scott Baker to the mound, opposite Detroit’s 14-game winner Rick Porcello.
The Twins won the season series 11-7 assuring home-field advantage for the tiebreaker. Last year, Major League Baseball was still using coin flips to determine home-field advantage for tiebreakers, and the Twins wound losing 1-0 at Chicago, even though they won their season series with the White Sox 10-9.
Tickets for Tuesday's game went on sale immediately after the game and long lines were forming to purchase those tickets.
Since Sunday’s game was the final one on the 162-game schedule, the Twins planned a big postgame ceremony to look back at 28 years in the Metrodome. A loss to the Royals also would have made it the last game in the Dome for the Twins, who won World Series titles there in 1987 and 1991.
By the time the Twins took the field, Detroit already had a 4-0 lead. But the Twins jumped to a 4-0 first-inning lead against Royals starter Luke Hochevar (7-13), as Jason Kubel hit a three-run homer followed two batters later by a bases-empty shot by Delmon Young. Kubel’s second three-run homer of the game made it 7-0 in the third inning, and right about that time, the out-of-town scoreboard showed that the White Sox had trimmed Detroit’s lead to 5-3 in the eighth inning.
At the Metrodome, the crowd began chanting “Let’s Go White Sox!” and waving Homer Hankies. The Tigers held on to win, and then the Twins game got a little too close for comfort. The Royals trimmed the lead to 8-4 in the sixth inning off Twins starter Carl Pavano (14-12), who was making his first start on three day’s rest since 2004. After Pavano left the game, the Royals loaded the bases, bringing their their best hitter, Billy Butler, to the plate representing the tying run. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire summoned righthander Jon Rauch from the bullpen, and Butler took a called third strike to end the inning. Orlando Cabrera hit the first of two run-scoring doubles in the sixth inning, and Michael Cuddyer added a two-run homer in the eighth, as the Twins pulled away.
The Twins are 16-4 in their past 20 games and 86-76 for the season
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