Twins comeback blazes trail to AL championship

By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 10/04/2006

On August 7, the Twins trailed the Detroit Tigers by 10-and-a-half games. On October 1, the Twins took over first place in the American League Central Division by one game. Ironically, that’s the last day of the 162-game regular season, and the Twins came all the way back to win it. For the fourth time in five years the Twins are American League Central Division Champions.

Torii Hunter’s two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth, his 31st of the year, gave the Twins a 3-1 lead against the defending World Champion Chicago White Sox. The Twins added two more runs and held on to win 5-1 before a sell-out crowd of 45,182. The Twins and their fans then waited and watched on the Jumbotron scoreboard the complete collapse by the Tigers, who wasted a 6-0 lead against last-place Kansas City and lost 10-8 in 12 innings. The Tigers lost their last five games.

The Tigers are in the playoffs, but as a wild card they will play the New York Yankees in a best-of-five series that starts on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Twins, by virtue of their win and division title, play the Oakland A’s in a best-of-five series that also starts Tuesday at the Metrodome. The Twins had the best record in baseball during the regular season at home (54-27) and finished 96-66 overall, while Oakland finished 93-69 as champions of the American League West.

Twins star Joe Mauer became the first catcher in American League history to win a batting title with a .347 average. “This is the greatest day of my baseball career by far, said Mauer. He went 2-4 in the 5-1 division-clinching win.

The Twins after the month of April were 9-15 on June 27; they were 40-35 in third place — 11 games behind the Tigers. The remarkable comeback by the Twins is one of the greatest in baseball history, especially when you factor in all the injuries and changes the Twins made to turn things around.

The Twins, after starting 25-33, finished 71-33 — they are the hottest team in baseball going into the playoffs. The winners of the Twins vs. Oakland best-of-five divisional series will play the survivor of the Yankees vs. Tigers game in the American League Championship Series. The Twins last won the World Series in 1991.