October 6, 2006: A’s end postseason jinx, beat Twins to sweep AL Division Series

The early 2000s were the best of times and the worst of times for the Oakland Athletics. On the positive side of the ledger, as chronicled in Michael Lewis’s bestseller Moneyball, general manager Billy Beane had assembled a talented and exciting club that reached the postseason in four consecutive campaigns (2000-03) despite the franchise’s limited financial resources. But for Oakland fans, the playoffs themselves were more agonizing than enjoyable. In each of their Divisional Series appearances, the A’s had won two games but had failed – sometimes in excruciating fashion – to secure the third win necessary to move on to the American League Championship Series.

After finishing second in the AL West and missing the playoffs in both 2004 and 2005, a largely revamped Oakland squad won 93 games in 2006 to reclaim the division crown. While a few stalwarts from the team’s last playoff appearance three years earlier remained – third baseman Eric Chávez, second baseman Mark Ellis, and pitcher Barry Zito – most of the key contributors were new. Some like veterans Frank Thomas, Jason Kendall, Mark Kotsay, and Milton Bradley came via trades or free agency. Others, like shortstop Bobby Crosby, outfielder Nick Swisher, and closer Huston Street, were products of the Oakland farm system.

Oakland’s first-round opponent were the Central Division champion Minnesota Twins, winners of 96 games, who featured plenty of star power. Their lineup included both the league’s Most Valuable Player (Justin Morneau) and the batting champion (Joe Mauer). The pitching staff was anchored by one of the sport’s top starters, Johan Santana. On paper, the Twins looked formidable.

The series opened at the Metrodome. Game One featured a marquee pitching matchup, with 2002 Cy Young Award winner Zito outdueling two-time winner Santana in a 3-2 thriller. The A’s came away with another victory in Game Two when Twins center fielder Torii Hunter made an ill-advised diving attempt on a sinking Kotsay line drive; the result was a game-deciding two-run inside-the-park home run.

With the A’s ahead 2-0 in the series, a sellout crowd of almost 36,000 gathered under cloudy skies at McAfee Coliseum on October 6 hoping to see the hometown team finish off the sweep and advance in the postseason for the first time since 1990. But given the team’s woeful 0-9 record in potential playoff clinchers in the 2000s, A’s fans were nervous. “Before the game began, the talk at tailgate parties always seemed to come back to a nagging fear that once again the team would choke,” noted the San Francisco Chronicle.1

Minnesota put pressure on A’s starter Dan Haren immediately as Luis Castillo led off the game with a line-drive single and Mauer followed with a one-out base hit to put two men on. But Haren got the dangerous Michael Cuddyer to ground to third baseman Chávez, and the Gold Glover made a fine play to start a 5-4-3 double play that retired the side.

“That ball gets by him, it’s 1-0, 2-0,” said Haren. “Everyone just expects that out of Chavvy, but that was a big momentum-shifter right out of the gate, and he’s done that so many times.”2

Twins starter and former 20-game winner Brad Radke had missed most of the final month of the season with a torn labrum and broken shoulder socket but had started and gone five innings in his regular-season finale, enough to convince Minnesota skipper Ron Gardenhire to give the veteran the ball.3 Radke looked strong out of the gate, retiring the A’s in order in the bottom of the first.

The Twins threatened again in the second as Morneau doubled leading off and moved to third with one out on a bunt by Hunter. But Haren got Rondell White on a fly to shallow left, and after a walk to Jason Tyner, fanned Jason Bartlett to end the threat.

The A’s struck first when, with one out, Chávez got hold of a 79-MPH pitch from Radke and redirected it over the right-field fence to give the A’s a 1-0 lead.4 The homer broke a 1-for-30 playoff slump for Chávez that stretched back to 2003.

Jay Payton followed Chávez’s round-tripper with a base hit and, after Swisher struck out, came in to score the second run of the inning on Marco Scutaro’s double.

Haren induced three straight infield groundouts in the top of the third, while Radke struggled again in the bottom half. After Kotsay reached on an error by shortstop Bartlett, Bradley took Radke deep with a blast over the center-field wall that ran the A’s lead to 4-0.

The Twins got one run back on a homer off the bat of Hunter. The A’s failed to score in their half of the fourth, and both teams went scoreless in the fifth. In the top of the sixth, however, the Twins rallied as Morneau singled with one out and Hunter followed with a double, putting men on second and third. The key play, though, came when the next batter, White, lined a single to right field.

Morneau trotted home with the Twins’ second run, and Hunter never slowed down as he rounded third, “even though right fielder Milton Bradley was on the ball early,” reported the Minnesota Star Tribune. “His throw reached the plate two yards before Hunter, and umpire Mike Everitt made the traditional ball-beat-runner out call. Replays would indicate Hunter’s acrobatic slide caused catcher Jason Kendall to miss the tag.”5

“That was like hitting a solo home run for me,” Haren said of Bradley’s throw. “That picks me up so much.”6

It remained a 4-2 game going into the bottom of the seventh. Twins reliever Dennys Reyes, who finished the regular season with a microscopic 0.89 ERA, registered two quick outs. He was unable to close out the inning, however, walking both Thomas and Chávez. After Jesse Crain relieved Reyes, Payton hit a dribbler to first that Morneau couldn’t handle, loading the bases on the Twins’ third error of the afternoon. Another walk, this time to Swisher, forced in a run before Scutaro administered the dagger, a bases-clearing double – the only hit of the four-run rally – that put the A’s up 8-2.

The Twins got a run back in the eighth on Morneau’s home run off Justin Duchscherer, but A’s closer Street worked a scoreless ninth to put an end to both the game and Oakland’s recent streak of playoff series losses.

“The guy for us all year has been Scutaro,” said Street as the champagne flowed in the A’s clubhouse postgame. “Big hit after big hit after big hit.”7

“I feel great for Zito and Chavvy,” said manager Ken Macha. “Both of those guys had been here through all four of those disappointments. … We know what it’s like to be in that other room. It’s not fun. It’s nice to be on this side.”8

Unfortunately for the A’s, they would soon be back in that other room, courtesy of a four-game sweep at the hands of the Detroit Tigers in the League Championship Series. But for one glorious afternoon at least, euphoria reigned at the Coliseum, dulling – if not erasing – the pain of recent playoff heartbreaks.

Photo credit

Milton Bradley, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK200610060.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2006/B10060OAK2006.htm

Notes

1 Jim Herron Zamora, “Jubilant A’s Fans Revel in ‘Championship Vibe,’” San Francisco Chronicle, October 7, 2006: B1.

2 Susan Slusser, “The Curse Is Broken,” San Francisco Chronicle (online), October 7, 2006.

3 Dave Campbell (Associated Press), “Twins Are Certain They Won’t Have Emotional Letdown,” Indiana (Pennsylvania) Gazette, October 3, 2006: 14.

4 Bruce Jenkins, “BLOG: AL DIVISION CHAMPIONS,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 8, 2006: D10.

5 Patrick Reusse, “Central champs’ Luster Does an Unceremonious Three-Game Fade,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, October 7, 2006: 1C.

6 Slusser.

7 Ray Ratto, “Cool Champagne Showers Must Have Been Soothing to a Red-Hot Scutaro,” San Francisco Chronicle (online), October 7, 2006: D1.

8 Slusser.