Twins move into tie with Tigers Royals 1 at Twins 2 September 28th, 2006 at 11:00 pm

By Kris Richardson

The Twins won Thursday night’s series finale in 10 innings by a score of 2-1. The big story of the night was Brad Radke’s encouraging start. He needed just 57 pitches to get through five innings and allowed just 1 unearned run. The Twins offense waited until there were 2 outs in the ninth inning to do anything, so Radke didn’t get in the win what was likely the final regular season start of his career. Assuming he’s healthy enough, it seems likely that Radke will be the Twins’ third starter in the playoffs.

After the offense struggled to do anything through the first 8 2/3 innings, Joe Mauer hit an opposite field homerun that would’ve been an out if it was just a foot or two shorter. The home run tied the game at 1 and sent it into the 10th inning Where Morneau and White singled to set up a bases loaded walk-off single for Jason Bartlett.

Game Notes

The win was the Twins’ 95th of the season. The last time they had 95 wins was 1991. Their next win will give them their best record since 1970 when they won 98.
Alexi Casilla got his first major league start in place of the injured Luis Castillo at 2nd. He got his first big-league hit, a single, in the fourth inning. He showed off a good arm as he and Bartlett turned 4 double plays.
Michael Cuddyer was 2-4.
Mauer and Morneau each had just 1 hit but both came at critical times.
Joe Nathan pitched the 10th and was credited with his 7th win of the season. He’s 7-0.
Pat Neshek pitched 2 scoreless innings in relief of Radke.

Still hope for the division title

The Toronto Blue Jays helped out the Twins quite a bit by beating the Tigers 2 out of 3 games. Now the Twins will turn to the Royals to win at least one game in their weekend series against the Tigers. The Twins will probably have to sweep the White Sox to have any hope of picking up the one game that is needed since the Tigers win the tiebreaker.

Yankees offense silences

Daniel Cabrera took a no-hitter into the 9th inning against the Yankees before having it broken up by Robinson Cano. Apparently the superstar offense can be shut down though. Derek Jeter had the night off.