Twins Win! Alexi Castilla Hits Game-Winning Single to End Marathon Tiebreaker

Duk at Big League Stew lists the 10 best plays of last night’s game. The list does not include TBS’ Chip Carey absolutely botching the call of one of the game’s biggest moments:

“Line drive, base hit! Caught out there!’

Re-live the final innings of what was easily one of the greatest games of this decade:

Everyone wanted future MVP Joe Mauer to win the game for the Twinkies tonight (well, except Tigers fans), but it was two unlikely players to pull it off in the 12th inning and give the Twins the A.L. Central crown:

Finally, it was Alexi Casilla, who redeemed himself for a late break on a tag play in the bottom of the 10th, to hit the game winning single, scoring Carlos Gomez from second.

Neither player started the game—Gomez was a defensive substitution and Casilla was a pinch runner. Neither player played much down the stretch as both players were benched during the season. But their presence in the middle of the mob around home plate as the Twins celebrated their fifth division championship this decade is indicative of the Twins season. It took the entire team to win this division and it took the entire team to win this game.

It’s a tough loss for the boys of Bless You Boys, but fans should be proud of what their team was able to accomplish:

It was a five-hour thrill ride. 12 innings of emotion. And there is so much to process from this game.

There were heroes and goats. Fielding excellence and defensive incompetence. Clutch hitting, and failure to produce when it counted. There was plenty of redemption. And several players went above and beyond what they’re normally called upon to do.

The Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins played what has to be defined as a classic, in a last battle for the AL Central title. And while Tiger Town is surely disappointed with the final score, take pride that your baseball team fought to the very end.

In the end, it’s the Twins traveling to New York to fight for the right to go to the American League Championship Series. The Tigers will have to wait for 2010.

This will be one long winter for Tigers fans.

Over at our Twins Blog Twinkie Town, commenters are understandably excited over the tiebreaker win:

this is was awesome, one the best games I’ve ever watched

Time to ruin my manliness, I pretty much cried like a 13 year old girl meeting Nsync on that one

Wow
I never thought I’d ever see anything that ever came close to game 7 in ’91.

The Common Man has to love it that they’re playing “Ain’t no stopping us now.”

i dont even care what happens this was incredible

That was unbelievable.
Damnit, I love this team.

The comments are not very pretty at SBNation’s Bless You Boys:

no words … the pain is too much. but one thing is clear:

FIRE LLYOD MCLENDON

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No second guessing tonight … I could drive myself crazy thinking about every chance we had tonight or all season long. This was a great game and the Tigers for the most part over-achieved on the year. Strong top 3 in our rotation coming back next year and plenty of in-house candidates for the other two spots.

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Rodney for 50 pitches … RODNEY FOR 50 PITCHES? REALLY?

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I gotta say … I was never on the wagon before, but fire Leyland! Watching this team down the stretch has shown that he should not be managing. Fire the hitting coach too. Clean house.

There’s always next year, right?

That’s the thing about baseball: the more innings you play, the better chance you have to be the hero. Good thing for Alexi Castilla.

Castilla, who was thrown out on what would have been the winning run in the 10th, singled in Carlos Gomez in the bottom of the 12th to end this game and give the Twins an unlikely playoff berth.

Phew. What a game. More to come as the reaction pours in.

For now, here's the full recap of the game.

We haven’t had any runs, but we’ve had a few innings of exciting baseball, including the top of the 12th. The Tigers had plenty of chances to score, including a bases-loaded, full-count final out, as well as one-out force play at home by Nick Punto that prevented Miguel Cabrera from scoring the potential game-winning run. Whose fingers are tired yet?

The inning began when Michael Cuddyer hit what should have been a flare single to Ryan Raburn in left. Raburn misplayed the ball badly, trying to make a diving play rather than merely fielding the ball and holding Cuddyer at first, and when Granderson couldn’t make it over from center in time, Cuddyer trucked all the way to third with a triple. He was later scored by Matt Tolbert’s single, tying the game at 5.

By all rights, the Twins should have scored again, but Alexi Castilla took a horrible jump on a lineout to Raburn in left and was thrown out at home. And Raburn managed to redeem himself in the meantime. This game is crazy.

Aubrey Huff was hit by a pitch; Don Kelly pinch-ran for Huff, and when Brandon Inge doubled to deep left, Kelly’s speed — and the fortuitous Huff HBP — were all the Tigers’ needed. They take a one-run lead into the bottom of the 10th, and the Twins’ last shot at an improbably postseason berth begins now.

It was almost the Twins’ game: Orlando Cabrera had a chance to end the game with one out when he hit a high bouncing grounder in the left-infield gap, but Brandon Inge made a tremendous diving play to keep the ball in the infield and get Cabrera at first. And so we go to extra innings, where we need even more tiebreaking baseball to break the tie we already have. This entire game is like extra innings, when you really think about it.

Joe Nathan got himself in some early trouble in the top of the ninth. He allowed the aforementioned Ramon Santiago bunt single before Curtis Granderson singled to right and moved pinch-runner Adam Everett all the way to third. There were no outs.

Then Nathan got a semi-lucky strikeout on a called third strike (the outside-in curveball was probably six inches outside the zone) on Placido Polanco. Then, Magglio Ordonez crushed what looked like a surefire base hit; instead, it went straight to Orlando Cabrera who caught it and doubled a diving Curtis Granderson off first. And just like that, inning over.

Joe Nathan’s celebration was a fist-pumping impression of Tiger Woods. Can you blame him?

“A Few Good Men” pun? Don’t mind if I do. Ramon Santiago got on first to lead-off the top of the ninth, and he did it the hard way — bunting for a single and diving into first to avoid Joe Nathan’s lurching tag. It was an impressive get, even if it was a bad idea in the first place. Now the Tigers have to do something with it.

After Wilkin Ramirez and Ryan Rayburn began the top of the eighth with two walks, Ron Gardenhire did something he probably should have done at the start of the eighth: he brought Joe Nathan in.

Good idea. Nathan held the runners and managed to get the Twins out of the inning with no damage done. Score remains 4-4.

Magglio Ordonez enjoys high fastballs. Matt Guerrier just pitched him one. The ball went far, far away: Ordonez blasted a game-tying homer to bring the score even in the top of the eighth. Excuse us the cliche, but this is October baseball. More scoring changes, please! (We don’t mind the typing. This is fun.)

Minnesota pandemonium? See what we did there? If you’re watching the game, you didn’t need the prompt. You get it.

Those of you not watching, what’s happening is that Orlando Cabrera just hit a go-ahead two-run shot to left off of Zach Miner, and the Twins have taken a one-run lead in the top of the seventh. Now Miner is stuck facing the heart of the Twins lineup. This could get worse before it gets better.

Ron Gardenhire wasn’t about to play around with Scott Baker in the 7th; as soon as Baker walked Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge, Gardenhire was out of the dugout and signaling for a reliever.

Baker leaves the game with three runs on six hits in six innings pitched, along with two walks and two strikeouts. He allowed the monster hits to Miguel Cabrera, but other than that Baker was quietly solid. He left to a standing ovation.

Porcello’s first order of post-Kubel-homer business was to walk Michael Cuddyer, and that was his final batter of the night. Reliever Zach Miner replaced Porcello, and after a Delmon Young single, Miner proceeded hit Brendan Harris square on the elbow to load the bases.

Fortunately, Matt Tolbert bailed Miner out, flying softly to Curtis Granderson in center. No harm, no foul, we guess, though this pitching change is going to destroy Tigers fans’ collective blood pressure.

Rick Porcello’s 6th inning was going just about as smoothly as his previous five: Porcello got Orlando Cabrera to fly out softly to center before striking out Joe Mauer on a high four-seam fastball, a nasty pitch. Mauer was Porcello’s ninth-straight retired batter and eighth strikeout; the 20-year-old phenom was working his one-hitter hard.

And then Jason Kubel destroyed the ball approximately 859 feet into Metrodome’s right-center field. Kubel’s monstrous home run cut the Tigers’ lead to one run. It’s 3-2, and we officially have a ball game.

After Nick Rayburn singled to first, the Twins again faced a bit of offensive pressure from the Tigers. But a Gerald Laird double-play ball — which was almost broken up by Rayburn’s huge slide into second — got the Twins out of the innings in short order. The score holds steady at 3-1.

Denard Span didn’t really do anything to score the Twins first run aside from induce a throw over from Porcello, which got away from Cabrera and allowed Tolbert to score from third.

So, good thing you brought your "DENARDED" signs, Twins fans! We see what you did there!

Curtis Grandson walked with one out, was advanced to second on a ground ball from Polanco and then driven in with a two-out single from Magglio Ordonez.

And with that, we had our first score of Game 163: Tigers 1, Twins 0.

But, as the headline spoiler already told you, the scoring didn’t end there. Miguel Cabrera then blasted a 423-foot two-run homer to dead center to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead.

Cabrera now has a double and a homer after going hitless in his previous three games.

In his first at-bat of the game, Miguel Cabrera launched a double into the left-center gap to lead-off the inning. He was boo’ed by the Twins’ fans when he came up to bat. Which, as Yahoo!’s Dan Wetzel points out, makes no sense:

No idea why Twins fans booed Cabrera. If he was sober last weekend, this game may never have occurred

Cabrera was later stranded at third.

Ron Darling, who is generally insufferable if you’ve had the displeasure of listening to him call a game, worked in a mandatory Brett Favre mention right before the Tigers went down in order in the top of the first. Scott Baker K’d one — Polanco on a nasty hook that froze the Tigers’ second baseman.

The Twins managed a double from Joe Mauer, but that was where their offense ended.

We’re tied at 0-0 after one inning.

For those wishing to dive into discussion with fellow Tigers or Twins fans, you can do so at Bless You Boys for the Detroit people, and at Twinkie Town for the Minnesota fans.

Also, today’s official line-ups are as follows:

TIGERS (86-76)

1. Curtis Granderson, CF
2. Placido Polanco, 2B
3. Magglio Ordonez, RF
4. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
5. Carlos Guillen, DH
6. Ryan Raburn, LF
7. Brandon Inge, 3B
8. Gerald Laird, C
9. Ramon Santiago, SS

TWINS (86-76)

1. Denard Span, CF
2. Orlando Cabrera, SS
3. Joe Mauer, C
4. Jason Kubel, RF
5. Michael Cuddyer, 1B
6. Delmon Young, LF
7. Jose Morales, DH
8. Matt Tolbert, 3B
9. Nick Punto, 2B

Pitchers: Rick Porcello vs. Scott Baker

According to Accuscore, if today’s game was played 10,000 times, the Twins would win 62% of the time:

Of course, today’s game will only be played once, so do with this bit of technologically produced prognosticating what you will. Certainly the fact that they have Miguel Cabrera averaging 1.1 hits per simulation kills some of the credibility. He’s 1 for his last 15.

In fact, his average this month is lower than his BAC. HEY-O! (But really, it is. Like, way lower. There may be a correlation between the two.)

If you’re wondering how Twins fans are feeling leading up to today’s Game 163, here is a poll from Twinkie Town which should give you some idea:

The majority of votes fall into categories that represent the two most common type of fan: cautiously optimistic ("we probably won’t win much, be we might be okay") and unrelenting homerism ("we’re gonna win it all BABY!").

The Minnesota Twins have called the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome home since 1982. Maybe that's why it's so hard to say goodbye. Sunday was supposed to be the final baseball game played there, but then the Twins tied the Tigers and now a 163rd game will have to take place before the baseball carpet is put away for good. The only stadium in the world to host the World Series, MLB All_Star Gar, Super Bowl and Final Four just doesn't want to go away. Or, as Joe Posnanski says, "The place won’t die." 

But it’s probably fair to say that no park in a half century has been quite as despised as the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. I suspect the Metrodome itself would consider that a point of honor. Even people who love it, hate it. Well, how else can you feel about playing baseball in a football stadium with plastic grass, a baseball-colored roof, an echo and a giant glad trash bags just beyond the fence? How else can you feel about going to the ballpark on a beautiful July day in Minneapolis — there aren’t many seasons in America as beautiful as Minnesota summers — and then finding yourself watching something resembling baseball in this dank building with all the romance of a bank vault. It’s like playing Monopoly in your friends basement when it’s 70 degrees and sunny outside.

“What’s wrong with you kids,” our mothers would yell. “Go play outside!”

And that’s what I always wanted to yell — I sensed that’s what EVERYBODY wanted to yell — while watching games in the Metrodome. You know what Dan Quisenberry said about the place when he first saw it, right? “I don’t think there are any good uses for nuclear weapons but, then, this might be one.” He said that about the Dome back in the mid 1980s. John Schuerholz, when he was GM of the Royals, said something similar — something about nuclear weapons and blowing the place up. The Metrodome did bring out violent wishes. Billy Martin, who knew a little something about violent wishes, was direct: “This place stinks,” he said. “It’s a shame a great guy like HHH had to be named after it.”

If the Twins lose tonight, no longer will they have to worry about air condition-powered home runs, white ceilings or baggies. Just, ya know, an open-air stadium, in Minnesota, in April and September.

FoxSports.com has six storylines for today’s one-game playoff, but the Tigers vs. History is clearly the most intriguing (aside from the most obvious of storylines: who will be in the playoffs vs. who will go home):

If the Tigers lose, manager Jim Leyland and his team will go straight to the Hall of Infamy. According to Dave W. Smith of Retrosheet.org, they could become the first team in major league history to have a three-game lead with four to play and fail to win the division. The Baseball Prospectus playoff odds calculator had the Tigers’ chances of winning the Central at just over 96 percent after they beat the Twins last Wednesday. “I don’t want to say they’ve choked, but, yeah, they have choked,” Twins outfielder Denard Span told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “They’ve choked a little bit, but they have the opportunity to not choke, I guess.”

After Miguel Cabrera’s “eventful” Friday night — partied with players from the White Sox, was out until six in the morning, had a .26 BAC (a .30 usually leads to blacking out) and ended up at the police station after his wife called the authorities when he began to (drunkenly) fight with her — the question now becomes: what do the Detroit Tigers do with Cabrera?

Yahoo!‘s Kevin Kaduk says the punishment needs to be “strong,” and that Tigers’ GM Dave Dombrowski — the one who picked up Cabrera from the police station Saturday morning — should send him home for the rest of the season, even if they beat the Twins Tuesday night.

Pulling a Milton Bradley on the Tigers’ best positional player and franchise cornerstone might seem drastic, but the truth is that Cabrera’s actions over the weekend rank much, much worse than badmouthing one’s own team through the media. Detroit needs to send a message that Cabrera’s decisions simply aren’t tolerable, no matter how much money he makes (eight years, $153 million) or what type of numbers he put up during the regular season.

By reportedly heading out for a night of drinking with the opposing White Sox on Friday night before returning home early Saturday morning and getting into a domestic dispute with his wife, Cabrera abandoned both his team and fans in some of the worst ways possible.

Kaduk goes on to say that this is clearly not the first time a baseball player and alcohol have mingled, but that the circumstances surrounding Cabrera’s incident is cause for a tough and immediate reaction from the Tigers (which should include providing help if Cabrera needs it, be it alcohol or relationship counseling, or both).

Drinking the night before a big game? The spirit of Mickey Mantle really doesn’t see what the big deal is.

That’s the sentiment from Tigers’ blog Bless You Boys, who hope Tuesday’s one-game playoff with the Twins will do more than just clinch a playoff spot. It’ll exercise some demons:

And so one more game is needed to decide this division. Just when the Tigers (and their fans) thought they’d never have to see the Metrodome, again they must enter that teflon-coated field of screams. But how many demons could be conquered, and how many painful memories erased, if they can win there on Tuesday?

Detroit rookie Rick Porcello (14-9) will take on against Scott Baker (15-9) in Tuesday’s match-up. It's a bold stroke to put the rookie Porcello on the mound in a one-off tiebreaker game; pro pitchers almost never face this sort of pressure, let alone first-year 20 year olds. What's more, Porcello doesn't exactly have good stats in the Metrodome. In 10 innings of work, his ERA is 6.30, his WHIP 1.80. Small sample size, but things don't exactly bode well.

As for Scott Baker, he's been, well, Scott Baker: His 1.18 WHIP and 4.35 ERA in 2009 have kept the Twins in decent shape, but his numbers against the Tigers are right in the Porcello-vs.-the-Twins range: 6.75 ERA, 1.70 WHIP.

At least that’s the mood from SB Nation’s Twinkie Town: about the Twins, who are playing Tuesday’s 5 p.m. tiebreaker game “where it should be played: in the comforts of the Dome.”

Money quote:

I don’t harbor any hard feelings toward anyone for looking at the mathematical probabilities on Friday morning and saying “nope”. But it wasn’t over then, and it’s not over now.

Meanwhile, the onus will be on Detroit to not give away they A.L. Central crown that had seemed quite secure earlier this week – SI.com already has on its site a gallery of famous late season collapses. The Tigers held a four-game lead on Wednesday before losing to Minnesota the next day and dropping two of three to the White Sox over the weekend. Ouch.