Yankeees top Twins, get date with Angels in ALCS
Photo credit: AP | New York Yankees' Phil Hughes sprays Alex Rodriguez, left, and CC Sabathia with champagne as they celebrate in the locker room after the Yankees defeated the Minnesota Twins 4-1 in Game 3 of the American League division baseball series, in Minneapolis. The Yankees swept the series. (Oct. 11, 2009)
Yankees Beat Twins, 4-1, Sweep ALDS
ALDS Game 3: Yankees 4, Twins 1
Photos: Yankees sweep Twins in 2009 ALDS
MINNEAPOLIS -- The Twins finally had scratched out the game’s first run in the bottom of the sixth inning last Sunday night, and the way things were going, a form of this question must have been going through most Yankees fans heads:
“Carl Pavano???”
One of the most despised pitchers ever to wear pinstripes was shutting down and shutting out his former team.
- See the Yankees celebrate their ALDS sweep over the Twins.
- Best moments of the Yankees-Twins series.
But Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada — along with yet another baserunning blunder by the Twins — rescued the Yankees, allowing them to complete a three-game sweep of the Division Series with a 4-1 win and advance to the American League Championship Series for the first time since 2004.
It was the third straight comeback win in the series by the Yankees, who will face the Angels — against whom they went 5-5 this season — in the best-of-seven ALCS beginning Friday at Yankee Stadium.
The big homers aside, though, a one-word theme dominated the discussion in the champagne- and beer-soaked clubhouse. “Pitching,” general manager Brian Cashman said. “The pitching was phenomenal. From the starters to the bullpen, our pitching was fantastic. Our pitching and our defense really got us past this first round.”
Andy Pettitte pitched brilliantly in earning his record-tying 15th career postseason win, retiring the first 12 Twins and allowing one run and three hits in 61/3 innings. He walked one and struck out seven.
CC Sabathia earned the win in Game 1 by allowing one earned run in 6 2/3 innings, and A.J. Burnett allowed one run in six innings in picking up a no-decision in the wild Game 2 victory.
“The rotation was great,” said Mariano Rivera, who picked up the final four outs to record his 35th career postseason save, extending his all-time record. “Everybody did their job.”
Said Pettitte: “You have to have good starting pitching. We’ve had that and hopefully we continue to have that. We have a great bullpen and that’s obviously a big part of that also.”
Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes combined to get four outs to set up Rivera.
The Yankees actually were outhit 29-23 in the series, but they made just about all of them count, or so it seemed.
With the Yankees trailing 1-0 in the seventh, Rodriguez homered to right-center after falling behind 0-and-2 and working the count full. Two batters later, Posada broke the tie with his own opposite-field shot, this one just over the leftfield fence.
A-Rod went 5-for-11 with two late-inning, game-tying homers, three two-out RBI singles and six RBIs in the three games, well on his way to burying his past postseason disappointments.
“Alex had an unbelievable series,” manager Joe Girardi said.
After three one-out walks off three Twins relievers loaded the bases in the ninth, Posada added an RBI single off Joe Nathan, probably thrilled to be done with the Yankees this season. Robinson Cano’s bloop single to right off Nathan made it 4-1.
The Rodriguez and Posada homers sucked much of the air from the Homer Hanky-waving crowd of 54,735, who witnessed the final baseball game at the Metrodome, the Twins’ home since 1982. The rest of the air came out of the building in the eighth after a bizarre play cost the Twins a chance to, at the very least, tie the score.
Nick Punto doubled to start the eighth against Hughes, and Denard Span bounced one through the middle that was fielded behind second by Derek Jeter. With little chance to get the speedy Span, Jeter held the ball and fired home as he saw Punto make a big turn around third. Punto slipped to the turf when he saw the ball coming in, and Posada’s quick strike to Rodriguez, who applied the tag to the diving Punto, resulted in a stunning first out. Hughes then got Orlando Cabrera to fly out and Rivera got Joe Mauer on a grounder to first, shattering his bat.
“An unbelievable heads-up play by Jeter,” Girardi said.
“I heard 55,000 people screaming, so I felt like the ball got through,’’ Punto, who ran through third-base coach Scott Ullger’s stop sign, told The Associated Press. “I wanted to dig a hole, crawl inside it and hide. It’s embarrassing. That can’t happen.’’
Jeter said he saw “Punto out of the corner of my eye” but was more interested in expounding on another topic.
“Our offense didn’t score very many runs today or the last game,” Jeter said. “Our pitching is the reason why we’re here. CC started it, A.J. followed it and Andy finished it. That’s what you have to have to win these playoff games.”
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