It's straight A's as Oakland sweeps Twins
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Barry Zito did his best to avoid the party, fearing a flying bottle might accidentally cost him a start on his biggest stage yet: the AL Championship Series.
``I don't want to get hurt celebrating," said the soaked lefthander, who has never missed a start.
The Oakland Athletics swept away years of first-round futility, then partied hard enough to make up for all those missed chances and then some.
Milton Bradley homered and threw out Torii Hunter in a disputed play at the plate as the A's snapped a stretch of nine straight losses in potential playoff clinchers, beating Minnesota, 8-3, yesterday to reach the ALCS for the first time in 14 years.
The A's never trailed in finishing off the Twins in three games and will face either the Tigers or Yankees Tuesday night.
Marco Scutaro doubled twice and tied an A's postseason record with four RBIs and Eric Chavez homered as the Athletics won a playoff series for the first time since 1990.
`` We've had a lot of chances at it, and we've finally been able to do it," Chavez said.
Dan Haren escaped two early jams to win in his first postseason start and the A's avoided the gaffes that led to their previous postseason flops.
And when closer Huston Street got Luis Castillo to fly out to end it, the A's rushed onto the field for a big group hug.
Minnesota, meanwhile, again had problems. Even the usually reliable Hunter, a five-time Gold Glove winner, ran into trouble.
``Oakland played mistake-free baseball," Minnesota catcher Joe Mauer said. ``We usually don't make those mistakes."
After his ill-advised dive led to Mark Kotsay's tiebreaking, inside-the-park homer in Game 2, Hunter got thrown out in a key sixth-inning play yesterday.
Down, 4-1, the Twins were rallying when Rondell White hit an RBI single. The speedy Hunter also tried to score and Bradley made a strong throw home. Hunter attempted to avoid catcher Jason Kendall's tag and reach the plate with his left hand, but plate umpire Mike Everitt called him out.
Hunter and Twins manager Ron Gardenhire argued, but the Twins trailed, 4-2. Hunter said Kendall never tagged him.
Hunter and Justin Morneau homered for the Twins, who surprisingly won the AL Central on the season's final day but couldn't stage the kind of first-round comeback they pulled off against the A's four years ago -- when Brad Radke won the opener, then outpitched Mark Mulder in Game 5.
``This isn't what we came here to do," Morneau said.
Oakland took a surprising 2-0 lead in this series by beating Johan Santana and Boof Bonser in the menacing Metrodome, then scored first again against a reeling Radke in what was likely the righthander's final career outing.
The A's added four more runs in the seventh, three on another double by Scutaro.
Bradley, inconsistent and injured for much of his first season in Oakland, hit a two-run homer in the third for his first hit of the series, giving the A's a 4-0 lead.
Haren gave up a pair of singles in the first but the A's escaped unscathed after Michael Cuddyer grounded into an inning-ending double play. Morneau reached third with one out in the second and was stranded.
Haren, who pitched twice for St. Louis in the 2004 World Series, was a 14-game winner this season. He pitched eight shutout innings at Minnesota Sept. 13 and earned yesterday's start over Rich Harden, who missed much of the season with injuries.
``It feels great," said Haren, who allowed nine hits and two runs in six innings. ``Nobody expected us to do anything here."
The 33-year-old Radke, pitching with a torn labrum and stress fracture in his throwing shoulder that caused him to miss more than a month this season, was done after four innings. He allowed five hits and four runs, struck out two, and walked one. He had said he planned to call it quits after a 12-year big-league career, but said he would make a final decision in the coming days.
