2009 American League Central Tiebreaker: Detroit Tigers at Minnesota Twins
October 6, 2009, Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, Minneapolis, Minnesota
There must have been some magic in that old teflon roof. That's really the only way to explain it. You would walk into the Metrodome on a warm summer night, sit in an uncomfortable seat with bad sightlines in a half-empty dome, and wish the Twins played anywhere but there. But as the weather turned cool in the fall, and the Twins were in contention, the echoes of empty seats in the summer turned into a steady buzz of excitement, and finally the roars from the fans would come and echo and build off each other until nobody could hear anything, and in those moments there was no place the Twins would have rather played. It truly was magical.
The Metrodome was on its last legs in 2009. The Twins were moving to Target Field the next year, leaving behind the stadium that had carried them to two World Championships. And the Twins and their fans couldn't get to their new digs fast enough. After a stretch of four division championship in five seasons, the Twins missed the playoffs in 2007 and 2008 - missing out in the latter after a heartbreaking Game 163 loss to the White Sox - and they seemed to be out of contention as the 2009 season rolled into September. On September 12, the Twins were 70-72, 5.5 games back of Detroit, and the only excitement for fans came from counting down the number of days before they could say goodbye to the Dome for good.
But something stirred in Minnesota. Perhaps it was the old Metrodome Magic waking from its slumber for one final burst of activity. Whatever the reason, the Twins took off, winning 16 of their final 20 games to end the season in a dead heat with the Tigers at the top of the AL Central. The result was a one-game playoff, the second season in a row the Twins played in one. Unlike their 2008 loss, this time they'd be at home. The Metrodome wasn't ready to go away just yet.
The Metrodome was packed for Game 163, and the fans were at full volume from the beginning, hoping to will the Twins to one more magical win. But they were silenced pretty quickly when Miguel Cabrera (remember him?) blasted a two-run home run to cap a three-run third. The Twins had trailed the Tigers all season long, and now they trailed in Game 163.
The Twins got one back in the bottom of the third, and then the 3-1 score held until the bottom of the sixth, when Jason Kubel visited the upper deck in right to cut the score to 3-2 and knock Tigers starter Rick Porcello out of the game. The Twins then loaded the bases off reliever Zach Miner before Matt Tolbert flew out to center to end the threat.
One thing about the Metrodome, especially in its final decade, was how quickly that home runs seemed to leave the park when hit to left field. It seemed like if the ball was in the air a while, it invariably fell short, but if the ball got out there in a hurry, it cleared the wall rather than caroming off it. Maybe that was just anecdotal. Either way, Orlando Cabrera's home run in the bottom of the 7th with a man on seemed to leave the park in less than a second. The Dome crowd didn't even get to full throttle until the ball was already in the seats. It was out of here just like that, and just like that, the Twins had turned a deficit into a lead.
That phenomenon wasn't limited to Twins batters, either. Magglio Ordoñez proved that by blasting a laser out to left to lead off the top of the 8th for the Tigers. A crowd that had been in full voice was silenced in an instant.
But they wouldn't stay silent for long. It was apparent now that the Metrodome had something special planned for its swan song.
The first sign that something was up was the top of the ninth, when the Tigers had two runners on and one out against Twins closer Joe Nathan. Nathan got Ordoñez to hit a soft liner to Cabrera at short for the second out, and Cabrera saw Curtis Granderson straying too far off first and threw behind him for the inning-ending double play.
The Tigers threatened again in the 10th, and this time they didn't come up empty. Brandon Inge hit a two-out double to score pinch-runner Don Kelly and give the Tigers the lead heading into the bottom of the 10th.
And that's when things got weird.
First was the fly ball Michael Cuddyer hit to left. It was in the air too long, so it wasn't gonna be a home run. But left fielder Ryan Rayburn first went for the catch, then decided to go into a slide to knock it down, and ended up not making contact with the ball at all as it rolled behind him for a triple. After an out and a walk, Tolbert made up for his bases-loaded out earlier in the game with a single to center to tie the game and put the winning run on third with just one out.
Then things got even weirder. Nick Punto hit a line drive to left that was never going to be a hit, despite what Chip Caray thought. But it did look like it was going to be a game-winning sacrifice fly, until Rayburn threw out Alexi Casilla on a perfect throw home. Even though the throw was good, the ball should have been enough to win the game, except that Casilla didn't go all the way back to third before the catch, so his first step was backwards instead of toward home.
And so the crowd died down again a bit. Time for a breather. Nothing happened in the 11th, which just gave Twins fans more time to rue the flyball that should have ended the game.
Things picked up quickly in the 12th. After one out, the Tigers loaded the bases for Inge, who was temporarily the hero in the 10th. This time, he was hit by the first pitch Bobby Keppel threw to him. Well, technically the ball hit Inge's shirt, not his body, but that still counts as a hit by pitch. Everybody on the field saw it, plain as day - except home plate umpire Randy Marsh, who ignored the pleas from the Tigers players and coaches and said it was simply ball one. Given new life, Keppel got Inge to hit a high-hopper in the infield. Punto flew in from second to field the ball behind the mound and threw on the run to get the force at home. Keppel then worked the count full to Gerald Laird before striking him out. Keppel pumped his fist in celebration, the Metrodome crowd virtually carrying him to the dugout with its noise.
And the noise never really died down. The Metrodome had woken. The old stadium had one more trick up its sleeve, and the crowd knew it. Carlos Gomez led off the bottom of the 12th with a single and moved to second on a ground out. The fastest player on the Twins was standing on second, needing only a single to win it. The intentional walk to Delmon Young was expected, and it brought up Casilla, giving him a chance to make up for his baserunning blunder.
Gomez took the lead off second. The crowd was cheering, ready to go. A 1-1 count.
And then Casilla grounded it to the left side. Young stopped in his tracks to make sure it didn't hit him, then watched it bounce into right field. And there was Gomez, flying around third, his feet barely touching the ground. And there were the Twins, streaming out of the dugout, racing him to the plate. There were the fans going crazy, filling the place with a noise that hadn't been heard since 1991. The throw never had a chance. Gomez slid safely, mostly for effect, then jumped up and spiked his helmet. His teammates mobbed him, then mobbed Casilla. Eventually the two groups converged, somewhere near the pitching mound, and they celebrated as if they had just won the World Series.
And the crowd kept cheering. They weren't only cheering for what they just saw, although what they just saw was, quite possibly, the greatest game ever played. They were also cheering as a thank you to the old stadium that they hated so much, but had given them the best memories of their lives as fans. They were cheering as a thank you to one final burst of Metrodome Magic.
| 2009 American League Central tiebreaker Overall Rank: 1 Top 10 Swing: 317 Top play: Brandon Inge's go-ahead double in the 10th (WPA of 40% for Detroit)* Loser's largest WE: 82 Top of the 10th, immediately after Inge's double. Average LI: 1.93 Highest leverage moment: 7.16 (B10, 1 out, runners on first and third, Detroit up 5-4, Matt Tolbert batting for Minnesota) *Minnesota's top moment was Orlando Cabrera's game-tying home run in the 7th (WPA of 39%) |
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