Chronicling Every Winner-Take-All Game in Twins Postseason History

[Matthew Lenz]

The Minnesota Timberwolves are set to tip off in a winner-take-all Game 7 against the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets on Sunday. The Minnesota Twins have played in five such games, sporting a 3-2 record in 15 playoff appearances across 62 full seasons. Let’s take a look back at each winner-take-all game.

Image courtesy of Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports (Sandy Koufax statue)

 

2017 Wild Card at New York Yankees

The 85-77 Minnesota Twins traveled to Yankee Stadium to take on the 91-71 New York Yankees. Two All-Star and Cy Young vote-getters in Ervin Santana and Luis Severino were the announced starting pitchers against two of the more formidable offenses in all of baseball.

Despite the pitchers headlining the match up, the offenses came out swinging. Brian Dozier led off with a solo home run on a 3-1 mistake from the right-handed Severino.

Three batters later, Eddie Rosario extended the lead with a two-run shot of his own after a Joe Mauer foul pop out and Jorge Polanco walk. In an all too familiar fashion, the 3-0 lead quickly disappeared in the bottom of the first when Yankees shortstop, Didi Gregorius pulled a low-and-away fastball into the right field bleachers knotting the game at three runs apiece.

The Yankees would tack on another run half of a Brett Gardner solo homer in the bottom of the second. The Twins responded right away when Byron Buxton grounded into a fielder's choice in the third. Yet, once again, the Yankees respond right away when Greg Bird singles home Gary Sánchez in the bottom of half of the inning. It was all Yankees from there as they would go onto tack on an additional three runs, and the twins offense was shut down by David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle for 5 ⅔  innings. With a final score of 8-4, the Twins were eliminated from the 2017 postseason.

2002 Division Series at Oakland Athletics

The Minnesota Twins won the Central division with 94 wins and were pitted against the Oakland Athletics, whose season would be turned into a movie titled “Moneyball."

Brad Radke and Mark Mulder would take the bump for their respective teams for the second time in the series. The game was largely a pitchers duel with Radke giving up one run over 6 ⅔ innings and Mulder giving up two runs over seven innings. The Twins had a 2-1 advantage heading into the final inning when A.J. Pierzynski extended the lead to 4-1 with a two-run home run.

 

David “Big Papi” Ortiz added a fifth run with an RBI double, and the Twins were near locks to win as they sent out All-Star and MVP vote-getter “Everyday” Eddie Guardado to close out the game and series. Of course, it couldn’t be that easy. The middle of the Oakland lineup went single, groundout, and double before Mark Ellis stepped to that plate and made the game 5-4 with a three-run shot. Fortunately, it was too little too late for the A’s as they went fly ball, single, and foul pop out to end things at a score of 5-4 and the Twins advancing.

1991 World Series vs Atlanta Braves

Do we really need to chronicle the best game of the greatest World Series in Major League Baseball history? I mean, it doesn’t get old, so why not.

After a back-and-forth series and the famous “and we’ll see you tomorrow night” Kirby Puckett walk-off, the Twins and Braves were set for the first World Series Game 7 in four seasons (more on that in a minute). The offenses would combined to go 1-for-17 with runners in scoring positions and the starting pitchers, John Smoltz and Jack Morris, would combine to throw 16 innings of zero-run baseball. Famously, Twins starter Jack Morris threw a complete game going 10 innings before Gene Larkin hit a deep fly ball to score Dan Gladden in the home half of the inning.

 

 

1987 World Series v St. Louis Cardinals

Win or lose in Game 7, the 1987 season was special for the Twins who upped their win total by 14 games from 1986. They held off the streaking Toronto Blue Jays to win the American League West division and dismantled the 98-win Detroit Tigers in the ALCS to reach the World Series. With the home team winning the first six games of the series, the Twins had the edge playing in the Dome … somewhere they hadn’t lost a game in nearly a month.

The Cardinals got out to a 2-0 lead early after two RBI singles off of Twins starter, Frank Viola, in the top of the second. The Twins answered back with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning off a Steve Lombardozzi RBI single, and would eventually tie it in the home half of the fifth with an RBI double off the bat of Kirby Puckett.

 

While Viola would continue to roll, the Twins took a one-run lead thanks to a bases loaded hit by Greg Gagne in the sixth and extended that lead after an RBI double from Gladden in the eighth. Leading the game 4-2, the Twins turned to their closer, Jeff Reardon, in the top of the ninth. Facing the heart of the Cardinals lineup, Reardon sat down the side in order and clinched the game and series for the Minnesota Twins.

1965 World Series v Los Angeles Dodgers

The 1965 Twins were the best team in baseball and, arguably, the greatest Twins team ever. After winning 102 games in the regular season, they were pitted against the National League champion, Los Angeles Dodgers.

Like 1987, the home team won the first six games, and game seven would be the third time Jim Kaat and Sandy Koufax would go toe-to-toe in the series. With Kaat winning Game 2 and Koufax winning Game 5, something had to give in Game 7.

Both pitchers mostly cruised through the first three innings, although the Dodgers threatened to break the 0-0 tie in the third before Kaat got Willie Davis to pop out to catcher, Earl Battey, to end the threat. Unfortunately, Lou Johnson would break the seal with a lead off home run in the fourth, and the Dodgers knocked Kaat out of the game two batters later after a double and run-scoring single made the game 2-0. The Twins would put together a threat of their own in the bottom of the fifth, but back-to-back ground outs with runners on first and second ended the threat and the inning. From that point forward, only Harmon Killebrew would reach base by way of a single in the bottom of the ninth.

Killebrew got left on first after back-to-back strikeouts from Battey and Bob Allison, clinching the game and series for Dodgers. The final line for Koufax was nine innings pitched, zero runs, 10 strike outs, and just six baserunners allowed.

So there you have it, a quick recap of each of the Twins winner-take-all postseason games. Do you have any personal anecdotes from any of these games? Do you think the Wolves will win on Sunday?

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[Al from SoDak]

Hey, thanks for this. Certainly an interesting write-up. Wish they could have gone 5-0!