The Indians' bullpen collapses as the Twins scored four in the eighth inning, then later claim AL Central when Oakland tops White Sox.
UPDATED: 1:04 a.m.
Minnesota's Orlando Hudson revels in his run-scoring double during the Twins' four-run rally in the eighth inning Tuesday night against the Indians at Target Field.MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- A good baseball team in a big game late in the season is like a human vise. A bad team in the same situation is like a watermelon caught in that vise.
The Twins tightened the vise in the eighth inning Tuesday night at Target Field. When the jaws tightened as far as they could the Twins had a 6-4 victory over the Indians that reduced their magic number to one to clinch the American League Central division. A little more than an hour later they began spraying champagne when Oakland finished off the White Sox, 7-2, to give the Twins their six division championship in the last nine years.
The Indians, on the other hand, were reduced to a pile of broken rinds and a sea of seeds spewed all over the Twins new ballpark.
The Twins, trailing 4-2, scored four runs in the eighth inning to win it. The Indians made every mistake a sacrifical watermelon is supposed to make in that situation.
"We're a young team," said manager Manny Acta. "We're here to learn."
The vise started to close on Justin Masteron when Jim Thome opened the eighth with a single through the empty shortstop position against an over-shifted defense. Trevor Plouffe pinch ran and scored as center fielder Michael Brantley turned Delmon Young's single into a double by diving for the ball instead of playing it on the bounce to make it 4-3.
"I know I can't leave my feet on that play," said Brantley. "We were playing no-doubles defense. I got excited and thought I had a chance to make a catch. I take full responsibility."
Danny Valencia singled to put Young at third, but Masterson retired Nick Punto on a shallow fly ball to left, and was replaced by Tony Sipp. Jose Morales greeted him with a sacrifice fly to right to tie the game. Shin-Soo Choo tried to get Young at the plate, but the throw was ill-advised because Valencia, the tying run, went to second.
"When you have a great arm, you think you can throw everyone out," said Acta. "He'll learn to keep the tying run on first or at least keep his throw low enough so it can be cut off."
Denard Span singled to left to score Valencia with the go-ahead run. Trevor Crowe's throw beat Valencia to the plate, but catcher Lou Marson couldn't make a clean pick on the ball.
"That's the play I know I can make," said Marson.
Orlando Hudson's double made it 6-4. The vise was closed.
"The whole inning happened so fast," said Marson. "I should have recognized that and gone to the mound and tried to slow it down."
Masterson (6-13) allowed three runs in two thirds of an inning in his first "high leverage" relief appearance after 29 starts. The win went to Glen Perkins (1-1), while Matt Capps earned his 15th save for the Twins and 40th overall.
"That's real baseball," said Masterson, who pitched in similar situations with Boston when they went to the postseason in 2008. "That's why I loved being out there."
Masterson was not surprised that the Twins came back. His experience with the Red Sox taught him that.
"When you're on the other side (in games like this), it seems like somehow, some way things lineup for you," said Masterson. "No matter what the other teams does, this happens, which leads to that and someone pulls something out of his bag and you go, 'Where the heck did that come from?'"
The victory gave Twins manager Ron Gardenhire 800 wins in his career.
The Indians took a 4-1 with two runs in the sixth off reliever Jose Mijares. One run scored on Crowe's single and Luis Valbuena doubled the other run in.
Fausto Carmona started and went 5 2/3 innings for the Tribe. He's pitched 199 1/3 innings and will go over the 200-inning mark for the first time since 2007.
Drew Sutton gave the Indians a 2-1 lead in the fifth with a two-out single to left.
The Indians took a 1-0 lead on Travis Hafner's bloop double in the first off Scott Baker. Thome tied it 1-1 with a leadoff homer in the second. It was Thome's 25th homer of the season and 589th of his career.