With its white roof, generally bad acoustics, and hanky-waving fans, the Metrodome has long been hailed as one of the toughest ballparks for visiting ball clubs.
No one told the Oakland Athletics.
Three hours and two minutes after the opening pitch of yesterday's second game of the ALDS, the A's had silenced a stunned and desperate crowd of 55,710. Oakland stopped the surging Minnesota Twins in their tracks, turning in consecutive road victories to open the playoffs.
Down 2-0 in a best-of-five series, the AL Central champs now find themselves between a rock and a hard place.
But if history tells us anything, the Twins are down, but certainly not out. East Coast baseball fans have come to appreciate the A's as a team that has trouble advancing past the first round. The A's are 0-9 in elimination games since 2000 and they have dropped four consecutive first-round games.
In 2001, the New York Yankees lost both games at the Stadium, only to fly across the States to the Coliseum and win the next three games of the series. Of course, the Twins don't have the benefit of Derek Jeter and his miraculous back-handed flip.
And then there was 2003, when, in similar fashion, the A's won the first two games of the series against the Boston Red Sox but then dropped three in a row, again sending them packing prematurely.
But in yesterday's game, much like on Tuesday, the A's did not look like a team ready to head home. Guided by a solid pitching performance from Esteban Loaiza, Oakland took advantage of a major Torii Hunter miscue with the score tied in the top of the seventh.
With two outs and Jason Kendall leading off of first, Mark Kotsay hit a sinking line drive to center that appeared out of Hunter's reach. Perhaps against his better judgment, Hunter dove for the ball, which skipped underneath his glove and rolled all the way to the wall. Kendall scored, and Kotsay, who was only running at half-speed to first base, assuming that the ball would drop in for an easy single, turned on the gas and recorded an inside-the-park home run.
A mistake of this magnitude is surprising from Hunter, a five-time Gold Glove winner, but his misjudgment in centerfield was the difference-maker in Game Two. It resulted in a 2-2 tie and ultimately handed Oakland the advantage it needed to record the victory and gain a 2-0 lead in the series.
That play quickly sank Minnesota's sails, as the Twins had just fought back from a 2-0 deficit in the bottom of the sixth. Back-to-back homers from Michael Cuddyer and AL MVP candidate Justin Morneau had the crowd at the Metrodome roaring, but it only took that one play to change the entire tenor of the series.
The top of the ninth inning epitomized the game for the Twins. In a final effort to gain some momentum, Minnesota's Joe Nathan entered the game with one out in the top of the ninth and Nick Swisher leading off. Nathan's 0-2 pitch got away from him and bounced in the dirt, out of the reach of catcher Joe Mauer, allowing Swisher to score easily from third.
Just as Nathan's pitch slipped away from him, the game and the series seemed to be slipping away from the Twins, who had worked so hard last week to overtake the Detroit Tigers for first place in the Central.
Coming off a squandered pitching performance from ace Johan Santana on Tuesday, the Twins must have felt a little desperate heading into yesterday's game. But desperation didn't put the runs on the board, and Minnesota finds itself down two games with some catching up to do. The two teams will fly out west for the next game of the series, with the Twins' fate resting on Brad Radke's arm. He will take the mound against Danny Haren, who pitched to a 4.12 ERA during the regular season. The A's only need one win out of the next three possible games to land themselves in the ALCS.
But if we learn anything from history, this one ain't over 'till it's over.
