MINNEAPOLIS – Too late to be of any consolation to Yankee fans, but those rats from Anaheim were completely befuddled by a Mays.
Joe Mays, the Twins right-hander who didn’t make it out of the fourth inning in his ALDS start at Oakland, pitched eight innings of four-hit baseball last night as Minnesota won Game 1 of the American League Championship Series, 2-1.
The Angels’ only run was scored in the third, when shortstop Cristian Guzman botched two-on, two-out, ground ball by Darin Erstad. Mays retired the last 13 batters he faced before yielding the ball to Eddie Guardado, who made it through the meat of the Anaheim order in the ninth.
The Twins closer, who survived a three-run, four-hit ninth at Oakland in Game 5, entered to a huge ovation and with the fans chanting “Eddie! Eddie! Eddie” struck out Darin Erstad swinging before walking Tim Salmon and getting Garret Anderson to fly out. When, through the roar, Troy Glaus took a called third strike for the final out, Guardado had put the polish to Mays’ near masterpiece.
Together, they made stand up a second-inning sacrifice fly by A.J. Pierzynski and a Corey Koskie RBI double in the fifth, just enough runs to spoil a solid effort by Angels’ starter Kevin Appier, who made good pitches when he needed to keep the Twins from breaking the game open.
He lost only because Mays, perfectly mixing his changeup and a perfectly spotted fastball with breaking pitches he didn’t trust in Oakland, pitched one of the more dominating games in recent post-season history.
“So many times they have told me to trust what I have and that’s what I did,” Mays said. “I put my head on top of my locker and went out there and pitched what I feel is the game of my career.
“I wasn’t able to get my breaking ball down [in Oakland] but I told people after the game I would get another chance. Tonight early, I attacked the strike zone and got the breaking ball over when I needed it.”
He did not walk a batter and had the good sense to take a hike when asked by manager Ron Gardenhire, about pitching the ninth.
“He had the option,” said Gardenhire. “I asked him and he said, ‘Well, I could finish it or Eddie could’ and that told me something.
“I saw him stretching when the fan ran onto the field [as Adam Kennedy was grounding out] and that told me he was having a little trouble in that inning getting a little loose.”
The paralyzed Angels, who pounded the Yankees for .376 average over four games, suddenly knew the feeling.
“No leadoff runners getting on base, it makes it tough,” said Anaheim skipper Mike Scoscia. “That’s one of the best games we had pitched against us all year.”
Mays struck out only three, but the best fielding team in the American League made only the one mistake behind him.
Torii Hunter doubled to lead off the second, moved to third on an Appier wild pitch and scored on Pierzynski’s sacrifice fly.
After back-to-back hits by Kennedy and Scott Spiezio with two outs set up the Guzman run-scoring error, the Twins capitalized on Appier’s leadoff walk to Luis Rivas, driven in by Koskie’s double two feet inside the right-field line.
