The last weekend of the 2006 season was magical for the Minnesota Twins. After chasing the Detroit Tigers all summer, they final caught—and overtook!—the Kitties on the season’s final day. This afforded the 96-66 AL Central champion Twins the opportunity to stay home and welcome in the 93-69 AL West champion Oakland Athletics for the ALDS.
As I began getting into the swing of my junior year at the University of Minnesota-Morris, I rearranged my entire schedule to make sure I was in front of my 21”
dorm room TV for every pitch.
Game 1 (10/3/06)
Enthusiastically energized by the wild finish, 55,542 Dome denizens came out for the postseason opener—a premiere Johan Santana vs Barry Zito pitching matchup.
Undergoing a career-revitalizing season (39 HR, 114 RBI, 140 OPS+) after leaving the Chicago White Sox, the “Big Hurt” Frank Thomas gave the A’s an early lead with a T2 solo home run, followed closely by a Marco Scutaro RBI double. 2-0 OAK.
Rondell White returned the dinger favor with a B7 blast off Barry—but before much momentum could materialize it was Thomas again crushing Jesse Crain to keep Homer Hankies in laps. 3-1 OAK.
Fighting back in B9, Michael Cuddyer led off with a triple. Alas, nothing further than a Torii Hunter RBI groundout materialized as the Athletics nabbed a 3-2 win a 1-0 series lead.
The pitching matchup certainly lived up to the billing—with Zito (8 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 1 K) just slightly better than Santana (8 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K) in the column that matters most.
Game 2 (10/4/06)
55,710 more of Twins Territory hermetically sealed inside the Dome for what would have been a Francisco Liriano bump turn if not for injury.
Instead, the baseball went to Boof Bonser—who coughed up RBI knocks from Scutaro (him again) & Jason Kendall in T5. 2-0 OAK.
This time, though, the Twins fought back almost immediately! In B6, back-to-back jacks from Cuddyer & Justin Morneau off A’s SP Esteban Loaiza knotted the score at two apiece.
But then came the moment that would define this series:
In T7 with one on and two out, Mark Kotsay roped a sinking liner into shallow CF. Torii Hunter raced in to snag it—the whole fanbase knew he would.
Until he didn’t…
In a short 5-game ALDS, this was the moment where it felt like things had slipped away. Oakland would add on another run for the 5-2 final margin.
Game 3 (10/6/06)
Shifting to the Coliseum, Minnesota sent Brad Radke to the bump. Gritting it out through a torn labrum, the longtime Twins vet gave it all he had—but it simply wasn’t enough (4 IP, 3 ER). Home runs from Eric Chavez and Milton Bradley proved the decisive blows.
A Hunter homer and White RBI single gave a gasp of hope—extinguished when the wheels came off in a 4-run B7 OAK inning off Dennys Reyes & Crain featuring a bases-loaded walk to Nick Swisher and a Scutaro 3-run double.
Athletics 8, Twins 3 was the last-out tally.
A season-long division title chase that lasted from Game 1 to Game 162 was snuffed out in just 96 hours.
The overriding feeling in Twins Territory at the time was “if only Liriano had been here” (and/or if Radke had a fully-intact shoulder) this would have been “the year”.
Adding insult to injury: the A’s would go on to be swept by the Detroit Tigers—the team the Twins eclipsed in the regular season—in the subsequent ALCS.
