It’s obvious after one game of the American League Championship Series that the Minnesota Twins have something the Anaheim Angels desperately need–a cause around which to rally.
A well-placed insult by Commissioner Bud Selig might do the trick, or perhaps a threat to their livelihood. Anything that can conjure up the same us-against-the-world mentality that seems to fuel the Twins will suffice.
Anaheim came out flat Tuesday night in its ALCS opener, losing 2-1 to Minnesota at the Metrodome and making right-hander Joe Mays look like Pedro Lite.
What the Angels need now is a chip on their shoulders to match the Twins’.
“People have been trying to eliminate us, literally, since last off-season,” Twins center fielder Torii Hunter said. “We just go out there and play. I just found out Bud Selig was here tonight, and that was cool. [We’re] a good group of guys he would’ve gotten rid of.”
With 55,562 fans screaming in their ears, the Angels were out of sync on offense, searching for a catalyst that never appeared. Mays, who went 4-8 in the regular season and was roughed up by Oakland in his only start in the division series, allowed one unearned run on four hits in eight innings.
The beleaguered Twins starter retired the last 13 batters he faced from the fourth through the eighth, and closer Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless ninth for the save.
Mays came in against a team that averaged 14 hits and nearly eight runs per game against the Yankees’ playoff-tested pitching staff, but he managed to shut down the Angels on four singles. Anaheim manager Mike Scioscia called it “one of the best games we had pitched against us all year.”
Instead of thinking, Mays said he let catcher A.J. Pierzynski do the brain work.
“I set my head up in my locker and I went down there and pitched a game that I feel like is the game of my career,” Mays said.
Said Pierzynski: “That sums it up perfectly. When he thinks too much, he tries to overanalyze everything, looking at every pitch like it’s life or death. When he just throws the ball, he’s usually pretty good, and tonight he was nails.”
Meanwhile, the Twins managed to do just enough against Kevin Appier to draw first blood in the series. Hunter doubled leading off the second inning, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on Pierzynski’s sacrifice fly.
Anaheim staged a two-out rally in the third on singles by Adam Kennedy and David Eckstein, tying the game when Twins shortstop Cristian Guzman let a routine grounder off Darin Erstad’s bat roll under his glove for an error.
The winning run came in the fifth after Appier issued a leadoff walk to No. 9 hitter Luis Rivas and a one-out single to Guzman. Corey Koskie’s RBI double made it 2-1, and Mays was untouchable the rest of the night, using his sinker to great effect.
After giving up an infield hit to Brad Fullmer in the fourth, only two of the final 13 men he retired even hit the ball out of the infield. Guardado threw a minor scare into his teammates, as they’ve come to expect.
“I’m going to have a heart attack before the season is over,” Hunter said with a laugh.
Guardado walked Tim Salmon with one out in the ninth before inducing Garret Anderson to pop out and getting Troy Glaus to look at a third strike.
“Sometimes Eddie will scare the heck out of you,” Pierzynski said. “But he gets the job done.”
Glaus briefly questioned the call by umpire Ed Montague.
“I looked at it on the film, and it was a good pitch,” Glaus said. “He was right.”
The Twins might not have the most talent, but they play like a team that has something to prove–to themselves, to Selig, to the rest of America.
“We have a young bunch, not a lot of experience in the playoffs, but they have a big heart,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “We’re fighting off a lot of bullets being thrown at us. That’s OK.”
The Twins have been wearing bulletproof vests since they became a contraction magnet last winter. It might not be fashionable, but it’s a look they wear quite well.
