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Hankies don't help

ANGELS 6, TWINS 3: Minnesota sloppy as Anaheim pulls even.

By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times
published October 10, 2002

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Twins got this far by doing a lot of little things right.

Wednesday, they got in trouble by doing a few little things -- and a couple of big ones -- wrong, losing to Anaheim 6-3.

As a result, the American League Championship Series heads west tied at 1, with Game 3 in Anaheim on Friday night.

For the Angels, it was a return to normalcy. Shut down in Tuesday's opener, they grabbed an early 4-0 lead Wednesday with a home run and some clutch hits, held on at 6-3 in the sixth, then turned the game over to their dominant relievers, who allowed one hit over the final 32/3 innings.

"Our bullpen has been outstanding all year," closer Troy Percival said. "They've set me up better than at any time in my career. You get into a situation like these playoffs and all we've got to ask the starters is to go five good innings and hand it over to those boys and let them get their work done."

For the Twins, it was a night that was anything but normal. Rightfielder Michael Cuddyer misplayed a couple of balls. Luis Rivas got picked off first when they were down 4-0. Starter Rick Reed gave up two home runs. They wasted a couple of scoring opportunities.

But most damaging was a second-inning sequence when first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz and catcher A.J. Pierzynski teamed to turn a pickoff into a turning point that led to two Anaheim runs.

The Angels were up 2-0 with Scott Spiezio on third and Adam Kennedy on first with two outs. Reed had Kennedy picked off, but as Mientkiewicz chased him toward second, Spiezio broke for home. Mientkiewicz whirled to throw to the plate, but his throw was a bit on the first base side of the base, and by the time Pierzynski caught it and turned, Spiezio knocked into him and knocked the ball loose.

"Doug made a good play, we had a chance to get the guy and I just dropped the ball," Pierzynski said. "That's pretty much the bottom line. I made the big mistake tonight. You can blame it on me."

Spiezio, though, should get some of the credit, delivering a well-placed blow to Pierzynski's left arm.

"My arm was numb for about five innings," Pierzynski said. "It was like having a charley horse."

Compounding the error, Kennedy raced to third and scored on David Eckstein's soft single to right, making it 4-0.

"We should have been out of it," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "We actually did what we set up to do, we just didn't get the guy out at home plate."

The Angels built the lead to 6-0 when Brad Fullmer homered in the sixth, but the Twins didn't go quietly -- not that you could with the Metrodome-record crowd of 55,990 cheering and waving Homer Hankies at the slightest hint of a rally. Having not gotten a runner to second in the first five innings against Ramon Ortiz, they struck for three runs.

A Cristian Guzman double and a Corey Koskie single produced one run. Torii Hunter's smash that went off Eckstein's glove at short as he dived to his right put men on second and third, and Mientkiewicz followed with a hard single up the middle to make it 6-3.

From there, Angels manager Mike Scioscia turned it over to the bullpen, which had a league-best 2.98 ERA during the season.

"That's why they're where they're at," Gardenhire said. "They did a number out there."

Brendan Donnelly got the final two outs of the sixth.

Francisco Rodriguez, the 20-year-old whiz kid, roared through the seventh and got the first two outs of the eighth, logging three strikeouts.

And when he walked Hunter and Mientkiewicz blooped a single into shallow center, Scioscia brought in Percival, who extended his amazing streak to 361/3 career innings against Minnesota without allowing an earned run.

Percival struck out pinch-hitter Bobby Kielty to end the eighth on a pitch that looked to be inside, then ripped through the ninth.

While the Twins said all the right things about being happy with a split of the first two games, the reality is that the advantage now shifts to the Angels.

And the Angels know it.

"Our job was to come here and win one out of two on the road, so we've done that," Fullmer said. "We bounced back. We're a resilient team. Nobody panics. We lost (Tuesday) but nobody's mood changed. We have a good time, we joke around. And now we're going back home."

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