Baseball News - Good-Bye Minnesota, Hello Boston


The Yankees finished off the Twins on Saturday with yet another dramatic comeback, taking a 6-5 victory in 11 innings at the Metrodome to win the American League Division Series.

With big home run by Ruben Sierra, a clutch 11th-inning hit by Alex Rodriguez, the New York Yankees are headed right back where most people figured; playing the Boston Red Sox for the American League pennant for the second straight year.

Alex Rodriguez scored the game-winner on a Kyle Lohse wild pitch, sending the Yankees to the ALCS for the seventh time since 1996.

"I've never been around so many guys that believe in themselves," Rodriguez said. "We have so many guys with big, big hearts."

Rodriguez also hit the game-tying double off of Joe Nathan in Game 2 in Yankee Stadium. If it had not bounced over the fence for a ground-rule double, A-Rod would have had the game-winning hit.

It seems that A-Rod has earned his paycheck and pinstripes for the Bronx Bombers.

With this 3-1 win in the first-round playoff series, New York returned to "The House that Ruth Built," where the AL Championship Series opens Tuesday night. Curt Schilling is likely to start for the Red Sox against Mike Mussina.

"This is what everybody drew up in spring training and now everybody gets to see what it's all about," Gary Sheffield said. "When Schilling went to the Red Sox and when A-Rod came here, that's what everybody wanted to see."

In the 11th inning, facing Kyle Lohse, Alex Rodriguez laced his second double of the game off of down the left-field line, putting the go-ahead run on second with one out. A-Rod then stole third base on unsuspecting catcher Pat Borders, who didn't throw. Then Lohse bounced a pitch to Sheffield that skipped past Borders, allowing Rodriguez to cross home with the winning run.

That wild pitch silenced the Metrodome, where fans thought their team would do better this year against the Yankees. Last year, the Twins won the first two games at Yankee Stadium, but failed to clinch at home in games 3 and 4. The Yankees ended up winning game 5 as well.

Mariano Rivera closed out the game to set up what promises to be another historic ALCS against the Red Sox.






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