September 15, 2002
Magic Number: 0
The Twins led 3-0, endured a long rain delay and then added 2 more runs, beating Cleveland 5-0 to cut their Magic Number to 1.
A little bit later in New York, the White Sox blew an early 4-0 lead to the Yankees, who scored three times in the 4th inning, once in the 5th and four times in the 6th before a rain delay of their own. Unlike the Twins' game, this one was called after 6 innings with the Yankees leading 8-4.
Which means...THE MINNESOTA TWINS ARE IN THE PLAYOFFS!!!!!!!!!!
So the Twins can now sit back, relax, get healthy (Milton and Hunter), stay healthy (Mays, Radke and everyone else) and decide exactly what they are going to do with their lineups and how they want to assemble their rotation for the playoffs.
Meanwhile, the A's lost to the Mariners and dropped a game behind the Angels (who beat the Rangers) for the AL West lead.
I invite all Twins fans to do what I will be doing and root for the Angels for the rest of the regular season.
The Twins will be playing the winner of the AL West in the 1st round of the playoffs and I don't know about everyone else, but I would rather face Washburn, Appier and Ortiz than Zito, Hudson and Mulder.
Plus, I wouldn't mind seeing another A's/Yankees matchup in round 1.
Let them beat each other up a little bit before they get to us!
