Killebrew’s Klout Klobbers A’s in Finale

9/27 - Oakland Coliseum
A's 5, Twins 3
Bob Porterfield vs Blue Moon Odom
Oakland jumped out to a 5-0 lead, then Odom began to tire after 135 pitches and the Twins rallied back for 3 runs to make it a game.  Jack Aker and Dennis Eckersley (11th save) combined for 2 scoreless innings of relief.  Rickey Henderson stole his 15th base of the season and Jerry Lumpe had a 3 for 3 day including 2 RBI's.  Killebrew did not have an official AB as he walked 3 times and was hit by a pitch.

9/28
A's 7, Twins 5
Dave Goltz vs Catfish Hunter
Hunter was bad early, but Goltz was just plain bad.  After being staked to a 4-0 lead Goltz surrendered 4 runs in the 4th the gave up solo runs in each of the next 3 innings.  Feris Fain (2) and Reggie Jackson (16) each went deep.  Eckersley was once again shaky, as evidenced by the solo shot he gave up to light hitting Eddie Yost, but he still had enough to get his 12th save to lead the league.

9/29
Twins 8, A's 4 (10 inn)
Kevin Tapani vs Bob Welch
Both starters went 6 and gave up 2 and left the game with a no decision.  Middle relievers Bert Blyleven and Rollie Fingers surrendered 2 in 2 innings and looked nothing like the HOF'ers that their plaques in Cooperstown attest to.  For a season finale this game was extremely exciting.  With the A's having nothing to play for and the Twins just trying to remain healthy for the post season one would expect both teams to have mailed it in.  This was certainly not the case.  Every time the Twins took the lead late in the game the A's answered right back.  Jose Canseco, who had 2 homers on the day, hit his 7th off of Blyleven in the 8th to tie it up at 3-3.  After the Twins took a 4-3 lead in the top of the 9th Brian Harper singled home Mickey Vernon to give the Twins another 1 run lead.  Joe Rudi's sac fly in the bottom of the inning forced extras.  Jack Aker fanned the first 2 batters he faced in the 10th, but he could not survive a 3 run upper deck job by Harmon Killebrew, who recorded his KOD single season record 22nd round tripper.  For good measure Tom Brunansky added a solo blast to make it a 4 run gap that the A's were not going to come back from.  Al Worthington got the win and Aker took the loss.  Killebrew had a 2 for 4 day with 3 RBI's to finish off the season in grand style.  Jose Canseco's 4 for 5, two homer day was not enough for the A's who finished the season an even 24-24.

Congratulation to Marvin Sik for making his 3rd KOD post season with the Twins.  This would be Marvin's 1st appearance in the post season since KOD8, when he took the 61 Twins to the LDS.  Prior to that he lost in 7 in the ALCS with the 64 Twins in KOD 6.  By virtue of winning the division the Twins will be awarded the #2 seed in the AL.