Game 103: Angels rally past Twins in 11
Los Angeles @ Minnesota (Game 1 of 3)
The Angels pulled together a late rally and scored six runs in the 11th to defeat the Twins by a score of 11-5.
The Angels took a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first with three solid singles and a sacrifice fly off of Nick Blackburn. Joe Mauer, though, would put the Twins on top with a 3-run home run off Ervin Santana in the bottom of the third to make it a 3-2 ballgame.
The Twins would extend their lead the following inning as the bottom half of the order came through with a double from Carlos Gomez and an RBI triple from Nick Punto. Denard Span followed with a RBI double and the Twins took a 5-2 lead.
Blackburn would hold on to the lead until running into problems in the top of the seventh. Blackburn gave up a leadoff double to Reggie Willits and retired the next two batters. He then gave up a 2-run homer to Bobby Abreu and put another runner on before being replaced by Jose Mijares who retired the next batter in five pitches.
With a 5-4 lead, the Twins turned the game over to Matt Guerrier, who gave up a leadoff home run to Mike Napoli in the top of the eighth to tie the game at five each. Guerrier would retire the next six batters he faced, as did the Angels, and the game went into extra innings.
Joe Nathan struck out the side in the tenth but the pitching staff ran into problems in the top of the 11th when Bobby Keppel came out to the mound. Keppel gave up a leadoff walk to Erick Aybar, who used his speed to move over to third on a single from Gary Matthews Jr. Brendan Harris then tripped over his feet on a soft grounder by pinch-hitting Howard Kendrick to knock in a run and make it 6-5.
Jesse Crain replaced Keppel and gave up a bunt single to Chone Figgins to load the bases and Maicer Izturis hit a line drive single to center to knock in another run. Abreu followed with a 2-run single to right and Juan Rivera loaded the bases with a walk.
With no out, R.A. Dickey came out to the pitch and gave up an RBI single on one pitch to Kendry Morales. Dickey would strike out Napoli for the first out and get Erick Aybar out on a force out that scored another run. Dickey then ended the inning with by striking out Matthews Jr. but the damage was done as the Angels took a 11-5 lead.
Darren Oliver pitched in the bottom half of the 11th and made quick work out of the lineup by retiring the three batters in nine pitches.
Attendance: 31,767
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