Twins Lose, 9-4, to Give Oakland West Title Again

The Oakland Athletics clinched their fourth West title in five seasons Monday night when the World Series champion Minnesota Twins were eliminated with a 9-4 loss to the Chicago White Sox at Minneapolis.

The A’s, idle on Monday, will open the playoffs on Oct. 7 at the home of the East champion, either Toronto or Milwaukee.

“One of the players said, ‘When you look at the season we’ve had, this is almost the only way it could be,’ ” A’s Manager Tony La Russa said after it was official. “There’s nothing that has fallen into place for this club, so this is probably the way we had to clinch it.”

La Russa, pitcher Rick Honeycutt, General Manager Sandy Alderson and first baseman Mark McGwire were among the members of the A’s organization who gathered in a room in the back of a restaurant in Oakland to watch the White Sox-Twins game on a big-screen television.

When the White Sox won, the A’s cheered and gave each other high-fives. They passed out hats that proclaimed “1992 Division Champs” and included the words “Catch the Fever.”

“It just goes to show you that you can prove the critics wrong,” said McGwire, who has 41 home runs and 103 RBIs. “Everybody put us in fourth place at the start of the season. That makes this all the greater.”

The Twins, who in late July had the best record in baseball, became the latest World Series winner not to repeat. The Yankees of 1977-78 last won back-to-back titles.

Minnesota was 60-38 on July 26 and had a three-game lead over Oakland. But the Twins went through a 9-19 slump, fell out of first place for good on Aug. 5 and steadily fell out of contention.

The Twins never were closer than 4 1/2 games in September. They were mathematically eliminated in the Metrodome, noisy site of last year’s victory over Atlanta in Game 7 of the World Series.

A subdued crowd of 16,329 watched as Chicago’s Tim Raines homered and tied a career-high with five runs batted in and George Bell homered and had three RBIs.

The A’s might have trouble keeping the team together next year--there have 14 potential free agents--but they look good heading into the postseason.

Even though the long-term impact of late August’s Jose Canseco trade won’t be known for a long time, the three players Oakland received--Ruben Sierra, Bobby Witt and Jeff Russell--all made key contributions the final weeks.

La Russa has said repeatedly he believes the A’s are better since the trade. More importantly, the A’s solidified the pitching staff.

Injuries caused the A’s to use 17 outfielders and 19 pitchers this season. The projected outfield of Rickey Henderson, Dave Henderson and Canseco never started together.

Baltimore 7, Boston 3--Brady Anderson hit two homers to become the eighth player to hit 20 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season as the Orioles won in their home finale.

Anderson homered in the first inning against Mike Gardiner, giving him 20 home runs and 51 steals. The feat has been accomplished only 15 times--including three apiece by Rickey Henderson, Joe Morgan and Cesar Cedeno.

Anderson also homered in the eighth, the first two-homer game of his career, to become the first player in AL history with 50 steals, 20 homers and 75 RBIs.

Cleveland 6, New York 4--Reggie Jefferson went four for four and set up the tiebreaking run in the eighth inning at Cleveland.

Sam Militello retired the first two batters in the eighth before Jefferson singled. After a wild pitch, Wayne Kirby pinch-ran for Jefferson and scored when Carlos Martinez singled for a 5-4 lead.