Twins down Athletics in playoff opener

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Minnesota Twins shook off a serious case of the playoff jitters in plenty of time.\nA.J. Pierzynski had four hits, and Corey Koskie homered and drove in three runs as the Twins overcame an early deficit and a series of fielding blunders to beat the Oakland Athletics 7-5 Tuesday in the first game of the AL division series.\nIn their first postseason appearance since winning the World Series in 1991, the Twins made three errors in the first two innings and fell behind 5-1 to A's ace Tim Hudson.\nBut the Twins, many of whom first met in the low minors and progressed together to the big leagues, finally got themselves together and steadily rallied for the win -- but not without a few screaming matches and gut checks in the dugout.\n"Torii (Hunter) came in screaming," said Doug Mientkiewicz, who homered. "He was saying, 'We've waited our whole lives for this! Let's get our heads out and get it done! We've still got seven innings!'"\nThe Twins were the best defensive team in the majors this season, making just 74 errors. They made three in the first two innings against Oakland -- and that doesn't count a pop fly that dropped in the infield while four Twins stood watching.\nBut the Twins, who defied baseball's conventional wisdom about small-market teams to win the AL Central, steadily rallied back with offense from nearly every player -- eight Twins got a hit -- and more of the steady bullpen work that's been one of their strongest assets.\nEddie Guardado capped four innings of scoreless relief with the save, getting pinch-hitter Adam Piatt on a fly to right with two runners on to end it.\n"We embarrassed ourselves for the first three innings there, not catching the ball and sort of looking like follies," manager Ron Gardenhire said. "We always talk about playing nine innings, though. Today, we played six, and it was good enough."\nEric Chavez drove in two runs for the A's, who tied the Yankees for the major league lead with 103 victories in the regular season. But Oakland didn't get the standout pitching that's been its trademark in three straight playoff campaigns.\nHudson, the longest-tenured member of Oakland's Big Three starters, never got comfortable in 5 1-3 shaky innings.\n"The bottom line is we just didn't pitch today," Hudson said. "They gave us some breaks early in the game, (but) they settled down. Obviously we would've liked to have won, but there's a lot of baseball left to be played."\nThe Twins took the lead with a three-run sixth inning. Koskie put Minnesota up 6-5 with a bases-loaded groundout against Ted Lilly (0-1), who relieved Hudson moments earlier.\nBoth starters had trouble on a gorgeous day at the Coliseum. Brad Radke (1-0), who stopped Oakland's AL-record 20-game winning streak last month with a six-hit shutout in Minneapolis, allowed eight hits and five runs -- although just one was earned -- in five innings.\nOnce Radke left, however, Minnesota's outstanding bullpen came through again as Johan Santana, J.C. Romero and Guardado shut out the A's.\nMiguel Tejada, Oakland's top run-producer and RBI candidate, struck out twice in the late innings, stranding three runners.\nThe Coliseum crowd of 34,853 was enthusiastic, but thousands of empty seats remained in the upper deck.\nGame 2 in the best-of-five series is Wednesday, with Mark Mulder pitching for Oakland against Joe Mays.\n"Last year, we won the first game and ended up losing," Oakland manager Art Howe said. "The year before, we won the first game and ended up losing. What we've been through the last couple of years should show us this isn't the end of the road."\nThe A's didn't show the same nerves as Minnesota. Instead, they couldn't overcome a weak outing from Hudson, who allowed eight hits and four runs in his shortest outing since July 17 and his first career loss to Minnesota.