The1987American League Championship Series was a semifinal matchup inMajor League Baseball's1987 postseason which pitted theMinnesota Twins, theAmerican League West champions, against theDetroit Tigers, theAmerican League East champions. Minnesota won the Series four games to one, en route to winning the1987 World Series four games to three over theSt. Louis Cardinals.

The Detroit Tigers finished the 1987 regular season with the best record in all of baseball, at 98–64 (.605). They won theAmerican League East by two games in thrilling fashion over theToronto Blue Jays, overcoming a 3½-game deficit with a week to go, and clinching the division—and their second postseason appearance in four years—on the last day of the season with a 1–0 win over Toronto at Tiger Stadium.

The Twins, by contrast, finished with the worst record of any of the four teams that made the playoffs, at 85–77 (.525). Although they held off theKansas City Royals by two games to take theAmerican League West, they were clearly seen as the underdogs against the power of the Tigers in the 1987 ALCS.

Minnesota won the series, 4–1.

Wednesday, October 7, 1987, atHubert H. Humphrey Metrodome inMinneapolis, Minnesota

The 1987 AL playoffs opened at theHubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, with the Tigers throwingDoyle Alexander against the Twins'Frank Viola. In the bottom of the second, the Twins opened the scoring when third basemanGary Gaetti homered off Alexander to give Minnesota a 1–0 lead. However, Detroit answered back the very next half-inning, as catcherMike Heath homered to center field to tie the game. The game remained tied until the bottom of the fifth, when the Twins erupted for three runs. Gaetti led off the inning with his second round-tripper of the game, andRandy Bush followed by stroking a triple to right field and coming home on a double byTom Brunansky.Steve Lombardozzisacrificed Brunansky to third, and he scored on a subsequent base hit byDan Gladden to make it 4–1.

Beginning in the top half of the sixth, however, Detroit staged a comeback.Kirk Gibson hit a home run that inning, and then Heath ripped an RBI single in the seventh that scoredLarry Herndon to cut Minnesota's lead down to one. In the top of the eighth, the Tigers took a one-run lead with a pair ofsacrifice flies off Twins relieverJeff Reardon that scored Gibson andAlan Trammell.

In the bottom of the eighth, however, Minnesota took the lead for good. A double byKirby Puckett brought Gladden home to tie the game, andDon Baylor and Brunansky drove in the go-ahead runs offWillie Hernández with a single and double, respectively. A single byJohnny Grubb and a walk toLou Whitaker was all the Tigers could muster against Reardon in the ninth, as Gibson struck out to give the Twins an 8–5 victory and a 1–0 lead in the series. This was the Twins' first postseason win since Game 6 of the1965 World Series.

Thursday, October 8, 1987, atHubert H. Humphrey Metrodome inMinneapolis, Minnesota

For Game 2, the Twins sentBert Blyleven to the hill against Detroit's ace,Jack Morris. In the top of the second, the Tigers opened the scoring whenChet Lemon hit a two-run home run off Blyleven. In the bottom half of the inning, however, the Twins stormed back, as Gaetti doubled to right and scored on another double by Brunansky. After a walk toGreg Gagne, catcherTim Laudner hit the third double of the inning off Morris, scoring both Brunansky and Gagne for a 3–2 Minnesota lead.

The Twins extended their lead in the fourth, as Bush singled and then stole second and third. After consecutive walks to Brunansky and Gagne, Gladden singled to left to drive in Bush and Brunansky.Kent Hrbek then added a homer in the fifth, giving Minnesota a 6–2 lead. Tigers second basemanLou Whitaker touched Blyleven for a homer in the eighth, but the Twins hurler would allow nothing more. Former TigerJuan Berenguer struck out the side in the ninth to hand the Twins a 6–3 victory and a 2–0 series lead.

Saturday, October 10, 1987, atTiger Stadium inDetroit, Michigan

The Series shifted to Detroit for Game 3, with the Tigers'Walt Terrell facing the Twins'Les Straker. The two pitchers matched zeroes for the first two-and-a-half innings until the bottom of the third, when Detroit'sPat Sheridan doubled to left, moved to third on a single by Whitaker, and scored on a force out by Gibson that sent Whitaker to third. After Gibson stole second, abalk by Straker scored Whitaker, and a single by Trammell brought in Gibson. A double by Herndon then scored Trammell and Lemon to give the Tigers a 5–0 lead.

In the top of the fourth, the Twins cut Detroit's lead to 5–2 with a Gagne home run and a Bush single that scored Hrbek, and in the sixth they reduced the lead down to one with a two-run homer by Brunansky. In the top of the seventh, a two-out single by Gaetti drove in Gladden and Gagne to give the Twins a 6–5 lead and put them on the cusp of taking a stranglehold on the series.

Facing the prospect of blowing a 5–0 lead and falling behind three games to none, the Tigers rallied in the bottom of the eighth. Minnesota brought in Reardon to get a two-inning save, but Herndon greeted him with a leadoff single. After Tigers managerSparky Anderson sent Morris in to run for Herndon, Reardon gotTom Brookens to pop out to Hrbek on a sacrifice bunt attempt.Pat Sheridan, 1 for 6 lifetime against Reardon, hit the first pitch he saw into the upper deck in right field for a two-run home run that restored Detroit's lead, 7–6. In the top of the ninth,Mike Henneman retired the Twins in order to put the Tigers back in the Series, which now stood at 2–1 for Minnesota.

Sunday, October 11, 1987, atTiger Stadium inDetroit, Michigan

The fourth game of the series matched Viola against Tiger left-handerFrank Tanana, who had thrown a 1–0 complete-game shutout over theToronto Blue Jays on the final day of the regular season to punch Detroit's playoff ticket.

In the bottom of the first, the Tigers gave Tanana a 1–0 lead whenLou Whitaker walked to lead off the inning and eventually scored on a throwing error by Twins shortstopGreg Gagne. However, in the top of the third,Kirby Puckett homered off Tanana to tie the game, then Gagne added a homer in the top of the fourth to give Minnesota a 2–1 lead. The Twins made it a 3–1 lead in the fifth when Puckett came home on aGary Gaetti sacrifice fly, but the Tigers came to within a run in the bottom of the fifth when an infield hit byKirk Gibson scored Whitaker.

In the top of the sixth, Gagne doubled, moved to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a base hit by pinch-hitterGene Larkin to give Minnesota a 4–2 advantage. In the bottom half of the inning, the Tigers again clawed to within a run when pinch-hitterDave Bergman followed up singles byChet Lemon andDarrell Evans with a single of his own, scoring Lemon and moving Evans to second. AfterMike Heathsacrificed Evans to third and Bergman to second, Twins managerTom Kelly pulledKeith Atherton in favour ofJuan Berenguer. However, the Tiger rally was squelched when catcherTim Laudner picked a stunned Evans off third and Berenguer induced a flyout fromJim Morrison to end the inning.

In the eighth, the Twins restored their two-run lead when Laudner reached on an error by Evans (who was playing third base, as Bergman had stayed in the game as the first baseman) and came home to score on a single bySteve Lombardozzi. In the ninth, Reardon managed to preserve a 5–3 Twins win, putting them one victory away from the pennant. This was the first road postseason victory for the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins franchise since Game 1 of the1925 World Series.

Monday, October 12, 1987, atTiger Stadium inDetroit, Michigan

In what would turn out to be the last postseason game played atTiger Stadium, the Twins would send Blyleven to the mound to face the Tigers'Doyle Alexander.

In the top of the second, Minnesota drew first blood whenTom Brunansky doubled homeGary Gaetti andRandy Bush, but was thrown out trying to stretch his hit into a triple.Dan Gladden andKirby Puckett added RBI base hits of their own to give the Twins a 4–0 lead, and Tigers managerSparky Anderson replaced Alexander withEric King.

As they had several times during the series, Detroit cut the Twins' lead down to one run in the bottom of the fourth, whenKirk Gibson scored on anAlan Trammell single andMatt Nokes followed with a two-run homer that scored Trammell. In the top of the seventh, however, the Twins restored their two-run lead whenKent Hrbek singled, moved to second when Gaetti was hit by a pitch, took third on a wild pitch by King, and plated on a sacrifice fly by Bush.

In the eighth, Tiger relieverMike Henneman, who replaced King in the seventh, allowed a double to Gladden and a walk to Gagne. Puckett then grounded to Henneman, who attempted to initiate a double play. However, first basemanDarrell Evans misplayed the ball for his second error of the series, allowing Gladden to score and make it a 6–3 Minnesota lead. AlthoughChet Lemon homered for Detroit in the bottom half of the inning to make it 6–4, the Twins decisively stormed ahead in the top of the ninth. Brunansky hit his second home run of the postseason, and Gladden and Gagne followed with consecutive RBI doubles off Henneman andJeff Robinson.

The Twins sent Reardon, who entered the game in the bottom of the eighth, to the hill to close out the series in the bottom of the ninth. Although an RBI single by Gibson scoredJim Morrison, the Minnesota stopper allowed nothing more, asMatt Nokes grounded out to Reardon to end a 9–5 Twins victory and clinch the franchise's first World Series berth since1965.

This was the last postseason appearance for the Tigers until2006.

1987 ALCS(4–1):Minnesota Twins overDetroit Tigers

A week later, the Twins won theirfirst oftwo World Championships over the span of five years.

On January 22, 1988, an arbitrator's ruling madeKirk Gibson a free agent. A few days later, Gibson signed with the Dodgers and turned in one of the more mythical seasons in baseball history. In spring training, he set a fire under a Dodgers team that had lost 89 games in back-to-back seasons. He would go on to win theNational League Most Valuable Player Award andhit one of the most famous home runs in baseball history to winGame 1 of the World Series, which was his only at-bat of the series due to injury. Gibson returned to the Tigers in1993 and played the last three seasons of his career there until his retirement.

After the 1993 season, MLB owners and theMLBPA agreed to re-align and create a third Central division in each league as part of their collective bargaining agreement.^[6] The Twins moved to the newly addedAmerican League Central in 1994 and the Tigers followed them in 1998 after theMilwaukee Brewers moved to the National League and theTampa Bay Devil Rays formed, taking the Tigers’ place in theAmerican League East. In 2009, the two teams played for the division and a playoff berth in the2009 American League Central tie-breaker game, in which the Twins won by the score of 6–5 in extra innings. Outside of 2009, the only other time the Tigers and Twins finished 1–v2 in the standings was in2006, when the Twins clinched on the last day of the season after never having held sole possession of first place (they were the first team in MLB history to accomplish this feat). However, the Tigers still made the playoffs as awildcard and won theAmerican League pennant, before losing to the St. Louis Cardinals in theWorld Series.

Only three years removed from their historic 1984 season, where they won 104 games, swept the Royals in the ALCS and then won the World Series in five games over San Diego, this would be the closest that the Tigers would get to going back to the World Series in theSparky Anderson-era. Detroit had a 18-year postseason drought, as they would not play October postseason baseball again until the year2006, by which time Anderson and all the players on those teams had long since retired.

• 1987 ALCS at Baseball-Reference

• 1987 Major League Baseball season
• Minnesota Twins postseason
• Detroit Tigers postseason
• American League Championship Series
• 1987 in sports in Michigan
• 1987 in sports in Minnesota
• 1987 in Detroit
• 1980s in Minneapolis
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