DETROIT _ It was Rocco Baldelli's 38th birthday. Randy Dobnak is getting married on Saturday. Luis Arraez was, who knows, happy to break out of a five-game sort-of slump.
Point is, the Twins had a lot of things to celebrate after their 5-1 victory over the Tigers, plenty of reasons to throw a party. And one other thing comes to mind, too.
Their first AL Central championship in nine years.
The champagne was on ice in the Twins' clubhouse Wednesday after Dobnak pitched six stellar innings, after Arraez put the Twins in front with a two-run homer, after Baldelli orchestrated the Twins' 98th win, second-most ever by the Minnesota Twins.
And after the Twins clinched no worse than a tie for the division title.
Beating the Tigers for the 13th time in 18 meetings this season drove the Twins' magic number down to 1, with four games remaining in the season. And in Chicago, the Indians trailed the White Sox 3-1, meaning the Twins' season-long quest for a title could be over within a few innings.
"You kind of have to wait for those things to happen. Thinking about them beforehand doesn't really get you anywhere," Baldelli said before the game, sticking to his cautious approach. "We haven't clinched anything."
No, but the moment couldn't be much more inevitable. The Twins only hope they have a chance to celebrate while Dobnak is with them. The rookie righthander has been granted permission to leave the team for his long-scheduled wedding on Saturday, meaning there are plenty of champagne toasts in his immediate future. He'll be toasted in the Twin Cities, too, for one of the most dominating pitching performances of the Twins' season. Dobnak, the undrafted rookie who started the season in Class A, allowed only one hit over six innings, a first-inning double to right-center by Jeimer Candelario that only mattered because Jorge Polanco had misplayed Miguel Cabrera's ground ball into an error.
Candelario's double scored Cabrera from first base, but just barely: The former MVP, reduced by weight and bad knees to one of the game's slowest runners, slid home a split-second before Mitch Garver's tag.
If Dobnak was bothered by the sequence, it didn't show, because he proceeded to mow down 16 of the next 17 hitters he faced, the lone blemish once again not his fault: an error by Miguel Sano. Mixing four different pitches brilliantly _ he used all four on a couple of his six strikeouts _ Dobnak didn't walk a batter, got 16 swinging strikes, 10 on his curveball, and finished with a flourish, striking out the side in the sixth inning.
Baldelli offers no hints of the Twins' plans, but one would surmise that Dobnak's next start _ once he returns as a married man _ will be in the AL Division Series.
Still, for the second straight night, the Twins' offense was quieted by Tigers pitching, at least for six innings. But just as they did on Tuesday, the Twins came alive in the seventh inning. Sano led off with a walk, and Arraez pounded a 1-1 curveball from Drew Verhagen into the right field seats, his fourth home run of the year.
An inning later, the heart of the Twins' order struck for three more runs. Polanco tripled, Nelson Cruz singled him home, and Eddie Rosario lined a home run to right field.
