Athletics sweep Twins out of playoff picture

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Oakland Athletics swept away years of first-round futility.

Milton Bradley homered and threw out Torii Hunter in a disputed play at the plate as the A's snapped a stretch of nine straight losses in potential playoff clinchers, beating Minnesota 8-3 Friday to reach the AL championship series for the first time in 14 years.

The A's never trailed in finishing off the Twins in three games and will face either the Detroit Tigers or New York Yankees starting Tuesday night.

Marco Scutaro doubled twice and tied an A's postseason record with four RBIs and Eric Chavez homered as the Athletics won a playoff series for the first time since 1990.

Dan Haren escaped two early jams to win in his first postseason start.

Tigers 6, Yankees 0

DETROIT -- The Detroit Tigers didn't waste this homecoming, and Kenny Rogers made every pitch count.

In a ballpark normally locked up by October, the Tigers got 7 2/3 shutout innings from Rogers and outplayed New York, pushing Detroit within one win of shocking the Yankees into an early winter.

Detroit scored three runs in the second inning off Randy Johnson and two more in the sixth. And, Rogers, whose career highlights include a perfect game in 1994 for Texas, made them stand up.

-- The Associated Press