OAKLAND, Calif. -- How surprising is it that the Twins will play for the American League championship? How impossibly wonderful is it that a team handed a death sentence 11 months ago is now just four victories from the World Series? And just how spectacularly inexperienced is this low-budget, home-grown team that played Sunday's game without using a single man who ever played in the postseason prior to this week?

Put it this way, the Twins still need to learn how to properly execute a series-ending celebration pile. During the emotional celebration at the mound, someone spiked nine-season Twins veteran Denny Hocking at the bottom of the pile, opening a deep gash in his right middle finger that probably will keep him out of the rest of the postseason.

	David Ortiz and A.J. Pierzynski celebrate as the Twins move on to the ALCS.

Although obviously disappointed by the injury, Hocking was philosophical. "I've had the sweat, I've had the tears, so now comes the blood."

Blood, sweat, tears -- they've all gone through it all, these Twins. Through minor-league callups and demotions. Losing seasons upon losing seasons. A Hall-of-Fame career ended by glaucoma. Nasty trade demands. Unsigned first-round picks. Ludicrous threatened moves to Mayberry. And, of course, most notoriously of all, last winter's repulsive contraction threat that would have ended the team's 41-year history in Minnesota and scattered the Twins to the winds.

"I didn't want to be split up," said Gold Glove outfielder Torii Hunter, holding a victory champagne bottle as securely as any flyball. "I didn't want to look at all these guys on other teams. I didn't want to see Cristian Guzman on the other team or Doug Mientkiewicz with another team. We all came up together and stuck together.

"During the minors, we lost a lot and learned a lot. We struggled a lot. But everything we went through, we went through together."

In doing so the Twins became such a unified team, Mientkiewicz said they couldn't be any closer "if we were inside the same pair of pants."

So the Twins stayed together and survived it all, winning their division and then beating heavily-favored Oakland in the five-game Division Series, clinching it with Sunday's 5-4 victory at the Coliseum. The Twins now face the surprising Angels in the ALCS that begins Tuesday at the Metrodome.

Instead of a funeral, the Twins are drinking so much postseason champagne, Hunter said, "I'm going to have to go into rehab."

	(Torii) Hunter was properly aghast at (Carl Pohlad's) comment. "I want to say something but I can't," Hunter said, biting his tongue so purposely he was in danger of going on the disabled list. "Now you've made me mad."

Sunday's victory certainly was vintage Twins. Starting pitcher Brad Radke, who has been in Minnesota since 1995, silenced the 103-win Athletics for 6 2/3 innings. Eddie Guardado, who has been there since 1993, closed out the game with a cuticle-devouring ninth inning. And Hocking, who also has been there since 1993 and drove in the team's first run, caught the final foul popup to end the game, proudly waved the ball to the crowd as he raced a few steps and then stuffed it into his back pocket.

"You would need pretty strong hands to get that ball away from me," Hocking said. "It isn't going anywhere but straight to the trophy case in my house."

The injury, however, means Hocking's hand isn't that strong right now, either, which is doubly unfortunate because that middle finger was also the digit Hocking used most often while saluting Bud Selig's work as commissioner during last winter's contraction nightmare.

"And it wasn't just him," Hunter said.

No, it wasn't. Not only did the commissioner attempt to kill them off, so did their own owner, Carl (Montgomery Burns) Pohlad. He volunteered the Twins for contraction so that he could get the proposed buyout, believed to be as high as $200 million and as low as 30 pieces of silver. Pohlad congratulated the team after the game but even as he walked through the champagne-soaked clubhouse, you got the impression that he would have quickly chosen the cash over making the next round of the playoffs.

"I don't feel guilty about anything. Why should I?" Pohlad snapped when a reporter asked that very question about his attempt to contract a possible World Series team. "If you had to pay the bills and they were $15 million to $20 million a year, you would make the same decision, too."

Perhaps, but Hunter was properly aghast at the comment. "I want to say something but I can't," Hunter said, biting his tongue so purposely he was in danger of going on the disabled list. "Now you've made me mad."

Well, let's change the subject then, and turn back to the game.

With the series tied 2-2, the Twins and Athletics returned to Oakland for the finale with lefty Mark Mulder facing Radke. It was fitting the ball went to Radke. He has been in Minnesota's rotation since '95 and was one of the team's few bright spots during the lean years. Limited by injuries, he was 9-5 with a 4.72 ERA during the regular season but was at the top of his game Sunday, holding Oakland to one run and picking up his second win of the series.

"That answered the doubts of all those people I heard say he wasn't our number one pitcher, that he hadn't done anything this year," Mientkiewicz said. "Both games he pitched in this series were amazing. We gave him a bad deal in the first game with all those errors but he still won. And then everybody was talking about Mark Mulder, Mark Mulder -- and justifiably so -- but we had Brad and he's our No. 1 guy, too."

The Twins scored two runs off Mulder and added three in the ninth off closer Billy Koch to apparently put the game away. But nothing can be easy with these Twins. Guardado led the league in saves but he put his team through the wringer when he allowed a three-run homer to Mark Ellis to make the score 5-4.

"That was the hardest thing I've ever had to go through, to stand and watch that," manager Ron Gardenhire said. "But Eddie's given us a lot of heart attacks, so we're used to it."

Guardado eventually got out of the jam by retiring Ray Durham on the foul popup to Hocking.

Asked whether it seemed as if the popup took a long time to drop into Hocking's glove, Guardado replied, "Yeah -- I have to go check my shorts."

But what the hell. After you endure nine consecutive losing seasons and a death threat, what's a couple more anxious seconds?

"When Denny called everyone off, it was just relief and joy," Guardado said. "When I saw him catch it, I felt a little dizzy."

There was a lot of that going around, which was only expected. You rise up that far that quickly from your deathbed, and you're bound to feel a little light-headed.

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com.