ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Minnesota's turnaround from official league punchline to division champion began with him. The freefall ended for Team Rimshot on a September 11 morning three years ago when Eric Milton took the mound for a last-place team and gave a small but loyal crowd not just a glimpse of the future, but hope for the future as well.

	Eric Milton won 13 games for the Twins during the regular season, tied for second-most on the club.

In a season when his team would lose 97 games and on a Saturday morning when his sleep-eyed team had to play the game at 11 so the field could be set up afterward for college football, Milton pitched a no-hitter against the Anaheim Angels, providing evidence for those willing to look that there just might be reason to think this team wouldn't be lousy forever.

"(That no-hitter) did a lot for my confidence,'' Milton told reporters Thursday. "I had four pitches now in my arsenal and I could go on from there and try to perfect them and use them.''

"We were not very close to the top of the division,'' Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said with the same accuracy of a World Com exec saying the company did not turn a record profit in 2001. "All year long, he uplifted us. He was one of the big bright spots of that baseball team. And it was a very special moment for our team. It was very, very exciting and at a time when we were just trying to get through the season without anybody getting killed.''

True, only the most optimistic or naïve fan could imagine that within three years, Milton would again take the mound against the Angels with a chance to push his team to just two wins from the World Series. But that's the case Friday when the Twins meet the Angels in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series, with Milton facing lefty Jarrod Washburn.

The stakes are a little higher this time than in that September game which had a time limit due to the field conversion. There will be no college football game after this one.

	Milton's no-hitter: Angels 7, Twins 0 Sept. 11, 1999 at Minneapolis
	ANAHEIM	AB	R	H	BI	SO
	Davanon rf	3	0	0	0	3
	Palmeiro cf	2	0	0	0	2
	Greene lf	3	0	0	0	1
	Glaus 3b	3	0	0	0	0
	Decker dh	3	0	0	0	1
	Luke 1b	3	0	0	0	3
	Hemphill c	3	0	0	0	0
	Durrington 2b	3	0	0	0	1
	Sheets ss	3	0	0	0	2
	Totals	26	0	0	0	13
	BATTING: LOB - 1. BASERUNNING: CS - Davanon (1, 2nd base by Milton/Steinbach). FIELDING: E - Hemphill. DP: 1.
	MINNESOTA	AB	R	H	BI	SO
	Jones cf	4	1	1	0	2
	Hocking ss	4	1	2	3	1
	Lawton rf	3	1	1	0	0
	Steinbach c	4	1	2	1	0
	Walker dh	3	0	0	0	1
	Koskie 3b	4	1	2	1	0
	Hunter lf	4	1	1	0	1
	Mientkiewicz 1b	3	1	1	0	0
	Davidson 2b	3	0	0	1	0
	Totals	32	7	10	6	5
	BATTING: 2B - Mientkiewicz (21); Steinbach (15); Koskie (17). 3B - Steinbach (4); J Jones (2). HR - Hocking (7). RBI - Steinbach (36), Davidson (3), Hocking 3 (41), Koskie (53). GIDP - Steinbach. LOB - 4. BASERUNNING: SB - Lawton (24, 2nd base off R Ortiz/Hemphill). CS - Hocking (6, 2nd base by R Ortiz/Hemphill).
	ANAHEIM	IP	H	ER	BB	SO
	Ortiz (L, 1-2)	4.3	7	6	1	3
	Levine	1.6	0	0	0	0
	Holtz	1	1	0	0	1
	Mintz	1	2	1	1	1
	MINNESOTA	IP	H	ER	BB	SO
	Milton (W, 7-11)	9	0	0	2	13
	WP - Holtz. BALK - Ortiz. HBP - Lawton (by Ortiz). Pitches-strikes: E Milton 125-81; R Ortiz 84-48; Levine 10-6; Holtz 10-7; Mintz 28-16. Ground balls-fly balls: Milton 4-9; Ortiz 7-2; Levine 4-1; Holtz 2-0; Mintz 0-2. Batters faced: Milton 28; Ortiz 21; Levine 4; Holtz 4; Mintz 6. UMPIRES: HP--Tim Welke. 1B--Tim Tschida. 2B--Terry Craft. 3B--Jim Joyce. EJECTIONS: Ortiz by Welke (5th). T--2:28. Att-- 11,222.

Milton already came through for the Twins once this postseason, winning Game 4 of the Division Series with Oakland when Minnesota was one loss away from winter. In a win-or-go-home game, Milton pitched very well, holding the Athletics to two runs in seven innings.

It wasn't the first time the Twins looked to Milton. In 1998, second baseman Chuck Knoblauch demanded a trade barely a year after signing a five-year contract and the deal became one of the most important in club history when Minnesota dealt him to the Yankees for Milton, shortstop Cristian Guzman, outfielder Brian Buchanan and pitcher Daniel Mota.

"That was a tough time to go through,'' Twins general manager Terry Ryan said. "Chuck was our best player and along with (then manager) Tom Kelly, our signature name, and it was tough to figure out why he didn't want to stay with us. But he didn't think we could be competitive.''

Hard to believe where Knoblauch would get that idea. The Twins were coming off five consecutive losing seasons when he demanded the trade and would have three more after it was completed.

"We needed to get some pitching back in that deal,'' Ryan said. "If we were going to give the Yankees Knoblauch, we had to get Milton and some pitching in return. We wanted Milton. And we wanted Guzman and Buchanan, too. A lot of people were skeptical because we didn't get a name player in return. It was a hard deal to sell to fans. But Milton came along very quickly for us.''

Milton was 8-14 for the Twins in 1998 and then was 7-11 with the no-hitter in 1999 (taking two other no-hitters into the sixth as well). Minnesota finished dead last in 1999 and again the next year. But as poorly as the team played in 2000, the Twins feel they really began developing into a solid team that season, that they finally saw what their players were capable of. Milton was 13-10 in 2000 and improved to 15-7 last year and made the All-Star team when the Twins ended their streak of eight consecutive losing seasons.

Now they're tied at one win apiece in the series with Milton pitching against the franchise he once no-hit.

Of course, Milton faced a much different team that 1999 morning. The lineup he'll face today bears almost nothing in common other than the name on the uniform. Much of the no-hit lineup was career minor leaguers. Troy Glaus is the only regular on today's Angels who played that day.

Milton is 1-2 against the Angels this year, losing his last two games against them in Minnesota when he allowed 10 runs in 9 1/3 innings. He beat them earlier in the season in Anaheim, holding the Angels to one earned run and improving his career record in Anaheim to 4-0 with a 1.50 ERA.

"The no-hitter was a great thing obviously in my career,'' Milton said. "That's a thing of the past. The last thing I remember about the Angels was the last time I faced them wasn't very good. I have to do a lot better.''

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com.