"It ain't done yet!" says Hunter as Twins make playoffs

Capping a remarkable reversal, Minnesota clinched a wild-card spot by beating the Kansas City Royals 8-1 on Monday behind home runs from Torii Hunter and Justin Morneau.

"We never stopped talking about the playoffs," Morneau said, smiling in a pungent, plastic-covered clubhouse that was soaked in champagne and beer.

With his blue shirt soaked to the skin and alcohol dripping off his goggles, Hunter led a toast in a circle of his teammates. Colored bottles raised, the Twins cheered their spot in the playoffs but made clear they're still pushing for the division title. "It ain't done yet!" Hunter yelled.

Minnesota's win, coupled with Chicago's 14-1 loss to Cleveland, eliminated the defending World Series champion White Sox from contention. The Twins zeroed in on the division race, in which they trail Detroit by one game with the Tigers holding the tiebreaker.

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"Hopefully this is just the start of what we can do," said starter Boof Bonser (7-5), who pitched brilliantly against the depleted Royals, who lost their seventh straight and were forced to watch the opponents celebrate for the second consecutive game.

"It drives me. I want to be doing that one day," right fielder Shane Costa said, down the hall from all the hoopla. "Hopefully in years to come, maybe we can be doing that."

After Joe Nathan pitched a scoreless ninth, the Twins streamed out of the dugout and jumped up and down in the middle of the diamond - before taking the party up to the clubhouse.

The small school-night crowd of 18,108 at the Metrodome cheered when Chicago's game was final, saving more screaming for the real celebration about 90 minutes later.

"Hopefully we're doing this again. That's our goal," said Morneau, who heard a series of "MVP" chants after his three-run shot in the eighth, his 34th of the year but his first since Aug. 24. He has 129 RBIs, second in the league behind Boston's David Ortiz.

Hunter hit career-high 30th homer and Joe Mauer, Jason Tyner and Nick Punto hit RBI singles for Bonser, who is 4-0 with a 2.20 ERA in his last five starts - probably cementing his spot in the playoff rotation.

He gave up a just-barely homer to Angel Berroa over the left-field wall in the sixth and a leadoff double to Emil Brown in the fifth, striking out five and walking two over 6 2-3 innings.

Bonser left to a loud serenade, "Booooof!" as Dennys Reyes took over for the last out of the seventh.

"Everything is finally coming through," Bonser said. "I can't say it's just me, because it's the guys behind me. They're hitting the ball and playing defense. That's it right there. It's all about the Twins. It's not just one guy. It's everybody."

Hunter, named the AL's co-Player of the Week on Monday, heard the loudest cheers, following his two-run shot in the seventh against Zack Greinke. He popped out of the dugout minutes later for a curtain call. The five-time Gold Glove winner, who has been hobbled this year by a sore left foot, also made two exceptional running catches in center field, doubled and stole third base before scoring a run.

Jorge De La Rosa (3-4), who arrived in a July trade with Milwaukee, has struggled with his command all season. His career-long outing came in his previous start, 6 2-3 innings in a loss, but he didn't make it out of the fifth against Minnesota despite allowing only two runs.