AL CENTRAL Minnesota edges Tribe, 4-3

Corey Koskie came through in the clutch for the Twins.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Corey Koskie homered and hit a go-ahead two-run single in the eighth inning, lifting the Minnesota Twins over the Cleveland Indians 4-3 Friday night.
The AL Central champion Twins can still begin the playoffs at home. If they beat the Indians today and Sunday, and Anaheim and Oakland avoid a sweep in their three-game series this weekend, Minnesota would host Boston in Game 1 of the division series on Tuesday. If not, the Twins would open at the New York Yankees.
Ronnie Belliard went 3-for-4 with a home run, and Coco Crisp was 2-for-3 with an RBI for Cleveland (79-81) -- which missed a chance at its first winning season since 2001. The Indians were 68-94 last year.
Big inning
Minnesota won for just the third time in 10 games since clinching the division. Joe Nathan worked the ninth for his 44th save in 47 tries after Jesse Crain (3-0) pitched a scoreless eighth.
Bobby Howry (4-2) started the eighth, allowing singles to Lew Ford and Jason Kubel and a walk to Torii Hunter. Cliff Bartosh relieved and got one out before Koskie's big hit.
Koskie hit his team-leading 25th home run to spoil Scott Elarton's shutout bid with one out in the seventh. Cristian Guzman's RBI groundout cut the lead to 3-2.
The 6-foot-8 Elarton, whose time with Houston and Colorado was marred by shoulder problems, was signed by Cleveland in May after going 0-6 with a 9.80 ERA in eight starts and being waived by the Rockies.
He's been much better with the Indians -- this was his fifth straight start allowing three runs or fewer. He's still looking for his first victory in 24 starts on the road, however. The last one came with the Astros on May 6, 2001, at Montreal.
Elarton gave up two runs, five hits and two walks in 62/3 innings.
Terry Mulholland pitched seven strong innings for the Twins. He allowed seven hits, three runs -- two earned -- and one walk in his longest outing since an eight-inning no-decision in Cleveland on Aug. 15. Minnesota won that game 4-2 in 10 innings, the turning point in the race.
Seven weeks ago, it looked like this series would really mean something. After pulling within one game of the Twins on Aug. 14, though, the Indians lost nine straight and the Twins surged ahead of the pack.
Cleveland scored twice in the second on a double by Crisp and a sacrifice fly by Josh Bard.
Notes
Belliard made a routine catch of Hunter's pop-up in the fourth inning look anything but routine. Backpedaling from second base into the outfield as he held his glove parallel to his body, Belliard watched the ball pop out of his mitt and ricochet off his bare hand, chest and chin before landing back in the glove. ... Nobody struck out until Justin Morneau went down swinging in the bottom of the eighth.