Minnesota Twins 5-4 Oakland Athletics

The unfancied Minnesota Twins completed a remarkable comeback to beat Oakland Athletics and take their place in the American League Championship Series.

AJ Pierzynski hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning and Cristian Guzman had three hits as the Twins secured the best of five series by three games to two.

The Twins were heavy underdogs in the series, and will face fellow giant-killers the Anaheim Angels in the best-of-seven Championship Series on Tuesday night at Minneapolis.

"Nobody said it would be easy and it wasn't. Nobody gave us a chance, but we're still here," Pierzynski said.

"This has been a dream come true. The only way it would be better would be for us to go to the World Series."

Minnesota trailed the series 2-1 heading into Game Four, but a convincing 11-2 win in Minneapolis set up Sunday's deciding game.

The Twins managed enough timely hits and strong pitching to pull out the win in the tension-filled finale, sending Oakland to their third consecutive fifth game loss in the play-offs.

Minnesota led 2-1 after eight innings before scoring three runs in the top of the ninth to take a 5-1 lead.

But the A's rallied for three runs of their own in the bottom of the ninth inning on a three-run homer by Mark Ellis before falling just short of a remarkable comeback.

National League

San Francisco Giants 8-3 Atlanta Braves

Rich Aurilia hit a three-run homer and drove in four runs as the San Francisco Giants pounded the Atlanta Braves 8-3 in on Sunday night.

The win ties the best-of-five series 2-2 and forces a fifth and deciding game in the series on Monday at Atlanta.

The Giants scored seven runs in the first three innings and coasted to the easy win over the Braves, who beat the Giants 10-2 in Game Three on Saturday.

Barry Bonds opened the scoring for the Giants with a first inning sacrifice fly off Glavine and Benito Santiago followed with a run scoring groundout to make it 2-0.

The Giants added another pair of runs in the second inning on an RBI single by Aurilia and a bases loaded walk to Santiago before Aurilia drilled his three-run homer off Glavine in the third inning to make it 7-0.

Vinny Castilla had two hits and drove in a run for Atlanta, while Javy Lopez and Rafael Furcal drove in the other Braves' runs.

The winner of this series will play St. Louis in the opening game of the National League Championship Series on Wednesday night.