Gaetti led off the inning with his second round-tripper of the game, and Randy Bush followed by stroking a triple to right field and coming home on a double by Tom Brunansky.
Kirk Gibson hit a home run that inning, and then Heath ripped an RBI single in the seventh that scored Larry Herndon to cut Minnesota's lead down to one.
In the top of the eighth, the Tigers took a one-run lead with a pair of sacrifice flies off Twins reliever Jeff Reardon that scored Gibson and Alan Trammell.
A single by Johnny Grubb and a walk to Lou Whitaker was all the Tigers could muster against Reardon in the ninth, as Gibson struck out to give the Twins an 8–5 victory and a 1–0 lead in the series.
Thursday, October 8, 1987, at Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota For Game 2, the Twins sent Bert Blyleven to the hill against Detroit's ace, Jack Morris.
In the top of the seventh, a two-out single by Gaetti drove in Gladden and Gagne to give the Twins a 6–5 lead and put them on the cusp of taking a stranglehold on the series.
After Tigers manager Sparky Anderson sent Morris in to run for Herndon, Reardon got Tom Brookens to pop out to Hrbek on a sacrifice bunt attempt.
The Twins made it a 3–1 lead in the fifth when Puckett came home on a Gary Gaetti sacrifice fly, but the Tigers came to within a run in the bottom of the fifth when an infield hit by Kirk Gibson scored Whitaker.
In the top of the sixth, Gagne doubled, moved to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a base hit by pinch-hitter Gene Larkin to give Minnesota a 4–2 advantage.
However, the Tiger rally was squelched when catcher Tim Laudner picked a stunned Evans off third and Berenguer induced a flyout from Jim Morrison to end the inning.
In the eighth, the Twins restored their two-run lead when Laudner reached on an error by Evans (who was playing third base, as Bergman had stayed in the game as the first baseman) and came home to score on a single by Steve Lombardozzi.
In the top of the second, Minnesota drew first blood when Tom Brunansky doubled home Gary Gaetti and Randy Bush, but was thrown out trying to stretch his hit into a triple.
Dan Gladden and Kirby Puckett added RBI base hits of their own to give the Twins a 4–0 lead, and Tigers manager Sparky Anderson replaced Alexander with Eric King.
Although an RBI single by Gibson scored Jim Morrison, the Minnesota stopper allowed nothing more, as Matt Nokes grounded out to Reardon to end a 9–5 Twins victory and clinch the franchise's first World Series berth since 1965.
In 2009, the two teams played for the division and a playoff berth in the 2009 American League Central tie-breaker game, in which the Twins won by the score of 6–5 in extra innings.