For a few moments yesterday, there was doubt. The Twins had gone ahead 1-0 on a single by Mauer in the 6th inning, the third time in as many games that the Twins had drawn first blood. Pavano was cruising. And the Yankees had 9 outs left to respond.
A-Rod responded first. After Tex grounded out, Alex went out and produced this at-bat. 1-1 game.
Then Posada. Matsui struck out and Pavano seemed poised to maneuver the Twins into the 7th inning stretch in a tie game. That's when Jorge juiced one. 2-1 Yankees, and they never looked back.
In the bottom of the 8th Nick Punto, the Twins' version of Mark Lemke, doubled to lead off. Span, the Twins' leadoff man, next hit a high chopper up the middle. Jeter fielded it deep behind second base but never looked at span. Instead he looked at Punto, who was aggressively rounding third with a full head of steam. And here's the play...score it a 6-2-5 putout.
Pettitte had been cruising, along with the Yankees 40 million dollar bust (and later Twins boon) Carl Pavano.
But now it was all about the bullpens, about defense, and about clutch hitting. With two outs in the 8th in came the closer to face Joe Mauer, the league's presumptive MVP. Throwing a filthy cutter than leapt up inside to the left hander, Mauer swung and shattered his bat completely, grounding out weakly to first to end the threat in the 8th.
With 3 more outs in the 9th, Mo finished the job as he always has, and the Yankees had their series win, and their place in the American League Championship Series secured.
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