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WILLIAM WILLCOXEN: Both teams pitched well, but the Twins used aggressive baserunning to capitalize on Yankee fielding mistakes and scoring three times. A handful of New York scoring chances, meanwhile, were snuffed out by nifty plays on the part of the Twins. The Yankees scored their lone run in the ninth inning, but Minnesota's Shannon Stewart limited the damage by making a leaping catch at the left field wall. [? Stewart ?] says pitching and fielding will be essential in the first round series.

[? STEWART: ?] In these games, the defense is very important. The offense is indeed the offense, but defensively, you got to be [INAUDIBLE] lights out, especially when you're playing these guys. They're such a good offensive team. And you get one or two runs. You got to bear down out there and try to do the best you can.

WILLIAM WILLCOXEN: The Twins prompted some of the Yankees defensive mistakes by challenging them on the base paths. Manager Ron Gardenhire says the Twins were not trying to exploit a New York weakness with their aggressive base running. He says that's just what the Twins need to do to make the best of their talent.

RON GARDENHIRE: We have to play like that. That's the only way we can play to win baseball games is running around the bases hard, take extra bases, try to do those things. We've been thrown out many a times in those situations, but we have to be aggressive.

We don't hit the ball out of the ballpark very often. So that's the thing. That's how we play.

WILLIAM WILLCOXEN: Yankee Stadium is a baseball shrine of sorts, with the home team having won the World Series 26 times in its storied history. That's two more titles than there were candles on Johan Santana's last birthday cake. But the young Venezuelan left hander took the pitcher's mound for the Twins and worked like a veteran, keeping New York's pinstriped hitters off balance and scoreless through four innings.

But while his teammates were batting in the top of the fifth, Santana suddenly felt a sharp pain in his hamstring. The leg cramp was so severe, he found himself unable to walk, much less play baseball. Gardenhire says he had no choice but to turn to his relief pitchers earlier than expected.

RON GARDENHIRE: I was frustrating for the kid. It meant a lot to him to be out on the mound, and I felt bad for him because he wanted to be out there, but you could obviously see he wasn't going to make it. So you just start looking and seeing how you're going to piece it together.

The one thing you try not to do is show panic in the dugout to your players and let your players see that. So I just said, here we go. Have some fun here, boys. We're going to piece it together as best we can. And that's what we did.

WILLIAM WILLCOXEN: Gardenhire turned first to Rick Reed, who pitched part of an inning. Then it was J.C. Romero. LaTroy Hawkins pitched two innings, and Eddie guardado worked the ninth. That's four relief pitchers going five innings and allowing only one run. Afterwards, Santana said his early exit didn't matter because it came in a winning effort.

JOHAN SANTANA: It's disappointing for me because I want to be out there. But [INAUDIBLE] it turned out to be great because we had the win. So as long as we win, it doesn't matter what it takes. It doesnt matter, whatever it takes to win.

WILLIAM WILLCOXEN: Of the four relievers, it was Hawkins who was especially dominant. The first Yankee he faced beat out an infield hit. The next six went down in order, including four on strikeouts.

Santana, who spent the first half of the season coming out of the bullpen, says it's easy to turn the ball over to relievers pitching as well as Hawkins.

JOHAN SANTANA: He's been unbelievable this year and the last year. And he showed you how good he is and then how confident you feel about himself. So he's done a pretty good job for us, same as Guardado in the bullpen. So we feel just confidence about everybody, because we know we can do the job.

WILLIAM WILLCOXEN: The teams will take a day off before game 2. Game 3, and if necessary, game 4, will be at the Metrodome Saturday and Sunday. Gardenhire expects Santana, who had a similar cramping episode once during the regular season, will be available to pitch again by Sunday, if needed.

JOHAN SANTANA: He'll be ready for game 4. I'll be nursing him myself. I'll be rubbing his legs down.

[LAUGHTER]

Training room is my office now for Santana. So we should have him back. Last time he did it, it was the same thing. He was ready to go his next start, which is five days. So hopefully we'll have him by then.

WILLIAM WILLCOXEN: Brad Radke will pitch for the Twins on Thursday night against the Yankees Andy Pettitte. I'm William Willcoxen, Minnesota Public Radio.