Thanks to Mike Herman of the Twins baseball communications department, we were able to grab Twins manager Ron Gardenhire following his main press conference to get more details on Jesse Crain’s sore groin muscle.

But it led to some interesting stuff from the Twins manager about Game 1 and the state of his team.

Gardenhire could have said nothing about Crain just to keep the Yankees guessing, but didn’t.

 “I’m not hiding anything from them,” Gardenhire said. “I think I should let you guys know. That’s important. If he can’t pitch tomorrow night, you guys are going be going, `What happened to Crain? Well, he’s hurt.’ I don’t like that stuff. If you have something, just tell them.”

Crain was one of several players to get treatment on Thursday. Gardy was optimistic Crain would be available Friday.

“I didn’t throw,” Crain said. “I just did some cardio and some stretching and got in the hot tub. It felt better after all that stuff.” 

I asked Gardy if that affected his bullpen decisions. Nope. Francisco Liriano was 0-1 with a 3.18 ERA in two starts against the Yankees this season and has a career 2.77 ERA against him. My take on this is that Liriano has had such a poor season and was on the bubble to make an 11-man postseason staff before the Twins decided to go with 12 pitchers (although Liriano probably would have gotten the nod over Bobby Keppel because he’s a lefty).

“Keppel, really didn’t want to go  to him,” Gardenhire said. “He had thrown too many (on Tuesday). So you’re looking long (relief) more than anything else. We thought about trying to go inning-by-inning but those guys have thrown.”

Brian Duensing’s pitch to Alex Rodriguez was the moment that jumped out at him the most. He said pitching coach Rick Anderson told Duensing to be careful with the All-Star because the chances were good that he would chase something off the plate. But Duensing grooved a pitch.

“We gave  up A-Rod’s first (postseason) RBI in five years,” he said. “Chrysler.”

Joe Mauer also came in for treatment.

“Joe, he’s a little sore,” Gardenhire said. “Play all night and fly all night. You couldn’t tell by his swing but he’s a little more sore, so he came in and got some treatment. And I think this is going to be a beautiful day off for him, Get some treatment and relax.

“He’s the one guy you really worry about. He’s taken a beating. You play a marathon game then fly until 4:30 in the morning.”

And as Joe C. mentioned in his blog, I did get stuck in the elevator with six other scribes for 20 minutes today. And, yes, I texted Joe a question to ask Gardenhire. While other people in the nervous in the elevator, I was  cool. We were on the ground floor and just had to wait for someone to pry the door open. I might have felt differently if we had been a few floors up.

But the issue I have is with the Yankees and their $1.5 billion tribute to themselves? The elevator breaks down in the first year? Really?

Finally here.

One thing to note is that there’s a major wind gust to center-right center today. The wind is expected to play a factor in both Philadelphia and New York today, but will all the talk about a built-in jet stream out to right here the wind could make an even bigger difference tonight.

Just spotted some folks on the field. Headed down to get into the mix….

The 4:45 a.m. alarm did me a lot of good this morning. My flight to New York has been delayed. So I’ll hit the ground in the Big Apple around 2:15 and head straight for Yankee Stadium.

ESPN reported that the Twins landed at 3:05 a.m. eastern time. I’m sure most of them will be tired, buzzed from beer and champagne - but running on adrenaline.

Before the game began, I wondered to co-workers about how much celebrating the winner of the game could get away with. The Twins didn’t hold much back. The game ended about 8:45. They had the clubhouse soaked about 20 minutes later.

My assignment was to get notes for the notebook and write a Joe Mauer story, since he was so amped for the game that he nearly slid into left field in the first and nearly fell on his face rounding first later in the game. Got my stuff, headed back upstairs and filed my stories for the first edition at 9:45 p.m.

I wasn’t satisfied with my Mauer story and wanted to get a couple fresher notes in the notebook. So I went back down to the clubhouse at 10:10 - nearly 90 minutes after Casilla’s game-winner. Half the team had hit the showers. The other half were still celebrating.

I got through my first trip to the clubhouse fairly well. The return trip didn’t go so well.

“Hey! Somebody is dry!” Justin Morneau yelled.

Someone grabbed me from behind, I ducked, then got four beers poured on me. My head was down so I didn’t see the culprits. I did hear Delmon Young’s voice. I ended up getting the quote from Morneau that I wanted, so I guess the tradeoff worked out.

Five division titles since 2002. I’ve avoided getting crushed like that most of the time. Jacque Jones got me good in 2002, yelling, “that’s what you get for saying I couldn’t hit lefties!” while pouring two cans of beer on me. Kenny Rogers got me pretty good in 2003 but kept telling me how great a guy I was. Then he wouldn’t speak to me a week later because he was ticked about the Twins not starting him in the postseason against the Yankees.

This was the first time I was attacked by a horde of beer-wielding, baseball-playing revelers.

The Point of this Entry

What I wanted to throw up for discussion - before the Twins take on the Yankees - is if last night was the best baseball game in Twins history. We tend to get drunk on the moment and the emotion can distort our thinking.

But national media types this morning are still raving about last night. I wasn’t here to watch Puckett in Game 6. I wasn’t here to watch Jack Morris take the mound for the 10th inning. Twins fans would know a little better than me if last night topped them all.

What say you?

That’s all for now. Joe C. will be the first to arrive in New York, and I’ll check in once I get organized. 

What a night. Unreal.

This would have been great day for outdoor baseball, eh?

Bill Lester of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Committee said that the field could be ready for batting practice by noon, and he was just about right. The infield is in place, the batting cage is sitting in right field, ready to be moved behind the plate. You can see some of the football lines, even after workers tried to blast them away, but it’s really not that bad.

Good stuff in the game notes. The Twins are 41-32 since the All-Star break while the Tigers went 38-37. The Twins have outscored the Tigers 379-320 since then, while the Tigers have a better team ERA, 4.53 to 4.71.

Joe Nathan has converted all 30 of his save opportunities against the Tigers.

Denard Span is batting .413 in his career against Detroit - .432 this season.

Joe Mauer will lock up his third batting title today. He’ll join a group of three-time winners that includes Nap Lajoie, Ty Cobb, Harry Heilmann, Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Tony Oliva, Rod Carew, George Brett and Wade Boggs. Wow.

Magglio Ordonez is batting .386 over his past 55 games and leads all active players with at least 25 plate appearances against Scott Baker with a .462 batting average.

 Curtis Granderson has hit 16 homers in 81 games against the Twins in his career. His .536 slugging percentage at the Dome is seventh among active players.

The Miguel Cabrera situation is buzzing through the pressbox. My buddy John Paul Morosi of Fox Sports feels Cabrera should  be benched. Here’s more background on the controversy. Cabrera is expected to play today, but you wonder if he’ll be able to focus.

The batting cage is being wheeled into place. The clubhouses will open in a few minutes. Joe C. will have the lineups on his blog when they become available.

Last Saturday, Zack Greinke held the Twins to one run over seven innings. The Twins lamented their missed scoring opportunities.

This Saturday, the Twins didn’t have many chances against Greinke. But they did plenty of damage when they did, going 3-for-5 with runners in scoring position and knocking Greinke out in the sixth. Joe Mauer opened the scoring with a RBI single off a 94-mph fastball. Delmon Young cleared the bases with a double to right-center for the big blow against Greinke.

Greinke was impressed with Twins hitters - which was quite a statement coming from the likely Cy Young winner.

“Even when they were getting out they were taking good at bats up there,” Greinke said. “The only team that I faced over the years where they…they actually elevate their game when the pressure is on the line. Most teams either stay the same or get tight and try to do more than they can do.

“Delmon Young, perfect example. I threw a fastball to him hoping he would try to get big and hit a home run with it. He just stayed through it and hit it to the opposite field and I haven’t seen him do that a whole lot.

”It shows how relaxed they stayed in pressure situations. And I don’t expect that.”

Greinke gave up four runs in the sixth, the most he’s given up in an inning this season. It broke a run 14 scoreless innings on the road for him. Greinke will finish the season with a 2.16 ERA, second only to Bret Saberhagen (2.08 in 1989) in Royals history.

Joe is going to have all the goodies on the showdown with Mauer. But Greinke did say he enjoyed facing Mauer and liked  being involved in a big game for the Twins.

“Yeah. I thought it was the biggest game I pitched in all year besides maybe the first game of the year because there was so much on the line and it was real serious,” he said.

Other notes

Sunday’s game is sold out.

If there’s a tiebreaking game on Tuesday, it will start at 4 p.m.

Carl Pavano, not Brian Duensing, will start on Sunday. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said he wanted the veteran on the mound in a big game. I would imagine that Brian Duensing, Scott Baker, Kevin Tapani and Ron  Davis will be ready to pitch if needed.

Nick Blackburn finishes with 205.2 innings, the first Twins pitcher to reach 200 innings since Johan Santana and Carlos Silva in 2007.

Anyone find it odd that Freddy Garcia started for the Tigers against the White Sox last year with the playoffs on the line for the Sox and tonight is pitching for the White Sox against the Tigers with the playoffs on the line for the Tigers?