(I’ll be on MPR with Gary Eichten talking Twins at noon today. We’re at 91.1 FM and www.mpr.org for the webcast.)

I’m glad that Nick Blackburn is pitching because, between his excellent tie-breaker pitching last season and his gems against the Tigers in Game 1 of last Tuesday’s doubleheader (which seems like a month ago) and against Zack Greinke on Saturday, he is my big-game choice. In his last four starts, he’s given up only 5 runs in 27 1/3 innings and let barely put than one man on base per inning (28 in that stretch). Whatever his mid-season struggles were, he seems to have dealt them and I’m glad he’s the choice.

This is such a crazy series in that the Twins basically were in no realistic position to compete well in Game 1 without an extraordinary effort, which didn’t happen. Now, against the team with the best record in baseball and a stranglehold over them during the past few years, the Twins have to win three out of four.

Twins chances: slim and some.

There are so many words in motion about this game, that I want to make one suggestion and then get out:

I want Carlos Gomez in center field tonight.

There’s lot of ground to cover in the Yankee Stadium outfield, especially from left-center to right-center, and we’ve seen several balls in recent games that may have been caught if Denard Span was in right field instead of center. (There’s less ground than the old Yankee Stadium, but still a lot.) During Gardy’s late-game defensive moves, Span has made two catches — one against Detroit and one against Kansas City — that were beyond what Kubel would have made. (Kubel is a workmanlike outfielder; Span is an excellent corner outfielder.)

And the Jose Morales of the last couple of weeks isn’t hitting like the Jose Morales whom many people wanted to see replace Mike Redmond earlier this season. Morales was so overmatched against Rick Porcello on Tuesday that Gardy lifted him after two at-bats, and I don’t think that bodes well for a prime-time appearance in Yankee Stadium. In addition his 4-for-29 in the last couple of weeks, Morales has only two extra-base hits (doubles) since being recalled in September and given significant DH time. (Both of those doubles came in one game against Cleveland.) This just isn’t his time.

I’ve been telling people who wondered about the Young-Span-Kubel outfield as a daily event that it’s been worth giving up the offense to get Morales or Harris in the lineup at DH.

Now, it’s different. Big outfield, big game … and the potential for a fly ball or a line drive that may call for one of the biggest defensive plays of the season.

Start Gomez.

(Note: I’ll be doing a baseball hour with Gary Eichten on Midday at noon Friday. You can listen at 91.1 FM or www.mpr.org.)

All of the talk about momentum and a fresh start and this and that was pretty much fueled by the same lack of sleep and focus that made the Game 1 outcome pretty much inevitable. Team gets to New York at 4 a.m. or so with a 6 p.m. game ahead of it after the tumultuous excitement of the previous day and you expect them to go out and beat the Yankees, of all teams?

In normal times, this would have been one of those games where you put out the “B” lineup and hope for the best.

Of course, that wasn’t going to happen in the postseason opener.

Instead, rather than try to bring Nick Blackburn back again on short rest, Gardy and Rick Anderson opted to throw rookie Brian Duensing at the Yankees — and got predictable results. Using Blackburn would have been like inviting the Cub Scout troop over for dinner and bringing out the good china, a waste of effort and quite possibly destructive in the long term. If Blackburn pitches well and the Twins lose 3-2, they’re still the same one game down as they are by losing 7-2 … or if they’d lost 17-2 and actually gotten more of the suits in the $1,506 seats behind home plate to cheer once in a while.

Now, if the Twins somehow force this series to a fifth game, Gardy can use Blackburn on Wednesday with regular rest. In the meantime, Duensing can be available if the Twins need to get through a left-leaning inning and Francisco Liriano can check out all the cool stuff in and around the Yankee Stadium bullpens. (Yes, it was weird to hear John Gordon introduce Liriano as “the Franchise” during Sunday’s Metrodome-closing ceremonies, but keep in mind that franchises come in all kinds — and I’m not going to be the one snarky enough to call him “Dollar Store.”)

The play that reinforced no how/no way/no win came in the bottom of the fourth when Nick Swisher doubled with two outs and Robinson Cano scored from first base when Delmon Young bounced his throw to Orlando Cabrera and Cabrera’s replay bounced and went wide of the plate. If those throws had been better, Cano is out at home. If one of them is better, Cano is probably out and the score stays tied at 2.

Then, in the next inning, Duensing found too much plate while facing A-Rod and Liriano grooved a pitch to Hideki Matsui and it was pretty much game over.

Again, in a game played on more equal footing, I don’t think Liriano is the one who comes in to face Matsui.

Don’t read this as complaint about the conditions under which the Twins were required to play. The Twins could have avoided this by winning the AL Central in 162 games instead of 163 and the Yankees were perfectly justified in choosing to start Wednesday instead of today. Those are the same advantages we would have expected the Twins to take if circumstances were in their favor.

What happened in Game 1 was that the Twins pretty much did what they could to survive and, yes, it’s improbable to imagine them winning three of the next four from the Yankees after all of the recent history between the teams.

But the current Twins are no strangers to the improbable, right?

I wouldn’t take it to the bank. But I’m cool with going into an alley and rolling the dice.

Not going very deep today. Win and the Twins are in and we have baseball at least through the weekend.

Lose and the Twins join 22 other teams on the sidelines.

I liked having a day to breathe between Games 162 and 163, even though it turns everything into a scurry on the other end for the winning team.

The thing I keep thinking about today is how much fun this has been. That was reinforced for me last night while I was watching the Vikings-Packers game and, more specifically, watching Brett Favre.

The guy has fun playing football, and that makes him fun to watch. And I say this as someone who has retained one hometown loyalty on the pro sports landscape — to the Bears. They may be fine and perfectly serviceable quarterbacks, but T-Jack and Rosenfels don’t give off the exuberance vibe that has set Favre apart during his Vikings months.

I can’t get inside the heads of those who reduce sports to ongoing curmudgeonly commentary. Yes, there are times when your team will make you crazy — and it’s perfectly OK to call them out for it. Because when that happens, the game isn’t as much fun for the players, and probably isn’t as much fun for you. Watching baseball is fun (almost) regardless. Watching Sean Henn, to name one earlier this season, wasn’t as much fun.

I don’t care right now that the AL Central is the weakest of the American league’s three divisions, which makes it the third best among baseball’s six divisions, right?  It’s October 6th and I’m going to a baseball game — which I also hope to be doing on October 11th, for that matter.

Back in my traveling basketball coaching days, I used to tell my players that I was all about having fun — but that we weren’t going to have fun by getting our brains beat out. You work hard in practice and we can have a lot of fun. Get a 20-point lead and the big kid can bring the ball upcourt and the point guard can post up.

Advice for today: Knock off work early, find a gathering place, prepare for so much tension that you won’t notice when it gets dark outside and get ready to celebrate. Have a “fired up/ready to go” afternoon and evening.

Figuring out how to survive the Yankees can wait for a day.

Having attended 1,000 or so baseball games, I can say without hesitation there’s little that I haven’t seen at one time or another: No-hitter (check). Game 7 of the World Series (check). Spring training (check). A 3,000th hit (check). A 3,000th strikeout and cycle in same game (check). Blowing 10-run lead (check). Ball stuck in Dome roof (check).  The list could go on with events both sacred and mundane.

But the thrills of recent days are an unprecedented combo platter of things that make baseball even better than a last-second touchdown pass or an off-balance three-pointer at the buzzer. From Wednesday night, when all seemed lost, through late Sunday afternoon, when the Dome again shook and then went all misty-eyed, there was hour-by-hour, inning-by-inning churn of drama that I don’t think you can find anyplace else.

Whether it was rubbing the thumb callous while the Twins were turning their 10-0 romp into a 10-7 semi-thriller… Cy Young Greinke v. M-V-P Mauer (and Kubel and Delmon) on Saturday… adopting the Mighty Whiteys in a Bloomington bar on Saturday night… watching Delmon create a new identity in these last few days… overlooking the flaws and relishing the over-achievements… and all of the events during and after Sunday’s game, baseball can do sustained drama like no other sport.

I may be biased about that, but you’ll just have to deal with it. And I understand that others — like the guy who had his purple van parked near the Metrodome at 6:30 this morning — likely have a different point of view.

Maybe it’s because there were so many valleys in this season that we feel like we’re standing on the highest peak right now — even if there’s no guarantee that there will be baseball for the Twins beyond Tuesday. The Twins are making this run with a Factory Outlet infield, their fourth-strongest defensive outfield, a patchwork starting rotation and a bullpen that’s been revised and re-revised in all spots except the very end.

This is better than 2006 because the stakes are higher. The final-weekend burst that season was only the difference between a division title and Wild Card berth. Tuesday, it’ll be like the title game for one of those college basketball conferences where only the winning team has a chance to go to the NCAA tournament. And the’re the added craziness of winning and then heading right to New York to open the playoffs, assuming the Yankees will want to get their postseason party started right away.

(Here’s the mlb.com explanation of the first-round playoff schedule: “In the Division Series, the New York Yankees will host the AL Central Champion (winner of the Tuesday, Oct. 6th DET @ MIN tie-breaker), while the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim will host the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees have clinched the best record in the American League and thus have the right to decide whether they will play in the seven-day or eight-day Division Series (i.e., whether it will start its Division Series on Wednesday, Oct. 7th or Thursday, Oct. 8th). The Yankees must make their selection no later than one hour following the completion of the DET @ MIN tie-breaker.”)

Whatever happens, this has been a season to remember — and to forgive and forget some of the things that some people were saying earlier, whether it those who misguidedly questioned Joe Mauer’s toughness or Jason Kubel being in the lineup every day, or whatever.

A 162-game season offers up plenty of chances for blockhead pronouncements. We all make them and we shouldn’t hold them against one another, especially we’re on the cusp of what would be a fantasy for so many suffering cities. I mean, have you ever talked to a Royals fan? Or a Pirates fan? Or … you get the idea.

Play on, guys.

I can’t tell you what was better — watching the Twins bounce back to beat the Royals in the afternoon or watching at Joe Senser’s in Bloomington as the Mighty Whiteys took care of Detroit and turned the AL Central into a tie. As the Detroit loss grew closer, more and more people turned their attention away from the other TV games and cheered on Chicago, a very strange feeling even when done for totally justifiable reasons. (Is it the best of both worlds when the White Sox win and AJ goes 0-for-5? That means he’s due for a big hit or two today, right?)

They were both better, and all the more because the Twins have total jurisdiction over their fate. If they win today and (if Detroit wins too) follow up by winning the one-game playoff on Tuesday, the Twins end this improbable stretch run with the division title and a postseason trip.

And they will end it largely owing to the unexpected heroics of Delmon Young and Michael Cuddyer. After going grand-slam deep against sad Lenny DiNardo on Friday night, Delmon opened the Twins lead from one run to four with a bases-loaded double off Zack Greinke, who should be as certain a choice for the Cy Young Award as Joe Mauer should be for M-V-P. At the time, it was a break-open-the-game hit. In time, it became incredibly needed because Jose Mijares again looked like a compilation of all the dreadful lefties who have pitched relief at the Dome over these 28 seasons.

And Cuddyer, reveling in the late-game decision to keep an overmatched left-handed September call-up on the mound in the eighth, got another of the clutch hits (his 31st home run) that run counter to the puke-spewing from some of those who pull apart statistics like string cheese.

Those people are not haters, they’re simply wrong — and somewhat stubborn.

For all of the grumpiness that has been a part of the season — including quite a bit that I have put forth — we are now in the final stages of a fantastic voyage. It’s like getting on the airplane thinking that you’re going to Cedar Rapids or Decatur and ending up in London or Paris. No matter the ultimate outcome, we will always have this ride to remember.

We watched Nick Blackburn pitch like a stud for the fourth straight outing, when excellence was needed, and we should be able to forgive his midseason horrors — all the while challenging him to pitch like this for enough of future seasons that he becomes the well-above-.500 pitcher that many of us think he can become. We are watching Delmon make a pitch for becoming a no-brainer choice in the outfield after this season, even when Justin Morneau returns to health. That would turn Carlos Gomez into a fourth outfielder and supreme high defensive replacement. We are seeing Denard Span gun himself into being one of the elite young outfielders in the majors, a .300+ hitter who plays well in center and dazzles in the corner outfield spots

We are seeing a team that still needs enhancements and improvements for 2010 and beyond. But it is a team that may find those moves easier to make, especially when it comes to free agents, because of the pluck that is being shown by the current roster. If you’re Chone Figgins and want out of L.A. … (Wait, that’s getting ahead of ourselves. Way ahead.)

By sundown, one of three things will happen — a division title, a one-game playoff or a mad rush that ends in disappointment. This from a team that was seven games behind the Tigers a month ago and 5 1/2 games back three Sundays ago. In two of those three outcomes, the Dome gets an extended farewell beyond the formalities of the regular-season finale.

I suspect that some of the members of the ‘87 Twins who are part of this weekend’s festivities see a little bit of themselves in what’s happening right now. And we all know how their season turned out.