An A-Bomb, a Tex message, Yankees win

Last night was undoubtedly the loudest the new Yankee Stadium has been, and boy, was that a game to remember. The Yankees seemed destined to head to Minnesota even in the series when Mark Teixeira logged a ninth-inning single and Alex Rodriguez followed by crushing a two-run bomb — Nick Swisher said it was like a shotgun went off on the field — that came to rest in the Yankees bullpen.

What followed was a remarkable sequence for the ages, featuring a blown call by left field umpire Phil Cuzzi that cost the Twins a run, then the Twins wasting a bases-loaded, none-out chance as Dave Robertson picked up a new nickname: Houdini. The Yankees overcame their own missed chances in the 10th inning when Teixeira hit a low line drive over the left field wall, the first walk-off Yankees postseason homer since Aaron Boone in 2003.

Flash forward a few hours and here we are at an empty and deathly quiet Metrodome, where the only noise is the constant humming of an ice machine in the back of the press box. That’s OK. Give it about a day and a half. The Twins will look to fight off elimination and the Yankees will try to bring this one back home on Sunday night under the white baggy roof. Plenty of Saturday Bombers reading courtesy of your friends at MLB.com:

• •
  Two much: A-Rod, Teixeira topple Twins

“Hopefully, we finish the goal that we’ve put out for ourselves all
year,” Teixeira said. “Right now, you can enjoy it for a couple of
hours, but if you don’t take care of business, it kind of loses its
magic, I think.”

• •
  Don’t even! No split as Yanks win classic

“You feel so good,” A-Rod said. “You grind out an at-bat against one of
the best closers in the game. You get to a favorable count and you get
a pitch in your wheelhouse. Obviously, you don’t want to miss it. The
fun part is this: I was just thinking, ‘Base hit — hit the ball hard
somewhere,’ and it went to the seats.”

• •
  A-Rod has everyone on notice with rebirth

“He’s a tremendous ballplayer, and I would want him in that situation
time and time again, because he’s going to come through,” reliever Phil
Coke said. “He’s too good not to come through. To have the game he had,
for him to be able to come back after the first game and do it all
again is huge.”

• •
  With walk-off, Teixeira fully adjusted

“The very first week, when I came to Baltimore, we went out to lunch,”
Rodriguez said. “We talked about a lot of good things. I think we make
a good combination. Obviously, he’s a switch-hitter — which is very
powerful in the middle of the lineup — and I’m righty. I think we make
a good team. We help each other out.”

• •
  Easy as pie: Yanks mastering walk-off

“With the way we’ve been doing things this year with all the walk-off
hits, it’s almost like you expect it,” said reliever Phil Hughes, who
would have been Friday’s losing pitcher if not for his team’s comeback
effort. “We’re spoiled.”

• •
  Houdini act sets up Teixeira’s heroics

“We called him Houdini after that,” Yankees captain Derek Jeter said of
Robertson. “That’s a tough jam to be in. We were fortunate they hit
that one ball to [Teixeira], but I liked his demeanor, his expressions.
He looked like he was unfazed the whole time out there.”

• •
  Heads-up Yanks deny Twins crucial run

“When I saw that throw, I wanted to get back to second. It was my bad,” Gomez said. “I was running fast and I slipped. I tried to go back, because they thought I was heading to third. It was a mistake. That’s the only mistake I made and it cost an important run.”

• •
  Fair or foul? Call hurts Twins

“I wasn’t the only one that blew one tonight,” said Minnesota closer Joe Nathan, who gave away a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the ninth on Alex Rodriguez’s two-run home run. “I hope everyone is going to go ask the umpire about that call, too.”

• •
  
  Burnett effective with pitches, not catcher

“One
run on three hits in six innings — I think that’s more than a good
outing,” Molina said. “He gave me everything out there, and that’s what
you expect from a guy that a lot of people were talking about the last
couple of days. That says a lot about A.J.”

• •
  Q&A with Nick Swisher

“[He
hit it so daggone hard and it had topspin, I didn’t know if it was
going to get over the fence or if it was going to carom off the wall.
Either way, you’ve got to think he’s either sitting on second base or
the game is over. It’s tremendous. For the year that Tex has had — in
my mind, MVP-type year — to finally get that walk-off and join the
party — man, it’s a lot of fun to see that happen.”

• •
  Yankees Short Hops: Game 2

• •
  Chess Match: Deciding about Posada

Closing note — what a great photo this is — worth at least 1,000 words: