File under random, hopeful: Rainbows, Twins' N.Y. run

NEW YORK - It was a nasty, windy, rainy day in New York. By late afternoon, the skies had cleared over Yankee Stadium, and a rainbow shone briefly over the center field scoreboard.

Before the Twins played the Yankees on Tuesday night, a Japanese reporter showed manager Ron Gardenhire a picture of the rainbow.

"I asked her what was at the end of the rainbow," Gardenhire said. "She said, 'A victory.' I said, 'That's the way to think.'"

When the Twins had finished coming back from a 4-0 deficit in the eighth inning to beat the Yankees, 5-4, in 10 innings, Gardenhire delayed his postgame interviews for a moment to hug the reporter.

It turns out the rainbow wasn't symbolic only of victory; it also mimicked the soft arc of the game's biggest hit.

Delmon Young's three-run bloop double off David Robertson with two outs in the eighth gave the Twins a rare triumph in the Bronx, provided the latest reminder of just how many pivotal moments, and how many storylines, one baseball game can contain.

Brian Duensing, crushed twice in October by the Yankees, survived two early home runs before pitching five shutout innings to keep his teammates within a Manhattan cab ride of the lead.

Tsuyoshi Nishioka failed twice to bunt in the 10th, then lined a single that led to the game-winning run.

"I still told him, 'That was a [lousy] bunt,"' Gardenhire joked.

Joe Mauer, at .077 after three at-bats, drew a key RBI walk in the eighth and produced the game-winning hit in the 10th.

Yankees setup man Rafael Soriano, for the first time in 337 career reliever appearances, walked three batters.

Nathan, who on Sunday in Toronto looked like a method actor demonstrating the effects of claustrophobia and who gave up a key home run to Alex Rodriguez in his last outing in Yankee Stadium, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth after co-closer Matt Capps retired all six batters he faced.

Here's the question that every Twins fan, if not every Twin, asks after every Yankee game: What does this mean?

Is every loss, like Monday's, reason to believe the Twins lack the fortitude to compete in the Bronx?

Is every (rare) victory reason to believe the Twins have found the gumption to fight back against their tormentors?

Late Tuesday night in the Twins' clubhouse, as Mauer discussed his last two at-bats, Justin Morneau showed off pictures of his baby daughter and spoke of this game in terms of what it means for this young season.

"Every year is new," he said. "The history here has been well-documented. But winning one game or losing one game doesn't change anything that has happened in the past.

"Coming back and winning tomorrow guarantees us a split, and gets us back to .500 early. And that's it.

"History is history. You can't change history. All we can do is control what we do tomorrow."

A brief, blinkered view of Twins' history reveals they've won two of their last three regular-season games in Yankee Stadium, although that hardly trumps their record of 19-58 against the Yankees since Gardenhire became manager.

Beyond the realm of superstition and paranoia, what the Tuesday night rally means is that the Twins will not get swept again in the Bronx. That they have a chance, with No. 1 starter and former Yankee Carl Pavano facing the decrepit Freddy Garcia on Wednesday, of at least splitting the series.

That the toughest possible road trip for this team -- playing in Toronto and New York, two of the most unkind cities to them over the past decade, while many of their players fight lingering injuries and rust -- might not be a disaster after all.

Young's rainbow, if not Gardenhire's rainbow, made all that possible.

"It was nice," Gardenhire said, " to see one go our way here."

Jim Souhan can be heard Sundays from 10 a.m. to noon and weekdays at 2:40 p.m. on 1500ESPN. His Twitter name is Souhanstrib. • jsouhan@startribune.com