There were plenty of defining moments in the Twins/Yankees series. Joe Nathan vs. A-Rod. Teixeira's walk-off. Phil Cuzzi's call. Etc. Etc.
But another batch of plays had just as much to do with the Twins losing two games they led in the seventh inning or later: the Twins lost to the Yankees because they were outdone in the "little things" area. From huge baserunning blunders by Carlos Gomez and Nick Punto to mental breakdowns in other areas, the Yankees beat the Twins big and they beat the Twins small.
The first few paragraphs from this ESPN.com story after Game 2 say it very well:
The mantra, or perhaps better yet the myth, of the Minnesota Twins is that they take care of the little things to win ballgames. It's believed that Twins players are programmed in the minors -- as if they were robots connected to a master computer -- with a baseball acumen that far exceeds that which is taught by any other team.
For the next couple of days people will debate what actually doomed the poor hapless Twins in their 4-3, 11-inning loss to the Yankees on Friday: the botched call in left field by umpire Phil Cuzzi on Joe Mauer's should-have-been double; the baserunning flub by Carlos Gomez in the fourth inning that cost the Twins a run; closer Joe Nathan's waist-high fastball to Alex Rodriguez; or the inability to score a run with no outs with the bases loaded in the 11th inning.
In reality, it was all of it, the whole messy lot encapsulated by a startling ill regard for all those little things the Twins are supposed to know how to handle.
Then, of course, came Game 3.
The Twins were a very good fielding team this year. Their pitchers generally have very good control (though three straight walks Sunday sealed their fate in the ninth inning). And yes, they had the third-most sacrifice hits in the AL. But it seemed like more than any other Twins team in recent memory, they relied on home runs (13th-most in baseball, which doesn't sound like much until you remember previous years) and other big-ball tactics to win instead of relying on fundamentals.
