Who would have thought it would be Punto this time?

The Twins had last played in the Metrodome on Tuesday. They had outlasted the Detroit Tigers 6-5 in 12 innings to win an American League Central tiebreaker.

The most heads-up moment in this marathon came in the top of the 12th, when it was 5-5 and the Tigers had the bases loaded with one out. Brandon Inge hit a chopper over the mound, second baseman Nick Punto charged and on the fly made a throw to the plate for a forceout.

The Tigers failed to score, and the Twins won it in the bottom of the inning.

"People wonder why I play Nick Punto all the time," manager Ron Gardenhire said. "That's why I play him. Because he's always in the game, always ready to make the right play. That kid -- that play -- won the ballgame for us today."

On Sunday, the Twins were down 2-0 against the New York Yankees. The second of those losses was in a wrenching 11 innings after closer Joe Nathan was quick to blow a two-run lead in the ninth.

The odds always had been enormous against the Twins in this series, and throw in the emotional drubbing of that loss, and there was reason to suspect the Twins might roll over in the fashion of the St. Louis Cardinals in their Game 3 on Saturday.

Carl Pavano kept the Twins from being an easy out. He was tremendous for six innings, before being reached for home runs by Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada in the seventh.

"That was a tough at-bat," Punto said. "Hughes has proven himself. He's good enough to be the setup man for [Mariano] Rivera. I was able to get a piece of a fastball and it landed in the right place in left field."

Punto hustled to second with a double. Denard Span followed and hit a chopper up the middle. Punto came running toward third in maddened fashion as shortstop Derek Jeter reached to snare Span's bouncer behind second.

Jeter has seen most everything October baseball has to offer in his 14 postseasons with the Yankees. Rarely has he seen a more pleasing sight as he was eating the baseball and conceding Span's infield hit.

One moment, the Twins were looking at first and third with no outs. The next, thousands of fans in their Twins jerseys saw the horror: Nick Punto -- the Minnesota player who might trail only Joe Mauer in baseball acumen on this roster -- was skidding to a stop 40 feet around third base.

Jeter's throw went home, and Posada's throw went to third, and Punto was out.

Later, Yankees manager Joe Girardi paid tribute several times to Jeter for making a heads-up play.

Come on, Joe.

Jeter has made dozens of those in Octobers past, but Lenny Faedo could have made this play. Punto couldn't be missed, hung out in the middle of nowhere, and all it took was two routine throws from the Yankees to make Nick pay for his blunder.

Several waves of reporters came at Punto. He stood at his locker and answered versions of the same question more than a dozen times.

"[Coach Scott Ullger] had the stop sign up," Punto said. "I picked him up late. I had my head down. It was on me."

"That's my play. I heard 50,000 people screaming, and I thought the ball had gone through. That's what a roar like that usually means. But they were just happy that Denard was going to be on first.

"It's an awful feeling. You want to crawl in a hole."

Punto was reminded of the postgame backslaps he had received five nights earlier in this clubhouse.

"It's that kind of a game," Punto said. "Sometimes you're a hero, sometimes you're a goat. Tonight, I'm a goat. And the season's over."