Sid Hartman: Yankees just too good for banged-up Twins

Sooner or later, the several injuries the Twins had suffered -- led most notably by slugging former MVP Justin Morneau -- were going to catch up with them.

And it finally showed as the Yankees swept the three-game Division Series, winning Sunday night 4-1 despite a great pitching performance by former Yankee Carl Pavano, who gave up only three hits in six shutout innings before giving up solo home runs to Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada in the seventh inning to wipe out a 1-0 Twins lead.

Let's face it. The Yankees are a much better team than the Twins, especially given what the Twins could put on the field during the playoffs. When you win 103 games in a tough division like the Yankees did this year, you have to have great players.

"Obviously, it's a tough way to close it," said Michael Cuddyer, who hit .429 in the three-game series. "But, I guess it's better than having it end --What was it, last [Tuesday against the Tigers]? -- so it's hard, it's frustrating, but I think when we look back and have a chance to reflect on the season, I think we're pretty proud of where we are."

The Twins rallied from seven games behind Detroit in September to force Tuesday's one-game playoff, which they won in 12 innings at the Metrodome. They did it not only without Morneau but also third baseman Joe Crede and 10-game winner Kevin Slowey.

"We're missing some pretty big cogs in our machine," Cuddyer said. "But, again, every team goes through it at some point. Unfortunately for us it happened at the end of the season. And missing Morneau and missing Slowey and missing those guys is tough, but you know, that's what we dealt with."

Cuddyer has a lot of respect for the Yankees. "They're tough," he said. "I mean, you look at their lineup up and down, there's no room to breathe. Their pitching staff is tough as well. It's why they went out there and spent the money on these guys is for this time of the year."

The Twins had opportunities all year to beat the Yankees but wound up losing all 10 meetings against them. "They just had the key hits when they needed them all year long with this team," Span said. "They pitched good, and they got the key hits."

Nathan reflects Joe Nathan had a tough series, giving up the tying home run to Rodriguez in Friday's Game 2 before coming in with the bases loaded in the ninth inning Sunday and giving up two one-run singles. But the All-Star closer, who had a career-high 47 saves this season, said when the Twins will look back, they will remember their battle to make the playoffs.

"I think most of all, it's not really just about this series. It's about the season we just went through," Nathan said. "We battled, we were down in the dumps, seven games back ... and to fight back and get to this point and have an opportunity -- we had chances, if you want talk about should have, could have, would have -- I had an opportunity in the second game with a 1-1 split in New York.

"There's a lot of things we could have, I'm sure everybody in this room could go back to one situation and say, 'Man, I wish I could have done something different there.' That's baseball, and everybody has those moments throughout a season. Everybody can say, 'I wish I could have done this.' So, we're not going to live on that, we're not going to dwell on that. We're going to go into the postseason and start working again and do whatever we can to get better for next year and continue to work hard. This season has been fun but at the same time I think we left it all on the field."

One Yankees player who isn't happy about the Twins moving out of the Metrodome and into Target Field is Rodriguez, who had a career batting average of .367 against the Twins at the Metrodome.

Nobody expected this Twins team to win the division. What a great way to say goodbye to the Metrodome, which has been a great home for this baseball team for 28 years in all kinds of weather, including what we had the past two weeks.

Schedule gets tough Yes, the Vikings are 5-0 after Sunday's 38-10 victory in St. Louis, but the next three weeks will be a real test for them leading up to their bye week. The schedule gets a lot tougher starting with Sunday'sgame against Baltimore at the Metrodome.

The Ravens have lost two in a row but have one of the best defenses in the NFL. The following week, the Vikings visit the Super Bowl champion Steelers, and then the Vikings play at Green Bay in Favre's return to Lambeau Field.

I don't want to be negative because this is a good football team, but the reality is that the five teams the Vikings have defeated have a combined record of 7-16. The next three teams they play have a record of 8-6.

Yes, the Vikings ran up 38 points against the Rams on Sunday, but St. Louis wound up with 400 yards of offense.

If there is a concern about the Vikings defense, it is the ability to stop the short passing game. Sunday, the Rams passed for 288 yards, 10 more than the Vikings. St. Louis' Kyle Boller and Marc Bulger combined to complete 27 of 38 passes (Boller threw for 209 yards, Bulger 88).

A week ago, the Packers, with Aaron Rodgers at the throttle, passed for 342 yards. The week before, with Shaun Hill doing the throwing, San Francisco wound up with 188 yards in the air.

Speaking with defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier last week, he expressed the opinion that opponents such as the Rams were going to dwell on the short passing game against the Vikings if they see other teams have success.

The Steelers and the Packers will be a lot tougher to beat on the road than the Browns, Lions and Rams. The Vikings will have to improve their pass defense if they are to win either of those two games.

Jottings Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi is scheduled to have surgery today to repair a ruptured Achilles' tendon. He will not work for two weeks and will miss each of the next two Gophers football games, the first he has missed since becoming AD in 2002.