Arms Against Bats on Display

Can superb pitching subdue great hitting?

The Minnesota Twins’ chances in the American League division series hinge on the answer they get tonight in Johan Santana’s performance against the New York Yankees, who this season equaled or eclipsed hitting records set by some of their illustrious pinstriped predecessors.

Santana, a 25-year-old left-hander from Venezuela, won his last 13 decisions and posted a 1.21 earned-run average in that span. Overall, he was 20-6 with a league-leading 2.61 ERA and a league-leading 265 strikeouts in 228 innings.

“Sandy Koufax, another left-hander, used to put up numbers like that,” Yankee Manager Joe Torre said Monday. “Those numbers don’t exist anymore.”

Santana’s numbers are as real as his blazing, mid-90-mph fastball, as impressive as the changeup that so often leaves hitters off balance, as frustrating to opponents as the slider they can’t anticipate because he disguises his delivery so well.

As real, too, as the Yankees’ league-leading 242 home runs and the six players who each hit at least 20 -- Derek Jeter, Hideki Matsui, Jorge Posada, Alex Rodriguez, Bernie Williams and Gary Sheffield. The 1961 Roger Maris-Mickey Mantle Yankees hit two fewer home runs than Joe Torre’s team hit in fending off a moderate challenge by the Boston Red Sox and winning the AL East title with a 101-61 record.

Tonight’s series opener promises to be a classic matchup in a classic place, Yankee Stadium, where temperatures are expected to be in the 50s. “I’m pretty confident about the things that I can do,” Santana said, “and then, I know that [the Yankees] are good. But we are good too.”

The Twins’ third straight 90-win season brought them their third straight AL Central title. They don’t match the Yankees in payroll or style, but their starting pitching is arguably more stable, and that can equalize a lot in a best-of-five series.

“We feel good with our pitching staff,” Manager Ron Gardenhire said. “That’s what got us here, and we know we have to catch the ball. If they get it done out there, we know it’s going to be a wonderful time.”

Gardenhire planned to wait until today to compose his lineup so he could gauge the mental state of outfielder Jacque Jones, who was permitted to leave the team when his father died. Jones, whose 80 RBIs were second on the team to Torii Hunter’s 81, was to arrive in New York early this morning from Southern California.

“He’s going through quite an ordeal here and has had a tough time with his family,” Gardenhire said.

The Yankees experienced an assortment of tribulations, turmoil and turnover this season, but that’s nothing new.

Former Dodger pitcher Kevin Brown needed hand surgery after he punched a wall in anger, and Rodriguez, acquired from Texas in February, hit “only” .286 and drove in 106 runs. Those would be notable statistics for just about anyone else, but not in the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately Yankee mentality. In addition, Jason Giambi batted .208 in 80 games and missed seven weeks while doctors diagnosed and treated him for a benign tumor on his pituitary gland.

Add the departure of Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte, and the sore right shoulder of Orlando Hernandez, and Game 1 starter Mike Mussina becomes the staff ace, perhaps giving the Yankees an air of vulnerability.

Or maybe not.

“If things were wavering,” Mussina said, “I don’t think we would have been able to win 101 games.”

Torre said he was leaning toward listing 11 pitchers on his playoff roster and taking a chance that Hernandez’s shoulder can withstand a prospective fourth game on Friday. That would mean omitting Giambi, not an easy choice.

But little figures to be easy for the Yankees if Santana maintains his excellence.

“We know we’ve got our work cut out for us [tonight],” Torre said. “We certainly have to make sure we have quality at-bats....

“We know it’s a challenge. It’s important. We’re playing at home. We feel that we need to win that game.”

*

MINNESOTA vs. NEW YORK

* Game 1: Tonight, Minnesota (Santana 20-6) at New York (Mussina 12-9), 5:15, Ch. 11

* Game 2: Wednesday, Minnesota (Radke 11-8) at New York (Lieber 14-8), 4 p.m., ESPN

* Game 3: Friday, New York (Hernandez 8-2 or Brown 10-6) at Minnesota (Silva 14-8), 5, ESPN

* Game 4: Saturday, New York at Minnesota, TBA*

* Game 5: Sunday, Minnesota at New York, TBA*

Best-of-five series; * -- if necessary