Grieving Jones Sparks Twins

As he touched home plate at Yankee Stadium at the end of perhaps the longest journey of his life, Jacque Jones tapped his chest and pointed to the sky in tribute to his father, Hardy, who died of cancer last week in Sacramento.

The Minnesota outfielder, who played at USC, was sure his father’s spirit had filled his heart and strengthened his arms to hit the sixth-inning home run that propelled the Twins to a 2-0 victory over the New York Yankees in the opener of the teams’ American League division series. And no one who saw the tears in his eyes would dare dispute it.

Certainly, the Twins didn’t win by divine intervention alone. Their division series-record five double plays did much to quash the Yankees’ few flurries, and starter Johan Santana contributed mightily with an effort that was more gutsy than sharp. The Cy Young Award candidate struck out five in seven innings, less than half the league-leading 10.5 strikeouts he averaged per nine innings in the regular season, but he was unshakeable when he had to be.

Yet, it was Jones, who spent a fitful night on a red eye flight from California that brought him to New York at about 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, who was the emotional center of a solid performance by the Twins. It was straight from the textbook on playoff success: Pitching. Defense. A few outstanding catches, such as Torii Hunter’s acrobatic grab of Alex Rodriguez’ drive to right-center field leading off the eighth, and appreciation -- but not celebration -- of where they stand as they approach Game 2 today.

“I wish my dad had been here to see it, but he’s my protector now,” said Jones, who had seen breaking balls from Mike Mussina but got a fastball that was low and away on an 0-and-1 count and laced it to left field.

“Playing tonight took my mind off the situation. It’s not going to go away, but I still have a job to do.... I played tonight because my teammates were here for me and have been there for me the past week. I just wanted to show my appreciation for those guys.

“I figured the best thing I could do is come back and do something to contribute.”

His contribution went beyond the run it put on the scoreboard, supplementing the lead Minnesota had scratched out in the third inning on a single by Michael Cuddyer, a sacrifice and Shannon Stewart’s run-scoring single to left. It spoke to his teammates about his loyalty and determination, and they greeted him with heartfelt hugs.

“He needed that, our team needed that,” Manager Ron Gardenhire said. “But Jacque needed that for himself, and that was a real big moment in our dugout.... That was a great moment.”

The Yankees had no such moments.

“Probably all year, I don’t think anybody made [Santana] work as hard as we made him work today,” right fielder Gary Sheffield said. “We got guys on base, but he just made his pitches. That’s where the Cy Young comes out.”

Santana said he wasn’t going for strikeouts so much as outs, “not trying to overdo things and then just trying to make the right pitch.”

He did that often enough, and his teammates helped with five double plays, two of which were unconventional: a strikeout-caught stealing third in the first inning, and a fly to center by John Olerud followed by Hunter throwing Jorge Posada out at home in the second inning.

“Torii’s as good as it gets in center field,” Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter said.

The other three double plays were conventional, short-to-second-to first double plays, in the fourth, fifth and eighth innings. Reliever Juan Rincon was the beneficiary in the eighth. He also benefited from Hunter’s great grab on Rodriguez.

“He doesn’t catch that, it’s a leadoff double,” Jeter said.

The Yankees’ pattern of leading off playoff series with losses is hard to overlook.

“I don’t know that it’s a good habit,” Jeter said after his team lost its fourth consecutive playoff series opener and fifth in 10 division series openers. “They played better than us today.”

What could be worrisome for the Yankees is that they lost on a night Santana wasn’t at his best but Mussina nearly was.

“I owed it to these guys and we owed it to each other to go out there and win,” Jones said.

And so they did.