I'd be a horrendous beat reporter, because (among many, many other reasons) the last thing I want to do right now is write about what just happened. Forcing myself to type up some kind of coherent recap seems like the right thing to do, but I'm not really sure what to say. One of the most painful losses in Twins history leaves me wanting to stare blankly at the television or punch a wall or crawl into the fetal position or have a drink. Or maybe drinks. Anything but write about it, really.

An absolutely brutal blown call by umpire Phil Cuzzi probably cost the Twins an 11th-inning lead and he deserves an avalanche of criticism, but Carlos Gomez's base-running blunder, Joe Nathan's blown save, and the failure to do any damage with the bases loaded and no outs in extra innings makes any attempt to point fingers elsewhere seem kind of silly. Instead of taking homefield advantage back to the Metrodome the Twins have now lost eight straight playoff games and are facing elimination. Damn.

Given the circumstances, the only real surprise from Game 1 of the ALDS is that the Twins jumped out to an early lead. After playing 12 innings to decide the AL Central crown Tuesday night and arriving in New York at around 3:30 a.m. local time for a 6:07 p.m. game, the Twins drew first blood with a pair of third-inning runs before rookie Brian Duensing predictably struggled in his first taste of the playoffs, at Yankee Stadium, against the best offense in baseball (with a bespectacled Jay-Z looking on, no less).

Derek Jeter quickly erased the Twins' early lead with a two-run homer in the next half-inning and Nick Swisher's run-scoring double--with the aid of shoddy throws from both left fielder Delmon Young and shortstop Orlando Cabrera--in the fourth frame gave New York the lead before the Yankees broke the game open in the fifth inning. Jeter drew a leadoff walk and came around to score on Alex Rodriguez's first postseason hit with runners in scoring position since approximately 1942.

With the Yankees up 4-2 manager Ron Gardenhire gave Duensing a quick hook, pulling the southpaw with two outs despite left-hander Hideki Matsui coming to the plate. Duensing held left-handed batters to just .244/.311/.268 this season, but Gardenhire chose to bring in fellow southpaw Francisco Liriano and his slightly worse .255/.325/.307 mark against lefties. Whether he thought that Duensing was tired after throwing 79 pitches or Liriano was simply a better matchup against Matsui the move didn't work.

Matsui got ahead of Liriano and homered on a 2-1 pitch, putting the Yankees up 6-2. New York tacked on another run against Liriano in the seventh inning and the Twins went just 4-for-23 with four singles and one walk after scoring the pair of third-inning runs. Armed with a five-run lead and an off day next on the schedule the Yankees' bullpen went into full shutdown mode with Phil Hughes, Phil Coke, Joba Chamberlain, and finally Mariano Rivera relieving CC Sabathia after his 6.2 innings of two-run ball.

Sabathia pitched well despite some shaky work behind the plate from Jorge Posada, striking out eight, walking none, and allowing just two extra-base hits after coming into the game with a 7.92 ERA in five previous playoff starts. And once armed with a lead the Yankees' bullpen trio of Hughes, Chamberlain, and Rivera--with a little Coke mixed in against tough left-handers--is going to be awfully tough to come back on throughout the postseason.

About the only negative from the Yankees' point of view is that Mark Teixeira went 0-for-4 and hit into a double play, but the rest of New York's incredibly deep and dangerous lineup picked up the slack and the quintet of pitchers combined for a dozen strikeouts versus just one walk. Sabathia working into the seventh inning before handing things over to Rivera and company is a combination that looks capable of carrying the Yankees deep into October, and he's now won seven of eight starts versus the Twins.

Luckily for the Twins they have matchups against the far more hittable A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte before Sabathia's turn in the rotation comes around again in Game 4 and today's break in the schedule gives them a chance to set up their own rotation after throwing Duensing almost by default. As noted in my ALDS preview Nick Blackburn against Burnett is the Twins' most favorable matchup of the series and that's on tap when play resumes tomorrow night for Game 2.

Wow.

Without question one of the greatest, most pressure-filled games in Twins history, made all the more surreal by the fact that C.C. Sabathia will deliver his first pitch to Denard Span tonight, in New York, at 5:07 p.m. Unfortunately there isn't much time to dwell on the amazing one-game playoff win when the real playoffs begin immediately, although no Twins fans will be forgetting last night anytime soon. For a look at what awaits the Twins in New York, check out my lengthy ALDS preview on NBCSports.com:

NBCSports.com - ALDS Preview: Twins vs. Yankees

Wow.

That was kind of amazing.

When the Twins lost in Detroit last Wednesday it looked (to me at least) like the season was over, save for "a miracle if things break perfectly for the Twins and horribly for the Tigers." They were three games back with four games left, which put their odds at around five percent with a deficit that no team in MLB history had come back from. So naturally they won the next four games while the Tigers went 1-3 and now the Twins are the only team in MLB history to be in a one-game playoff in back-to-back seasons.

Not only did the Twins erase the Tigers' three-game lead in four days to force Game 163 for the second straight year, they've won 16 of 20 games since Justin Morneau was shut down with a back injury and are 30-14 since falling a season-worst six games below .500 at 56-62 in mid-August. I'm not sure how to explain it and certainly didn't believe they could do it, but it sure has been fun to watch. And we're not done yet, because the Twins and Tigers will decide the AL Central title tomorrow at the Metrodome.

Some of the individual performances during their dramatic team-wide turnaround are mind-boggling. Michael Cuddyer was already having a very solid year when Morneau went down, but since replacing him at first base he's hit .333 with eight homers and 24 RBIs in 20 games. Delmon Young became the everyday left fielder when Cuddyer shifted to first base, and has hit .363 with four homers and 17 RBIs in 20 games after previously batting just .265/.287/.387.

Joe Crede's season-ending back injury opened a hole at third base and Ron Gardenhire decided to fill it with Matt Tolbert, who'd posted a dreadful .234/.300/.307 career line. Since then he's started 17 of 20 games while hitting .306/.338/.452 with Crede-like defense. Orlando Cabrera batted .237 with a putrid .268 on-base percentage through his first 43 games with the Twins, but over his last 15 games has hit .433 while scoring a run in all but one of them.

Toss in the continued season-long excellence of Joe Mauer, Jason Kubel, and Denard Span, and the Morneau-less Twins' lineup has been on absolute fire with 127 runs over 20 games. That works out to 6.4 runs per game after the offense averaged a modest 4.8 runs through the first 142 games. And the pitching staff that fell apart thanks to injuries in the rotation and shoddy relief work has experienced a similar turnaround, allowing 20 percent fewer runs during the 30-14 stretch.

The rotation's new front four of Scott Baker, Nick Blackburn, Carl Pavano, and Brian Duensing were a combined 17-9 with a 3.76 ERA over that 44-game stretch and relievers Jesse Crain (1.37), Jon Rauch (1.80), Matt Guerrier (2.00), Ron Mahay (2.08), and Jose Mijares (2.45) each had ERAs under 2.50. In fact, the only relievers to post an ERA above 2.50 while appearing in at least 10 of the 44 games were Joe Nathan at 3.22 and Bobby Keppel at 6.61.

Apparently when fourth-fifths of the rotation is humming along, the lineup is filled with guys hitting .350, and every reliever coming out of the bullpen has a 2.00 ERA ... well, some crazy things can happen. Will it continue long enough to defeat the Tigers tomorrow and make some noise in the playoffs for the first time since 2002? Who knows. Last year's one-game playoff ended in disappointment and the Twins' last dramatic late-season comeback against Detroit merely led to being swept out of the postseason.

However, unlike last season tomorrow afternoon's one-game playoff is in Minnesota and the Twins are clearly the favorites with Baker facing Rick Porcello at the Metrodome. All of which isn't to suggest that Porcello is a pushover. He may be a 20-year-old rookie, but he's turned in one of the best seasons of all time for a 20-year-old pitcher and has shown no signs of slowing down thanks to the Tigers smartly limiting his workload for most of the year.

Porcello is 5-2 with a 3.19 ERA in 12 starts since August 1, including 6.1 innings of one-run ball versus the Twins last week. He doesn't miss many bats with 81 strikeouts in 165 innings and subsequently has allowed a .270 opponents' batting average, but makes up for it by inducing the most ground balls in the league. Don't expect the Twins to do much power hitting, but they'll have some chances to string hits together and Porcello's modest workloads should mean several innings from the Tigers' bullpen.

And of course the guy taking the mound for the Twins is pretty good too. Baker got off to a terrible start, beginning the season on the disabled list before going 0-4 with a 9.15 ERA and eight homers allowed through four outings. However, since then he's 15-5 with a 3.79 ERA in 28 starts, including five innings of one-run ball versus Detroit last week. Nick Blackburn has thrived in big-game situations, but Baker has been the Twins' best starting pitcher over the past two years.

While the Twins were going 16-4 without Morneau and 30-14 since mid-August, the Tigers went 11-15 after extending their lead to a season-high seven games in early September. They're also just 36-46 on the road, while the Twins are 47-33 at home, and as we saw (and heard) yesterday the Metrodome isn't going quietly. All of which means surprisingly little, because anything can happen in one game for everything. Hell, as this weekend and the past month or so have shown, anything can happen, period.

What we do know is that the Twins are playing at home with their best starter on the mound as slight favorites for a spot in the playoffs, where the slate is wiped clean, 11 wins equals a championship, and flaws and injuries give way to luck and small-sample-size heroics. By tomorrow night the Twins will be either finished playing until next spring or heading to New York for a first-round matchup against the Yankees. And for the first time all season the latter possibility is actually more likely. Youneverknow.