Rivera, Yanks stunned by Twins

MINNEAPOLIS -- Everything seemed to be going right for the Yankees on Saturday night.
They had overcome a four-run deficit against Johan Santana, their bullpen had thrown five scoreless innings after a rocky start by Jaret Wright and the offense came through with some clutch hits, giving New York a one-run lead heading into the ninth inning.
Then the Minnesota Twins scored twice against Mariano Rivera.
Justin Morneau's two-out, two-run walk-off single stunned the Yankees, who dropped a 6-5 decision to the Twins in front of 42,316 at the Metrodome.
"It's certainly a tough loss," said manager Joe Torre. "The day this type of game doesn't bother me is the day I should go home."
"It's big -- to come back on him, he's one of the best closers in the history of the game, not just right now," Morneau said. "He's been in that situation a lot of times, and he's usally the one that wins, so it's nice to see us shaking hands instead of them."
Rivera had entered the game in the eighth with one out and a runner on first, but he quickly got Shannon Stewart to ground into a double play, moving the one-run game to the ninth.
The Yankees had an opportunity to extend the lead after Johnny Damon walked, stole second and moved to third on Derek Jeter's sacrifice bunt.
Gary Sheffield had a tough 13-pitch at-bat against Juan Rincon, fouling off seven consecutive pitches before eventually striking out.
"You have to give Rincon credit," said Torre. "He kept coming at him, and eventually he won the battle."
Alex Rodriguez, whose RBI single in the seventh had put the Yankees ahead, 5-4, popped out to end the ninth, leaving Rivera and the Yankees three outs from a win.
"I need to do more -- I know what I'm capable of doing," Rodriguez said. "I'm a very important part of this lineup, and I feel when I'm swinging the bat really well, the team does a lot better. I need to pick it up."
Rivera opened the ninth with two quick strikes against Luis Castillo. On the 1-2 pitch, Castillo appeared to swing and miss, but third-base umpire Ed Montague (who missed a call at the plate on Friday night) ruled that Castillo checked his swing.
Castillo hit a soft bouncer toward the third-base line, where Rivera fielded it and fired to first, but Castillo beat the throw by a step.
"Definitely, I thought it was a strikeout, but you can't change that," Rivera said. "That play is over, so you have to get the next guy."
"Mo did exactly what he wanted to do," Jeter said. "He gave up a hit that went about three feet."
Torre was fuming over the Castillo call, saying that the umps gave him "an extra strike."
Joe Mauer also fell behind Rivera, 1-2, and once again, it appeared that Rivera struck him out on a pitch that home-plate umpire Jerry Layne called a ball. Mauer then singled to left, moving to second as Hideki Matsui tried unsuccessfully to throw Castillo out at third.
"We thought he had the first two guys struck out," Damon said. "Unfortunately, things didn't go our way."
With runners at second and third and no outs, Rivera struck out Rondell White and Torii Hunter, bringing him one out away from avoiding disaster.
"I'll take my chances with Mo in the ninth with two outs," Torre said. "Or nobody out, for that matter."
"We were right in the position we wanted to be in -- ninth inning with Mo," Jeter said. "Even when they got the first couple of guys on, you still like your chances."
Morneau swung at the first pitch, blooping a broken-bat single into right field, just out of the reach of Robinson Cano. Castillo and Mauer scored, giving the Twins their fifth win in a row.
"I'm human -- all I do is try to do my job," Rivera said. "When I don't do it, the way it happened today, it's out of my control. He put the ball in play and it happened to find a hole. I wish I could take it back, but I can't. You move on."
The ninth-inning meltdown negated what would have been a great win for New York, which found itself in an early 4-0 hole against Santana.
Minnesota plated three against Wright in the second inning, then tacked on another in the fourth to hand the former Cy Young Award winner a healthy lead.
But thanks to the efforts of Scott Proctor, who threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings, the Yankees' offense chipped away at Santana with two runs in the fifth to cut the lead in half.
"[Proctor] gave us a chance to get back into the game," Torre said. "Jaret struggled, but we kept fighting back against a good ballclub."
New York broke through in the seventh, putting runners at second and third with one out after Damon doubled against Santana. Jeter followed with a two-run single, and Rodriguez gave the Yankees the lead with an RBI single, putting them in position for their first one-run win of the season.
"It's a tough loss," Damon said. "We're 5-6, but we'll get over it. We have 151 to go; we're going to be fine. This team is very good.
"We have to try to forget this as quickly as we can," he added. "Hopefully we can get Mo a chance tomorrow."