MINNEAPOLIS -- We can't write off the Twins after one lousy playoff game. They're the Twins, for heaven's sake. They're the "piranhas." They're America's underdogs. These guys have come off the canvas more often than Rocky Balboa.

Twins in a big hole after failing to back Santana

Posted: Tuesday October 3, 2006 6:42PM; Updated: Tuesday October 3, 2006 6:43PM

MINNEAPOLIS -- We can't write off the Twins after one lousy playoff game. They're the Twins, for heaven's sake. They're the "piranhas." They're America's underdogs. These guys have come off the canvas more often than Rocky Balboa.

But, man ... losing Game 1 of their American League Division Series with their best pitcher starting ... at home, where 55,000-plus fans make the scream-inflated Metrodome, usually, one of the toughest places to play in the big leagues ... less than 48 hours after the high of clinching the division title on the last day of the season ...

This one stings. In fact, it even gets Twins ace Johan Santana a little ticked off.

"It takes more than one guy to win a game. It doesn't matter how good you pitch if you don't hit. I try to do my best. I expect these guys to do their job ... ," the Twins' starter said after he took the loss in a 3-2 win by the A's Tuesday afternoon. "We need to step it up and play better baseball and put pressure on the opponent. That's reality."

If that sounds like the prickly postgame rippings of a pitcher that should have had a win, it is. But Santana, the likely AL Cy Young winner, knows what his starts mean to the Twins, and he knows what he needs out of his lineup to make his starts mean what they should.

Santana did just about everything he could to win Game 1. He fell behind Frank Thomas and left a changeup over the plate in the second inning, and Thomas lifted it down the left field line for a home run. He left another change over the plate to Marco Scutaro that same inning, and the A's shortstop poked a double to left to score another run.

But that was the worst of it. That was about all of it. Santana went eight innings, gave up just those two runs on five hits and he struck out eight. He could have -- maybe should have -- easily won the game. Just about everybody expected he would.

The fact that he didn't -- it was the first time he lost at home in more than a year -- immediately puts the Twins back on the canvas.

"It's not the first time we ever lost," Twins center fielder Torii Hunter said. "But it hurts."

How much of a mark will this one leave? The Twins threw Santana in Game 1 not only because he's their best starter -- really, there's no competition -- but because, by doing so, he could come back again and pitch in Game 5 on regular rest, to close out the series if needed.

Now, instead of banking a Santana win, they'll have to rely on Game 2 starter Boof Bonser to keep them out of an 0-2 hole, and then hope that veteran Brad Radke's glued-on right arm doesn't fly into the stands in Oakland in Game 3. And if they get past those two games into a Game 4, rookie Matt Garza is scheduled to start, barring Santana coming back on short rest.

Yeah, the Twins needed this game. Yeah, Santana wanted it, too. But with what the Twins offered up against the A's on Tuesday, it just wasn't going to happen.

For sure, Oakland starter Barry Zito was good. He went eight innings and gave up just one run on four hits. But the Twins' hitters helped Zito out a lot, too. They wanted to make the lanky lefty work a little, but they couldn't lay off his tantalizing curve or his high change. He threw just 92 pitches in eight innings.

And when Zito did get in a little trouble -- a leadoff walk in the second and the fourth, a leadoff single in the sixth, a leadoff double in the eighth -- the Twins couldn't do manufacture a run. The only run they scored off Zito was a two-out home run by Rondell White in the seventh.

"Today just probably wasn't our day," outfielder Mike Cuddyer said in a chilled Twins clubhouse. "But we've been through so much adversity this year that nothing can get us down."

The Twins have built a reputation of climbing out of some pretty deep holes this season. They didn't get over .500 for good until late May. They were 12 games behind the Tigers in the AL Central just after the All-Star break. They scrapped and rebuilt the left side of their infield early in the year, fought through several injuries, including ones to Hunter and rookie lefty Francisco Liriano, and still won 95 games.

The biggest constant over the course of their scrappy season was Santana. He was 19-6 with a 2.77 ERA this year, and the Twins were 26-8 in his starts. He hadn't lost in the Metrodome in 23 starts.

But now he has. And the Twins are just hoping he gets another chance in Game 5.

"We've got confidence in more than one guy on our pitching staff," Cuddyer said. "It isn't just Santana,".

When you look at how far the small-budget Twins have come, and what's left for them, it'd be folly to say that this series is over. Bonser -- who has been very good lately -- takes on the A's Esteban Loaiza (who has a 4.89 ERA) on Wednesday in the Metrodome. In Game 3 in Oakland on Friday, the A's will probably throw Dan Haren (4.12 ERA) against Radke. Bonser and Radke are not simply meat tossers. And Loaiza and Haren are hardly, say, Johan Santana.

Still, we all saw Tuesday what can happen when you lay too many postseason hopes on one man. As Santana said, it's going to take more than one guy.

For the Twins to come off the canvas this time, it's going to take everybody.