The Minnesota Twins don't beat their opponents with great offensive performances, particularly with power. They win division titles with excellent fundamentals of pitching and defense, and those two aspects were evident Tuesday night in a 2-0 win over the New York Yankees in the opener of their American League Division Series in the Bronx.

Johan Santana, who will likely win the AL Cy Young Award this year, allowed nine hits, the second-most for him of 2004. However, the Twins helped him out with five double plays and a great catch from centerfielder Torii Hunter to silence the Yankee Stadium crowd in Game 1 of the best-of-five series.

Last year, Santana matched up with Mike Mussina in the same stadium in the opener of the ALDS, but was forced to leave the game after four innings with a leg cramp. He lasted seven innings Tuesday night, allowing one walk and striking out five for his first career postseason victory. Santana is unbeaten (14-0) in 16 starts since the All-Star break and has an amazing ERA of 1.13 in that span.

"I had a lot of confidence in myself and things that I can do, but I also had a lot of confidence in my teammates and all of the things that we can do as a team," Santana said. "Everything just worked out pretty good. I mean what can I say? It's a great feeling and this is just Game 1. We still have some games to go that we have to play the right way."

The Twins didn't make any mistakes in the opener and now have put the pressure squarely on Jon Lieber, who will start Game 2 for New York Wednesday night against Brad Radke. Last year, the Twins won the opener, only to fall apart in the next three games and were eliminated.

The game-time temperature was 52 degrees and Santana had to constantly blow on his hands to keep them warm before each delivery. The Yankees had a runner on base every inning except for the ninth when Joe Nathan closed the door by retiring Jorge Posada, Hideki Matsui and Ruben Sierra on fly outs.

The killer for the Yankees was the double-play ball.

"I don't think he had his greatest stuff but he had very good stuff," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said of Santana. "It was hard to feel the ball out there, his hand was a little cold but he pitched, his heart out. He was unbelievable tonight. He kept battling and making pitches when he had to."

The only two runs of the game came courtesy of an RBI single by Shannon Stewart in the third inning and a homer from Jacque Jones in the sixth off Mussina.

Jones was playing with a heavy heart, taking a red-eye flight from California Monday night following the death of his father last week. Jones is expected to fly back to California on Thursday for the funeral.

"This type of grief that I've been going through with my father, they have been there for me," Jones said of his teammates. "They have been calling. They were there for me the two days I was in Minneapolis and I wanted to get back to these guys and show them how much I appreciated them and I wanted to come out here and be there for these guys."

Stewart drove in Michael Cuddyer in the third and then Jones smacked an offering from Mussina in the sixth over the wall in left field.

"He said he would do something tonight and he did," Gardenhire said of Jones. "It was a good moment in the dugout. He needed that. Our team needed that, but Jacque needed that for himself and that was a real big moment in our dugout.

Despite outhitting the Twins, 9-7, the Yankees were constantly wasting opportunities.

"We felt good about ourselves, we were aggressive, we were patient when we needed to be," Yankee manager Joe Torre said. "All of those things worked right, but the final score didn't work out."

The Yankees had runners on first and second with one out in the opening inning, but Bernie Williams struck out and Alex Rodriguez was thrown out on the play trying to steal third. The Yankees put runners on the corners with one out in the second, but Posada was thrown out at home by Hunter trying to score on a fly ball by John Olerud.

Posada hit into a twin-killing in the fourth, and later in the frame the Yankees stranded Matsui at second when Sierra grounded out.

Derek Jeter grounded into a double-play in the fifth and Matsui grounded out weakly to strand two more runners in the sixth.

Sierra rounded the bases after hitting a ball near the left field pole in the seventh, but after a consultation by the umpires, the ball was ruled foul. Sierra then struck out and the Yankees were again stymied in the eighth.

Alex Rodriguez led off the inning hitting a ball to the wall in center field, but Hunter leaped and made an acrobatic grab. Williams grounded into a double- play later in the inning to complete the frustration.

"That tells you what kind of team we are," Santana said. "That's the way we play, you know, defense and play the game the right way. Tonight, we showed how to play the game."

If the Twins can repeat that performance Wednesday, the Yankees will be shockingly on the brink of elimination, before the series shifts to the Metrodome on Friday.