The baseball Gods that lived across the street since 1923 arrived in the New Yankee Stadium on Friday night.

The Yankees were down 3-1 going to the bottom of the ninth and facing phenom closer Joe Nathan. Nathan had 47 saves during the 2009 season but the Yankees had success against him during walk off weekend in May. Nathan also has a terrible ALDS career history.

The game was tied at one going to the eighth and Phil Hughes got two quick outs. However, the dreaded base on balls to Carlos Gomez almost proved to be the ruination of the evening. Gomez stole second and scored on a single up the middle from Nick Punto.

Mariano Rivera was then summoned with two on and two outs and faced pesky Denard Span who got a hit off Mo on Wednesday night. Mo let a pitch get too much of the plate and Span lined it over second to score a run and give the Twins a 3-1 lead.

In the ninth the Yankees had the heart of the order up and Tex led off with a single to right. Nathan got behind A-Rod 3-1 and grooved a fast ball which Rodriguez launched over the fence in right center field to tie the game.

The extra innings were full of drama. Mo struck out Joe Mauer swinging and Jason Kubel looking for two quick outs. Michael Cuddyer then singled before Delmon Young flew out to right field to end the inning.

In the Yankee tenth, Posada got a broken bat single with one out and Brett Gardner pinch hit for him and stole second with Jeter batting. Nathan tried to pick him off and threw the ball wildly to center field. Gardner stumbled going to third but made it safely when the throw was on the left field side of the bag. Jeter was then walked to set up a double play and Damon was up.

The Twins replaced Nathan with Jose Mijares and he elicited a double play when Damon lined a ball off his glove but it was caught by Cabrera at short and he doubled off Gardner who ran on the play.

In the eleventh inning with Damaso Marte pitching, Joe Mauer looped a ball down the left field line which was ruled foul but the replay clearly showed the ball was fair and should have been a ground ruled double. Mauer singled and then Kubel singled to right. David Robertson replaced Marte and Cuddyer singled up the middle but Mauer held at third.

The bases were loaded with no outs. Delmon Young lined to Tex at first and Carlos Gomez grounded to Tex and he forced the runner at home. Brendan Harris then flew out to center to end the inning.

In the bottom of the eleventh, Tex led off with a home run for a walk off win and a commanding 2-0 series lead.

For Rivera he has now pitched 119.2 postseason innings and his ERA stands at 0.75.

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