They catch the baseball.

Ron Gardenhire, manager of the Twins, says this about his guys, too -- individually, collectively, repeatedly. This is all right. A thing this true bears repeating. The Minnesota Twins catch the baseball.

This was the theme Tuesday night in Game 1 of the Twins' American League Division Series against the Yankees. It was not the only important thing that happened, but it was the one thing that kept happening. The Twins caught the baseball, and they did it so well that they defeated the mighty Yankees, 2-0.

In the beginning, Johan Santana -- who is the AL Cy Young winner this season, if justice still exists -- was not overwhelming. In each of the first two innings, the Yankees put two runners on against him. In the fourth and the fifth, the Yankees put the leadoff man on against him.

It did not matter. In each of the four innings when trouble lurked, the Twins got a double play. They tied the Division Series record for double plays, and it took them only five innings. They broke the record later, but one double play at a time.

Two of the double plays were conventional, 6-4-3. One was a strikeout-throw out, Bernie Williams striking out, Henry Blanco throwing out Alex Rodriguez at third. And there was Torii Hunter, on a fly ball to center, throwing out Jorge Posada at the plate in the second on a throw that was beautiful in both its strength and its precision.

"I just wanted to get behind the ball, get something on the ball," Hunter said. "It just so happens that it was one hop and right there."

"Torii gave me a throw that was right on the money," said catcher Henry Blanco. "All I had to do was guard the plate and make the tag. He's the best center fielder in the game."

This illustrates the point that when you make the comment "he catches the baseball," it is understood that you also implicitly mean: "He also throws the baseball very well." You can't use this phrase unless you mean it in the precise way, but also in the larger context of overall defense. This is one of those phrases, "he catches the baseball," that gets a lot of work out of just four words.

With this kind of assistance, somebody as good as Santana was not about to be beaten, even on a night when he was not in total command of his stuff. But there was more for the Twins with the gloves.

Hunter made a leaping grab at the wall in center against Alex Rodriguez in the eighth. It was a terrific play. Hunter catches everything that stays in the park, not to mention the occasional ball that would otherwise leave the park.

Hunter broke back on the ball and, as he explained later, immediately believed that he could catch it. A lot of people believe they can make catches like this, but Hunter has a track record that indicates that believing and doing are almost the same thing in his case.

"I tried to calm myself down," he said with a smile, "so I don't run into the wall before I can catch it. If it wasn't going out, I was going to get knocked out or I was going to have it."

Where did this rank on Hunter's list of all-time great catches? "Tenth," he said with a shrug. If you have seen the Twins at all, you have seen Hunter make several plays that left this one in the dust. Still, this was a very difficult catch and it was a big grab in October, in Yankee Stadium. So it squeezed into Torii's Top 10. "It was just the moment," said Hunter. "The right time, the playoffs."

Later that same inning, with Juan Rincon pitching, hey, guess what, 6-4-3 for the third time. The Twins, fittingly enough, set the postseason record for double plays in a single game.

"Torii Hunter probably stepped up and played the game like we see him do all the time; some catches in center field, a great throw," said Gardenhire. "We turned four or five double plays, I don't even know. That's our game. We do that."

The Minnesota defense makes the Minnesota pitching staff better, although Santana doesn't always require much assistance. The Twins pitchers know that they can throw strikes, because they see what happens when the opposition puts the ball in play.

Closer Joe Nathan, who picked up the save in the ninth Tuesday night, said of the defense: "I've seen them bust their butts in Spring Training. All this hard work pays off at times like these. It's fun to watch them during Spring Training out there hours at a time, taking ground balls and taking fly balls and Jerry White working with the outfielders. It's fun watching them work and you really want to go out there and let them perform."

It was a great night for baseball's least publicized and least quantifiable, but still essential skilled; the ability to catch the baseball (and then throw it on time to the right place). The spotlight was much larger than usual, but the Minnesota Twins did what they normally do. They caught the baseball.