Roger Clemens will be gone, and (most likely) so will David Wells. What the Yankees decide to do about Andy Pettitte this winter, when the 31-year-old lefthander with 160 wins in pinstripes (including the postseason) becomes a free agent, is still up in the air. But anyone who came into Thursday night’s game looking for hints about his future or nostalgia at what might be his final Yankee start got only the Game Face.

Pettitte glared icily from beneath that low brim, shutting out everything but the work at hand and nearly the Minnesota Twins as well. Dandy Andy spun 7 innings of 1-run ball while striking out 10 Twins, enabling the Yanks to tie the AL Divisional Series at one game apiece. And if Thursday night was a referendum about whether Pettitte stays in pinstripes, the answer from his manager and his teammates would have been unanimously affirmative. “I don’t think I can trust anybody more than I trust Andy,” gushed Joe Torre, who still points to Pettitte’s 1-0 shutout in Game Five of the 1996 World Series whenever he needs to justify faith in his lefty.

For six and a half innings, this was a tight ballgame, Pettitte and Minnesota’s Brad Radke matching each other with virutally mistake-free pitching. Taking advantage of the stinging cold, Pettitte pitched inside and broke a heap of bats, with Torii Hunter’s fifth-inning homer being the only hard-hit ball. Radke gave up a run in the first as the Yanks loaded the bases with none out, but limiting them to that solitary score was a moral victory which he seemed to build upon. From the second and through the sixth inning, he allowed only three baserunners, and it was only when he hit 0-for-22 Nick Johnson in the butt to start the seventh that the tide began to turn. Juan Rivera’s successful sac bunt chased Radke, and then hell broke loose on reliever Latroy Hawkins’ watch: an RBI single by Soriano, a throwing error on Derek Jeter’s chopper, and then a two-run single by the slumping Jason Giambi to open up a 4-1 lead. In no mood to mess with the likes of Jeff Nelson, Torre summoned Mariano Rivera for a two-inning save, and the Yankee closer was perfect in nailing down the win.

Andra and I watched the game at home, my once-constant group of fellow Yankee diehards having dispersed to the point where we can’t even be bothered to unite for a must-win first-round game. But my gal was a great companion. Throughout the ballgame, she remained more optimistic than I did, and we tried to find something to improve the Yankee mojo. During the seventh inning stretch, we went for the kill. Andra proclaimed that a batch of Rally Popcorn was in order, and so we paused the TiVo while she popped a batch on the stove in about three minutes flat. Waiting in anticipation, I turned my Yankees cap inside out (as was the style at the time), just before watching Johnson get drilled.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire blamed Radke’s hitting Johnson on the lengthy festivities during the seventh-inning stretch, when Irish tenor Ronan Tynan sang “God Bless America.” From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

“I know there are very good reasons they are singing this in New York,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “But they make a full production out of it… and, meantime, my pitcher is over there trying to stay loose.”

…

“It’s ridiculous that my starting pitcher has to wait six, seven minutes before he pitches in the seventh, and their guy gets the normal break,” Gardenhire said. “What happens? He’s throwing great, and he goes out there and the first hitter… he plunks him right in the rear end.

What was that about “no crying in baseball”? I’m no fan of the post-9/11 bombastic display of patriotism at our sporting events, but Gardenhire’s complaints ring hollow. In the end, the stretch festivities at Yankee Stadium are just one element of a home-field advantage which the Twins, back in their decibel-heavy Metrodome, look forward to countering.

Radke, to his credit, didn’t use the delay as an excuse and instead graciously praised Johnson for turning the other cheek: “Do anything to get on toward the end of the game. Tip your hat to him, took one for the team.”

One of the other interesting side stories to the game was Giambi. Playing at considerably less than 100% (Baseball Prospectus’ Will Carroll has been saying patellar tendinitis for months), Giambi’s unable to drive off of his back leg, and the Twins’ pitchers have been able to blow the ball by him. Booed for a wretched first game, Giambi struggled in the second one as well, striking out with two men on to end the fifth inning.But all of that changed in the seventh.According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, Giambi’s long-awaited redemption had an, um, interesting inspiration:

Giambi, the designated hitter, retreated to the clubhouse, where David Wells — another member of the old guard — approached him with a handful of magazines featuring clothing-free women, just trying to take the edge of Giambi. In the seventh inning, Giambi’s two-run single capped a three-run rally. “I guess it works,” Giambi said of the magazine treatment, “to help me relax.”

Different strokes for different folks? Let’s not go there…

So the series heads to Minnesota with both teams able to hold their chins up. By taking Game One, the Twins got the 0-13 and Mike Mussina monkeys off their back, showing themselves and everybody else that they belong on the same field as the Yanks. By taking Game Two, the Yanks siezed the momentum and can look forward to sending one of the all-time-greats, Roger Clemens, to the hill against the much less famous Kyle Lohse. They also broke a four-game postseason losing skid dating back to last year’s inglorious loss to the Anaheim Angels, and looked as though they finally remembered just what the hell they’re doing here — and not a moment too soon.