This loss was very frustrating and disappointing, but one thing this team can’t do is hang their heads, because we’ve had an unbelievable year and an unbelievable ride. We’ll look back and reflect on it. Back in early June to where we are now -- nobody would have thought we were going to be here, but obviously we felt like it was going to end a little different.

We obviously felt like it wasn’t going to be the last time for Brad, because we thought we were still going to keep him in the game. At the same time you tip your cap to him, because he’s been an unbelievable professional his whole career. He went out there and fought through this whole year and he pitched well today.

Nothing was really said after Radke came out because we were trying to still fight in the game and we couldn’t put much focus into that during the game. We will be able to reflect with him later, but right now he has been bogged down by the media so there isn’t much we could say to him now.

There may be some changes coming, but obviously we want Torii to be back -- there’s no question about that. At the same time it is a business and I’m not in charge of this business. That’s something that the front office is going to have to decide. Torii is going to have to decide. We’ll see as the offseason progresses what develops with that situation.

What makes us all excited about next year is that the core of this group is coming back -- Justin, Joe Mauer, Johan, Joe Nathan. The guys that we relied so heavily on are going to be back. So hopefully this isn’t the last time this group is going to be here.

The whole last four months of the season is going to be a memory for all of us. Because it was a heck of a ride and something that we have enjoyed for taking it. It was a fun year, it really was. On a personal level, it was the first time I got to play day in and day out. On a team level, we played unbelievable baseball. From June 8 on we played crazy baseball. It was awesome. When it’s all said and done and it all sinks in and you look back it was a heck of a year for us.

We had an early workout today which we all actually enjoyed.With the time change, we knew we were going to get up early so it was good to get things going and get back out on the field this morning. The whole team seemed loose and we were all pretty energetic out there.

We got into San Francisco last night as we flew out right after the game. The plane ride was just like normal. The only difference was that there were wives on the trip this time, too. I watched movies, played some video games and took a little bit of a nap. Mostly it was like any other flight with all of us just trying to pass the time away.

Even though there was so much talk about how far we have to go after Wednesday’s game about how far we have to go, the attitude of the team was the same -– we didn’t get down on ourselves and we weren’t that mellow either. I think we’re all excited to have this day off to regroup and then get back at them tomorrow.

 
Since we have the rest of the day off, I’ll probably just take it easy, relax and maybe go out to see some of the city. Mostly it will just be trying to find ways to pass the time until I can go to bed and get ready for the game tomorrow.

 
We obviously all know that we have to win tomorrow. That’s no secret. It’s not like we’re in denial about that or anything. We have to win, but we’re not trying to put more pressure on ourselves. I think everyone around here knows just what we have to do and is ready to get out there and do it.

 
Thanks for all of the comments, it’s nice to get some responses to this blog. And one last thing for all the people that were asking about Justin –- yes, he is single.

Last night after the game was over, I went out to dinner and then came home to watch a bit of the Yankees game. I just tried to wind down a bit and get to bed. Even though we lost Game 1, there wasn’t any pressure that I felt. I didn’t have trouble sleeping or anything, so that was good. I came back today and felt confident that we could turn things around.

 

Before the game, all of us seemed really loose. Nobody looked pressured or tight or anything. After just hitting in the cages before Tuesday’s game, today we went out and took batting practice. We felt like we got back to our routine, and it seemed like we all felt pretty confident.

 

We were really impressed with Boof on the mound, right from the start today. He did a great job -- just what we expected from him. We expected him to go out there and compete, and that’s exactly what he did. He threw the ball great, and it’s unfortunate that we weren’t able to give him any run support. Just like it’s unfortunate that we weren’t able to give Johan support yesterday, either.

It was frustrating both days not to get runs across, but I think in today’s case it was a little different. We didn’t get anything started with less than two outs, and against a team like Oakland in a playoff situation, it’s tough to get three, four hits in a row -– especially with two outs. We had to rely on trying to get a two-out rally every time, and that’s really tough.

Hitting that home run in the sixth inning was a great feeling. But it felt even better when Justin came up behind me and hit his to tie the game. The crowd was going crazy and you could just sense the excitement in the stands. It felt like we could really get something started. There was that sense in the dugout that we were going to be able to pull this one out. Unfortunately, that feeling didn’t last very long.

 

When Kotsay hit the ball, I saw Torii break. It’s a tough play to make, but he’s a five-time Gold Glover, so by no means am I in a position to second-guess or question his choice to dive for it. That’s the way he plays. He’s aggressive and he went after it. Unfortunately, it cut at the last second and scooted by him.

 

After Torii missed the ball, I just busted as hard as I could to get it. I tried to get it to the relay man as quick as I can, but Kotsay is obviously a quick guy. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do any more than that and it resulted in an inside-the-park home run.

 

After the game it was a pretty somber mood in the clubhouse. It was pretty quiet. Guys were reflecting in their own head on the game today. But the thing is, what can you do? Maybe you can spend a little bit of time thinking about it, but you can’t worry about it. We’ve got to come out and regroup on the off-day and play good baseball in Game 3.

 

This is obviously a very frustrating, disappointing loss, but at the same time there’s no reason to panic. The only thing panicking will do is make you nervous for the next game. So we just have to go out and play loose and play good baseball.

 

Even though we went 1-3 at Oakland earlier in the year, we still feel good about our chances. We’re obviously a lot different team than the last time we went out to Oakland. There’s no reason to panic and no reason to put pressure on ourselves. Right now we’re in a spot where we can’t afford to do that. We don’t have time to do that. We just have to go out and worry about playing good baseball. If we play two good games out there and pick up wins, we can give the ball back to Johan again on Sunday at home.

-- Michael Cuddyer

Last night I went to the rally that was held downtown. That was something pretty special, seeing 8,000 people out there for not even a gameday. I went home after the rally last night and just tried to take it easy. I got to bed early, which was nice since that doesn’t always happen before day games.

The day started for me by waking up at 7 o’clock, which wasn’t too fun. I guess that’s what happens when you don’t play prime-time. We were all excited about the day. I picked [Mike] Redmond and Nick [Punto] up and the three of us came to the park together. We all ate breakfast and then got into our usual game routine. We were excited and ready to go -- we had breakfast and were ready to get after it.

Even when we got behind early in the game, we were still upbeat. We were just trying to find ways to get to Barry Zito. We didn’t have much success early off him, obviously, as we didn’t get any hits for four innings. We were just trying to figure out ways to get a run across the board and get it done so we could get Johan that win. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get that.

Facing Zito, we didn’t want to chase pitches, which we ended up doing anyway. We started chasing high fastballs and we wanted to make him throw a lot of pitches, and we didn’t do that, either. I don’t think we really stuck to our game plan and really executed very well today. But he made big pitches when he had to and threw pitches for strikes when he had throw strikes, and he made us swing the bat.

The atmosphere from the crowd today was just amazing. To go out there and have 55,000-plus people in the crowd, it’s awesome. Words can’t even describe it. During the eighth and ninth innings when they got really rowdy, it was just deafening.

In the late innings, as we started to feel better on offense, we were confident that we were going to pull off the comeback. We felt like we were going to get it done, because we had done it so many times in the past that today was just going to be another one. Even though we weren’t able to, you realize that you can’t pull off a comeback win every day, so hopefully we’ll be able to come back tomorrow and get it done.

For everyone saying that this game was bigger for us, it’s not true, because Game 1 is huge for both teams. I don’t think you can put more importance on it for either team. No matter who you have on the mound, it’s a big game.

But we’re not worried too much about losing Game 1, either. The past three years we’ve been in the playoffs, we’ve won Game 1 but lost the series. So hopefully we change the course of history by losing this first game. You can’t really get caught up in things like winning or losing certain games. People were saying that this team has lost five straight home games in the playoffs, but this is a totally different team than the ones that lost at home before. With this team, we’re 0-1 at home. I don’t even pay attention to those other losses.

Even though Boof Bonser is a rookie, I think he’s going to take this start tomorrow as a challenge and go out there and battle and give it his all. That’s all you can really ask for from a guy -– to go out there and compete. Nobody competes more on this team than Boof, and he’s hopefully going to throw a good game for us.

After the game, it was quiet in the clubhouse and basically the message was that we just have to come back and get them tomorrow. There’s no reason to hang our heads and no reason to get down on ourselves or doubt ourselves -- especially at this point. We’ll come back tomorrow and put together a good game and hopefully win. -- Michael Cuddyer / MLB.com

The atmosphere yesterday inside the dome was unbelievable. To be able to experience winning a division championship like that by watching it with the fans is an indescribable feeling. Torii Hunter and I stayed down on the field once our game was over when everybody went up in the clubhouse. Once the Royals got the outs in that bases-loaded inning then we went upstairs and got the whole team to come down with us. When that happened, the energy of all of us with the crowd was really something. I've never been such a Royals fan in my life except for yesterday. It was a really cool situation.

It was hard to have to sit and watch it all unfold. I told Justin Morneau that this is why I don't think I could watch baseball if I wasn't a player. Being a fan is more pressure than being a player, hands down, because you have no control over it when you're a fan. As a player you feel like you have some type of say in things and you're not really worried about the outcome as much as getting the job done. When you're watching it, it's pressure.

Getting to run around the field and slap hands with all of the fans after we had officially clinched was awesome. We did that a bit my first couple years but I didn't feel as big of a part of it as I do this year because my role now is different. To come back from where we were and to capture the division title, the fashion that we did it in and the resiliency of this club to figure out how to win even when we didn't have any more outs left -- it was pretty cool.

Having two celebrations in one week was something you don't often get to experience. I was sick in the first one so I didn't really get to enjoy it as much as I would have liked. So the one yesterday was much better. Plus that celebration was the culmination of the season coming together in an amazing finish. It was a finish that nobody could have even thought possible just a month ago.

After celebrating in the clubhouse for awhile, a couple of us went out to dinner at Bellanotte downtown. We just tried to take all it all in. It was a pretty unbelievable day so basically we all sat around and talked about it.

To be able to go take our bags off the truck, that was great. For us to have home field advantage is big. It's not because we're playing the A's and not the Yankees. It has nothing to do with who we're playing, but where we're playing. We're at home where we've been good all year. We've got Johan Santana going in the first game where he's been dominant all year. So we feel good about where we are and our situation.

This postseason is a little different than the ones before because my role is bigger on this team. I don't think it's any more pressure. I've always said it's extra baseball -- why be nervous, why be scared about extra baseball? Although we were expecting to get into the playoffs coming out of Spring Training, you just never know what will happen. When you get that chance, there's no reason to be nervous - just go out there and have fun. You have to do that because not too many people in this game get a chance to play in the postseason.

This is a very special group of guys. Everyone talks about the team we had in 2002 and how all the guys knew each other pretty well. I think that team in 2002 was close, with good camaraderie and good chemistry. But I think this team is more of a team. I think in 2002, although they were close, there were also still some individuals on the team -- guys that were worrying about their careers and their own accomplishments. I think this team, not too many people, if any, worry about their own personal numbers out on the field. They worry about picking up a teammate when they need to get picked up. That's what's different -- everybody pulls for each other and roots for each other for the same goal and that's to win. - Michael Cuddyer / MLB.com