Twins’ fate rests on shoulders of Duensing

NEW YORK – Don’t let Brian Duensing’s calm demeanor fool you. When the left-hander takes the mound at Yankee Stadium tonight, he’ll have the entire Twins season resting on his shoulders, even if he’s hardly breaking a sweat.

“Nothing fazes him,” Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson said.

Sure it does. Duensing is as awestruck as anybody by all this. The Omaha, Neb., native simply has an uncanny ability to never show it on the mound.

For example, consider his only other postseason start, in Game 1 of last year’s Division Series at Yankee Stadium.

That was Duensing’s first trip to New York City. He remembers pulling up to the colossal stadium on the team bus and texting one of his buddies: “What the heck is going on? How did this happen?”

One night earlier, the Twins had defeated the Tigers in a 13-inning division tiebreaker. Duensing knew he’d be starting Game 1 if the Twins advanced, but it didn’t really hit him until the champagne and beer started flying.

“I was grabbing anything I could to dump on anybody,” he said. “I wanted to enjoy it in case it never happened again. I knew it would look bad if they showed me on TV with alcohol in my hands, but I honestly did not have one drop to drink.

“I walk in, and somebody hands me a bottle of champagne, and I’m about ready to shake it, and Matt Guerrier comes up behind me and dumps something on me that was freezing cold. I went, ‘Geez!’ and raised my arm, and I smoked him in the temple with the bottle. He almost dropped.

“I said, ‘I’m sorry. I’m a rookie.’ And he said, ‘Hey, it happens.’ ”