The play could have defined Jacque Jones for a moment, a week or even a season.

On one sequence that probably felt like it took an eternity, Jones was the author of a blown play that looked like it might cost the Twins a game they seemingly had command of against the mighty Yankees yesterday.

The Twins’ left fielder lost a Bernie Williams fly ball in the glistening afternoon sun, opening up what would be the Yankees’ most serious rally of the game. Shortly after Jones’ gaffe – which was scored a hit because he never touched the ball – the Yankees tied the game at 3-3.

Jones, a youngster trying to find his way in the major leagues, could have been rattled. Instead, leading off the very next inning, he doubled sharply to right-center off of Roger Clemens.

A moment later, when teammate Matt Lecroy doubled to left, Jones was crossing the plate with what turned out to be the winning run in Minnesota’s 7-3 win at Yankee Stadium.

For the Yankees it was their first loss at home in 2000 after a 5-0 start.

For Jones, it was – at least for one day – delicious redemption.

“It showed that I forgot about (the muff), that I didn’t let defense affect my offense,” Jones would say later of that double, his second of the game. “Wherever that ball fell out there, that’s where I left it. That’s just part of being mature, taking the good with the bad.”

Twins manager Tom Kelly had a slight concern that Jones would take his gaffe with him to the plate, so he spoke to him in the dugout between half innings.

“I said to him, ‘Have a good at bat; don’t do anything foolish,'” Kelly said. “He did pull off the first pitch and Scott (batting coach Scott Ullger) hollered at him. But he had a real nice swing at the second (pitch).

“That was a pretty big play at the time, because the wheels came off for him out there and the Yankees tied it up, so it was natural for him to try to make up for it. But he held himself together.”

Jones tried to nonchalant his goat-hero transition, saying, “It’s baseball. It happens. You try to forget about it. I wasn’t trying to hit a home run or anything. I was just trying to have a good at bat.”

And so he did.

“It’s all about being able to separate your offense from your defense, and defense from your offense,” Twins DH Butch Huskey said. “That showed the character of Jacque Jones – to be able to separate the two and come back to do what he had to do at the plate.”