"Finally, after 540 days of waiting, there was Joe Nathan, emerging from the bullpen, jogging to the mound, his arm at last healthy and a game at last to save.

His demeanor was the same, all twitches and jerks and giant exhales. His pitches, he admits, were not.

Nathan earned his first save since Oct. 3, 2009, in the Twins' 4-3 victory Sunday over the Blue Jays. It did not come easily, but what about the long, grueling recovery from Tommy John surgery is?

Nathan used to dominate hitters with a mid-90s mph fastball along with a sinker, slider and curve. This Nathan, the one still searching for his pitches and his former self, had a fastball that topped out at 92 and a slider still not what it used to be, forcing the 36-year-old to rely heavily on his curveball.

He focused on keeping the ball down, on throwing balls that looked like strikes, on being unafraid to bounce breaking balls in the dirt, if necessary. The results weren't pretty, but Nathan said that on this day, really, the results didn't matter.

"I think this was a win for me regardless," he said, "just to get back on the mound."

Even better, it ended up a win for the team as well.

With the Twins ahead 4-2, Nathan took the mound for the bottom of the ninth. The first batter he faced, Travis Snider, grounded a ball to the hole between first and second. Tsuyoshi Nishioka sprinted over and made a diving stop but couldn't get the throw to first in time for the out. "