The Minnesota Twins and the New York Yankees have a history of meeting in the playoffs and for Minnesota, it has never ended with a series victory. The history is depressing so we’ll just show you the results and go from there.
- 2003: Lost 3-1 in ALDS
- Won Game 1 in New York, 3-1
- 2004: Lost 3-1 in ALDS
- Won Game 1 in New York, 2-0. Lost Game 2 & Game 4 in extra innings.
- 2009: Lost 3-0 in ALDS
- Lost Game 2 in extra innings
- 2010: Lost 3-0 in ALDS
- 2017: Lost in WCG, 8-4
- Led 3-0 after the top of the 1st inning.
Why rehash it? Especially when there are only 9 players/pitchers who are still playing for the Minnesota Twins since the last playoff game in 2017.
On Wednesday, the media eluded to a mystique or intimidation of the New York Yankees and Yankee Stadium in the playoffs. Rocco said he doesn’t believe in that at all:
“Rocco, I know this team doesn’t care about past history against the Yankees but you have to admit there’s somewhat of an intimidation factor in Yankee Stadium in the playoffs. How do you think your team will respond to that, especially the guys who haven’t been in this situation before?”
Twins Manager Rocco Baldelli:
“I wouldn’t agree with the preface there. I don’t think it is that. It’s a different energy. I think it’s..you know you’re in New York City. It’s a big city. There’s a different feel to everything that you do when you fly into, you know, the airport, jump on the bus and head into the big city. That being said, I don’t find it intimidating at all. I’ve been a part of many, many games in that ballpark and been a part of many, many great efforts in that ballpark and winning efforts so I don’t see it and I think that the fans and everyone who has followed the Twins for a long time have watched and potentially watched every game that the Twins have played have many thoughts about these types of games but as far as our players and in our clubhouse, I don’t think any of our guys care one bit about what has happened here previously and I think our guys are about as confident going into the series as you can be.”
As a fan who has watched all of the games against the Yankees in the playoffs, I can definitely see what the media is referring to but I’m not sure I ever thought any Twins players thought it was intimidating. Ron Gardenhire was maybe afraid to put a player in a position to fail in a game before so…maybe there is something to that. That’s another part of the reason this 2019 Minnesota Twins team is different. They haven’t been afraid to throw anyone into the lineup or on the mound and none of those players were afraid to be put in those situations, either. Nervous? Sure. Definitely but not afraid. This is where they want to be.
It comes down to the Yankees are good and usually very good. They have a lot of talented players and usually the best roster money can buy but they also develop well. They didn’t buy Aaron Judge or Brett Gardner or, well, that’s about it on their current roster but there are other great examples like Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada.
This series also seems like a different series because usually, the Minnesota Twins are not even close to the New York Yankees in terms of talent. It’s probably because of the injuries but the Yankees are kind of shaky in the starting rotation and in their lineup. They will also have no Aaron Hicks, no Mike Tauchman and no CC. Sabathia.
The Twins out-homered the Yankees in the regular season. I didn’t look but it’s hard for me to imagine that’s ever happened before. We know it hasn’t ever happened when they’ve met in the postseason. The closest the Twins ever were in Home Runs to the Yankees was two years ago when the Twins hit just 35 fewer (206) Home Runs than the Yankees (241).
The lineup just scores runs and they score fast so they’re rarely out of a game. The lineup should look pretty much the same as the regular season minus injured Byron Buxton and maybe without Luis Arraez. Mitch Garver will likely lead off versus a lefty then Jorge Polanco, Nelson Cruz, Eddie Rosario, Miguel Sano, Max Kepler, Marwin Gonzalez, CJ Cron & Jonathan Schoop. If Arraez is in the lineup, obviously he’s probably pretty high up in the lineup.
The Yankee lineup isn’t bad by any means. They did finish just 1 home run behind the Twins for the most home runs in baseball this season at 306 so they can score just as fast and in bunches as well.
The Twins might also have a better bullpen and better options for the starting rotation. How crazy is that? The Twins bullpen has been very good since the trade deadline with pitchers that you wouldn’t have guessed would be prominent names at the beginning of the season. RHPs Tyler Duffey, Trevor May, Zack Littell and Sergio Romo and LHP Taylor Rogers are major reasons the Twins should be able to stay in and maybe even win this series.
The Minnesota Twins will likely go with Jose Berrios for Game 1, Randy Dobnak for Game 2 and Jake Odorizzi for Game 3. They would probably use the bullpen for Game 4 then come back with Jose Berrios in Game 5 if the series goes that long.
The Yankees will go with LHP James Paxton in Game 1, RHP Masahiro Tanaka in Game 2 and RHP Luis Severino in Game 3. I could see RHP Chad Green starting/opening Game 4 then back to Paxton for Game 5.
Health may be the biggest factor in this series as both teams have questions about their starting players and their pitchers. The Yankees have Gary Sanchez coming back from a groin injust and Edwin Encarnacion coming back from an oblique injury. They also have Giancarlo Stanton who came back from a knee sprain and has been hitting pretty well.
The Twins have Max Kepler coming back from a chest/shoulder injury. Marwin Gonzalez was rested so he’d good to go. C.J. Cron just came back from his thumb injury and, of course, the ankle of Luis Arraez has been a very important body part to Minnesota Twins fans since Sunday. It sounds like he’s doing better. This is what Rocco Baldelli had to say about him:
He’s (Arraez) healed really well, probably faster than anybody anticipated and he’s putting himself in a spot where we’re taking this question very seriously…
The Twins will release their ALDS roster after this posts so we’re still not sure how it will look. We made our final playoff roster choices on Wednesday.
The Twins will go with RHP Jose Berrios in Game 1 and he’ll be opposed by LHP James Paxton. The Twins enjoy hitting against left-handed pitching.
Is this the year the Twins finally get over that Yankee hump? We’ll leave you with another Rocco quote about the series:
“For people that are sitting at home, grab a drink and put your feet up and enjoy. It’s going to be a fun series and our players are just waiting for the first pitch. They’re ready to go.” – Rocco Baldelli
