Yankees-Twins ALDS preview: Minnesota looks to reverse postseason history against New York
NEW YORK — Hello, Minnesota Twins and welcome back to the postseason. Congratulations on winning 101 games, the second-most in franchise history.
Your prize?
You’ll be playing those damn Yankees again.
For the sixth time in the postseason since 2003.
Guess how many times the Twins have beaten them?
Yep, zero.
The Yankees have personally been responsible for eliminating the Twins five times.
The Twins are 0-4 against the Yankees in the AL Division Series (2003, 2004, 2009 and 2010) and 0-1 (2017) in wild-card games.
The Yankees are 99-37 overall against the Twins since 2002 and 13-2 in the postseason, including 10 consecutive games.
The last time the Yankees lost a postseason game to the Twins?
Oct. 5, 2004.
Gulp.
“I just say it’s time to slay the dragon,’’ Twins president Dave St. Peter said. “There’s no time like the present to break that curse.’’
Who knows, maybe this is the team to do it.
The Twins even out-bombed the Bronx Bombers this year, hitting a major league-record 307 homers. They outslugged the Yankees, scoring 942 runs. They had five players – Nelson Cruz, Max Kepler, Miguel Sano, Eddie Rosario and Mitch Garver – hit at least 30 homers.
And they proved over and over this season that they win on the road, going 55-26, with no other team in baseball winning more than 48 away from home
No wonder Yankees manager Aaron Boone dismisses the idea they are inside the Twins’ heads before the series even starts.
“I don’t at all get caught up in the history of it honestly, because I just think there’s so many guys that had nothing to do with it,” Boone says. “We know we’re playing a great team.’’
A team with only seven remaining players from their 2017 wild-card team that lost to the Yankees and who couldn’t care less about the past.
“I don’t care about what’s happened here in the past,’’ Twins manager Rocco Baldelli says. “I don’t care about anything except what goes on with our guys, starting this Friday, and this series is really all that matters. Nothing that’s ever happened here before or in Minnesota or anywhere else previously is going to affect any of our players in any way.’’
For starters
Projected rotations:
- Game 1: RHP Jose Berrios (14-8, 3.68 ERA) vs. LHP James Paxton (15-6, 3.82 ERA)
- Game 2: RHP Randy Dobnak (2-1, 1.59 ERA) vs. RHP Masahiro Tanaka (11-9, 4.48 ERA)
- Game 3: RHP Jake Odorizzi (15-7, 3.51 ERA) vs. RHP Luis Severino (1-1, 1.50 ERA)
- Game 4: TBD
- Game 5: TBD
These teams are known for their power and acclaimed for their bullpens, not their starting rotations.
The Game 1 starters for both teams have never started a postseason game in their careers, and only Berrios has postseason experience as the losing pitcher in relief in the Twins’ wild-card game at Yankee Stadium, yielding three runs, including a two-run Aaron Judge homer.
Paxton might have a slight edge with his dominance at home this season, yielding a 3.35 ERA at Yankee Stadium compared to 4.33 on the road. He also has a glossy resume against the Yankees, yielding a 2.27 ERA in six career starts.
The Twins have yet to announce their starting rotation after Berrios, but considering Odorizzi has given up 2.9 homers per nine innings at Yankee Stadium in his career, they might save him for Game 3 at Target Field and go with Dobnak, who was just called up seven weeks ago.
Started from the bottom ...
Dobnak, who happens to have a 4.99 rating as an Uber and Lyft driver the last two years. He was undrafted out of Alderson Broaddus University in West Virginia and was pitching for the Utica Unicorns in the independent United Short Professional Baseball League just two years ago. He opened this season at Class A Fort Myers, and his big-league experience consists of seven weeks.
And just last weekend he was getting married in Maryland, never imagining when he and his fiancée set the wedding date two years ago that he’d be pitching at Yankee Stadium.
He wore the goggles from the Twins’ AL Central celebration to his wedding reception, of course.
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Keep an eye on
Giancarlo Stanton, Yankees: Stanton has played just 18 games all season for the Yankees, with injuries to everything from his shoulder to his biceps to his knee. He returned at the end of the regular season to play nine games but hit two doubles and two homers. Now, they need him back to not only supply the power but also play left field, permitting Boone to play D.J. LeMahieu at first base and Edwin Encarnacion at DH.
Miguel Sano, Twins: He nearly wore out the Twins’ patience, but finally Sano became the star they always envisioned. Sano, with Cruz as his mentor, hit a career-high 34 homers, with eight homers alone the final 19 games of the season. Sano, who didn’t begin the season until May 16 because of an infected heel, wasn’t around when these teams met two years ago for the wild-card game, out with a shin injury. Now, he could be the Yankees’ biggest nightmare. He has hit eight homers with 18 RBI in 16 career games against the Yankees, and he does his best damage on the road, hitting .276 with 20 homers in 54 games.
In the end
This is the best Twins team the Yankees have faced in two decades. Their offense is scary, and their bullpen has produced the best numbers in the league since Aug. 16. But come on, it’s like a rerun of "Gilligan’s Island." You keep thinking this is the episode where the ending changes, but it never does.
Yankees in 4.