Twins vs Yankees. Oh god, here we go again. 😟

It feels like some kind of cruel cosmic joke to have the Twins matched up yet again against the Yankees in the playoffs.

Why can we never draw any other team?

The 2003 and 2004 series were kind of their own thing. The Twins had Johan Santana, and most of that 2002 core still, but were really overmatched against Yankee teams that still had recent dynasty cred.

In 2006 the Twins avoided the Yankees, by one game. Had the Tigers won on the last day of the season, they would have won the division and played the Oakland team that swept us.

In 2009 the Twins win game 163, then had all that excitement flushed by a Yankee sweep. And in a final humiliation the last game of the Metrodome was a sweep clinching loss.

Maybe 2010.would be different. New ballpark, powerful roster, home field advantage against the Yankees, who we shouldn't have had to play, but since division teams couldn't be matched up in an ALDS then, we got them instead of Tampa. No matter. We choked game 1 then didn't even compete in games 2 and 3. Another sweep.

Then the 2010s abyss swallowed us for most of the decade, before 2 hot months at the end of 2017 got us a wild card. But of course the Yankees were magically the other wild card. And had home field. And after one half inning of hope, beat us easily.

Some say that the Yankees were simply the better team all these times. But I don't buy it. Since 2002 the Yankees have lost a LOT of playoff series, to a lot of different teams. Never the Twins. Plus, would it kill you to pull the upset? The 1987 Twins were not better than either Detroit or St. Louis. But they pulled off 2 big upsets and won a championship.

No doubt the 2019 Twins are the best Twins team since at least 2006. Record-wise they're the beat Twins team of my lifetime.

And yet, I dread the.playoffs, cause once again we have to start with the fucking Yankees.

The team has said all the right things when asked about the Yankee curse. But they are just words. Previous teams have said the Yankees are just another team, that the past doesn't matter, that they're confident, all of that. Then they lost.

Just this season we had a chance to at least split the season series. Then that 14-12 game happened. The Twins have not gotten the better of the Yankees in nearly 20 years.

There are plenty of logical reasons to not just think the Twins can beat the Yankees, but to pick them. The homeruns, the vastly improved bullpen, the road record, the Yankees own injury issues.

But in my gut I know that this will be like all the other series. Like all the other years. The bats will inexplicably go cold. Berrios will blow up. The fielding will have major mistakes at crucial times. The Yankees will get every close call.

I honestly think that if the Twins somehow got past the Yankees they could roll to a world series title. But they won't. They won't because the baseball gods never allow it.

Yankees in 3