Twins-Yankees Game 1: Same Old Song and Dance

Yankees 10
Twins 4

I went to the viewing party at Target Field tonight, and aside from the cold I'm glad I did. If nothing else it was an interesting social experiment to watch a thousand or so people have all the hope and joy systematically sucked out of them.

I myself knew the doom that was about to come. Nothing good the Twins did mattered, because it would never last.

Like most of these misery-inducing playoff games since 2003 this one was at points winnable.

Polanco and Cruz hit early homeruns. Berrios looked on. I didn't believe, but I could see how the more naive fans would.

Then the bottom of the 3rd is when it all started to go to hell. Arraez fails to catch a.pop fly. Not an easy play but it has to be made. A couple batters later the Yankees get on the board. Then a seemingly routine double play ball leads to a bad throw by Arraez that Cron can't field, and which becomes a 2 run play. All year this team has struggled with throws to first.

At least the Twins showed some fight. 2 innings later Arraez doubles, and then Polanco has a fantastic at bat that ends with him drilling a single to tie the game.

So it's 3-3. You are in the game.

Then Rocco Baldelli became an absolute clown. I did not agree with pulling Berrios there in the first place. He had pitched 4 innings that were messy, but with good fielding would have been 1 run at most.

And he pulls Berrios....to put in Zack Littell. How is Zack Littell your first option out of the pen in a tied playoff game at Yankee Stadium? WHAT THE FUCK, ROCCO?

Littell immediately goes walk + HBP. And Rocco has to quickly call on Duffey, who pitched fairly well but was put in an impossible spot. Why was Duffey not the first option? Anyway, the Yankees get a double to go up 5-3.

The Twins responded with a Miguel Sano homerun to cut it back to 5-4.

Back to the Rocco clown show. He puts in Cody Stashak. Why? Why are these the first guys you turn to? Stashak's outing was a disaster. He gives up 2 homeruns and just like that it's 7-4 and the viewing party thinned out big time.

Yes in a series you are going to have Littell and Stashak appear at some point probably. And they have been solid relievers. But you have at least 4 relievers better than them. And only Duffey was used. Thing is now you saved May, Romo and Rogers and you might not even need them in game 2. And you just had a week off. Why the FUCK is Rocco treating this like a midseason game?

Well anyway the Stashak inning was the dagger. But we still had one further humiliation. Kyle Gibson pitched the 7th, and it went as everybody could have expected. 3 walks, a couple steals, then a bases clearing double. 10-4.

How humiliating. 14 straight playoff losses. 11 straight to the Yankees.

It's over. The only issue left to be decided is will it be another sweep?

It will be if they only score 4 runs. I've said for weeks that they would have to score 10 runs a game to even have a chance to beat the Yankees. But the bats were just adequate tonight. Polanco, Cruz, Sano and Arraez had meaningful hits. Garver, Rosario and Kepler were awful. It's not good enough. Your lineup has to be just as deadly as the Yankees. This was always going to be the Twins only path to October success. The Bomba Squad failed.

The series is over. Nobody who says otherwise can be taken seriously. The Twins have ZERO chance to win 3 of the next 4 games. I give them only a small chance to win one game. After all the wins and homeruns, one game has us back to being the eternal laughingstock of major league baseball.