Double whammy today, as I feel compelled to join everyone else in this town in previewing the upcoming series between the Twins and New York Yankees. In case you hadn't heard, beating the Yanks has been a bit of a problem for oh, about the last decade or so. The numbers have been drilled into my mind: 3-23 overall since 2002, 0-10 last season, 2-9 in playoff meetings, etc. Throw in the fact that the Yankees are 10-2 at home so far, despite getting minimal contributions from a couple key offensive players, and it all spells doom on the horizon once again.
As hard as it is to fathom for those that know me, I do want to be optimistic and hopeful. I want to believe in the worst way that this new-look Twins team will walk into Yankee Stadium and throw down a butt-kicking that will permanently remove the monkey from their backs; problem is, I can't overlook the mountain of evidence to the contrary. Frankly I just want a win, a single win any way we can scratch it out, then focus on finishing the roadtrip strong with Boston and Toronto, going 3-4 over these 7 games would not be a failure in my mind.
The only real bright spot I think I can offer is this: It can't be as bad as last season. Almost one year ago to the day, we began the most excruciating Twins series I can recall in my many years of watching, 4 one-run losses, with the first 3 coming in the final at-bat. I thought we had seen the worst of what could happen when Joe Nathan blew a save in the 9th inning of Friday's game, but it turned out they were just getting warmed up. The Yankees were a .500 team coming in, afterward they never looked back. Once again, we had the Evil Empire on the ropes, only to see them rise up and crush our hopes, things were growing more disturbingly cosmic by the day.
So while it can be said that the lineups in that series prominently featured the likes of Matt Tolbert, Brian Buscher and Mike Redmond, while this one sports upgrades across the board, permit me to temper my enthusiasm. We will still be opening the series with (Moonshot) Scott Baker, who's lack of a decisive out-pitch always seems to be made most glaring by the potent Yankees lineup (If he gets through five innings in under 100 pitches, first beer is on me). We will still be rolling with a bullpen that lacks the overpowering arms necessary to get big outs in the late innings. We will generally still be the team that seems to wet itself and find a way to lose everytime they glimpse pinstripes, and frankly I think all the extra questions about this being a "statement series" are going to make that worse, not better.
But hey, let's roll the dice and hope they don't come up snake eyes. If things go poorly, we can always fall back on the mantra that it's only May. If they go well, make sure to stay firmly affixed to your seat on the bandwagon, lest some interloper attempts to wrest it from you.
Damn Yankees.
Well, we got your minimum request of one win, and it was in the game that any fan would want to win the most, the last one. Friday was painful, but the beer is on you as Bake went 6, 5 ER on 100 pitches, so better than you expected. And, I was intrigued by the note in the paper yesterday that the Twins' bullpen has the second best ERA in baseball, just barely behind Detroit. So, complain all you want about the pen, when it comes down to it, once again, the Twins pen is pretty solid.
ReplyDeleteAnd, after yesterday, it's three straight great-to-fantastic outings in a row for Blackie.