Yankees-Twins Game 1

Something I was thinking about while waiting for the game to start: The last two times the Twins reached the playoffs (2004, 2006), Game 1 was so important to them because they couldn’t lose Johan Santana’s start or the series was considered over. That’s how much he meant to that team. Now, they have no pressure going into the opening game. Brian freakin’ Duensing is on the mound! What do they have to lose? You think Johan is watching in Queens? Kind of funny.

One last pregame thought: I really wish Justin Morneau was healthy for this series. The Twins wouldn’t be even close to topping the Bronx Bombers but, aside from CC Sabathia, there aren’t many pitchers on the Yankee staff who could get Morneau out.

Innings 1-2
A leadoff double from Denard Span gave the Twins some hope of a spark but the Twins went down scoreless. The first two innings have been scoreless and Duensing has kept the ball down to this point while letting his defense help him. He retired 6 batters in a row after Jeter’s leadoff single but you have to wonder if his smoke-and-mirrors approach will last past the fifth inning. Sabathia hasn’t looked great but he doesn’t have to as he’s facing this tired, albeit resilient, Twins team.

Top 3
Sabathia almost out of the inning but allows opposite field singles to Orlando Cabrera, Joe Mauer and Michael Cuddyer. Out of the three hits, only Mauer’s was a quality pitch.
Passed ball by Jorge Posada. Had to have been a mixed up signal seeing as it was a fastball. Let the Posada Molina arguments ensue….
TWINS 2, YANKEES 0

Bottom 3
Important inning, obviously, for Brian Duensing. He’s had the Yankees off balance and after getting Nick Swisher to line to left his wild pitch put Melky Cabrera on second base before…

Duensing hung an inside slider to Derek Jeter and Jeter knocks it many rows back into the left field seats. Easily the worst pitch of the evening. A guy like Duensing has such a small margin for error and he got burned on a bad breaking ball.
After a Damon single to left, Cabrera, surprisingly, gave the Yanks more life in this inning as his throw to Nick Punto was low and the Twins missed out on a double-play opportunity on a Mark Teixeira grounder. Ron Gardenhire has to be taking TUMs as he watches a team that can’t afford those kinds of mistakes miss out on a DP.

Arod struck out to end the threat, a truly shocking development.

I’m not the first to psycho-analyze Arod but…You have to think at this point Arod needs to do well his first game of the postseason or he will slide into his usual funk by trying to make up for what he didn’t do his last at bat.
TWINS 2, YANKEES 2

Top 4
Delmon Young leads off and has two awful swings to go 0-2 and the third pitch was even worse, more than a foot outside as he went down swinging on 3 strikes. Can the Twins dump him and bring in Dimitri?

Sabathia’s changeup is looking fantastic right now, which is good because it seems like he’s unable to locate his fastball as well as he wants to.

Bottom 4
Matsui rolls over on the first pitch and grounds out, big out for Duensing
Posada loves his bloop hits, doesn’t he? Why did I say that? Man…I guess I still do have some scar tissue from 2003.

With two outs and Cano on first after a fielder’s choice, Swisher rips another flat slider down the left field line. Cano may not have scored if Young had hit Cabrera on the fly with his relay.

Hmmm….he can’t hit (clearly) and can’t field. Why is he playing again?
Duensing is finally aggressive and gets an inside fastball (a roaring 91 mph) past Melky Cabrera.
YANKEES 3, TWINS 2

Top 5
After two quick outs, Cabrera singles to left to extend the inning and, more importantly, puts a runner on for Joe Mauer. I might try to run here to get a RISP. We’ll see how aggressive Gardenhire is here.

Cabrera steals second, I’m glad coach heard me.

If you’re thinking “Why don’t the Yanks walk Mauer, he’s Super Man" and you have first base open, check out Cuddyer’s stats in September. He had 8 HR and 24 RBI in that month alone and 32 bombs on the year. Don’t worry, I didn’t notice, either.
Anyway, Mauer grounds to second to end the inning. I know it’s early but Mauer not coming up with a hit while having a runner in RISP has to be a bit deflating for the Twinkies.

Bottom 5
Leadoff walk to Jeter. No good. Looking like it might be curtains soon for Duensing.
Duensing is extremely lucky the rocket off Damon’s bat wound up in Cuddyer’s glove and after Teixeria’s pop out, Arod once again is up with a man on second.
Maybe Arod will give himself a chance to come out of the postseason funk now. His single to left center drove home Jeter and he obviously knew he only had 1 RBI in his past 16 playoff games. It’ll be interesting to see how he hits now that he finally had a big hit with a RISP.

Side note: Francisco Liriano is now warming in the bullpen. It almost makes me sad to see him in that role. He and Kerry Wood had the two best sliders I’ve seen in the past 15 years before getting hurt.

Liriano in, Hideki Matsui bomb out into the night. Not a terrible pitch from Liriano but the wind didn’t help as Matsui’s fly ball kept carrying.
YANKEES 6, TWINS 2

Top 6
Um…..what happened that inning? I got up to grab a drink and it was over. Did Sabathia really retire three in a row after getting another 3 runs? Do they need to play the rest of this game?

Seriously, though, the Twins not scoring in the fifth pretty much sealed this game for the Yankees. You can see the Twins are running on fumes.

Bottom 6
Nice play from Nick Punto at second might be the highlight of the remainder of the evening for Minnesota.

Top 7
I was wrong, the Twinkies have life! Matt Tolbert’s HBP put him at first and Nick Punto’s grounder off Sabathia put runners on for Denard Span with 2 outs.
I couldn’t imagine trying to hit Sabathia’s slider as a left-handed hitter. The difference with his slider is that late break. He’s worth every penny he makes.

Posada can’t find the baseball on a low pitch to move the runners over with 1 out. Span’s fly ball to right can’t bring Tolbert home and Sabathia night is over.
Enter Phil Hughes. Cabrera’s job is clear: get on base somehow (there are 7 ways, remember) and get the soon-to-be MVP up. He’s doing a nice job of fouling off pitches on the outer half of the plate and brought it to a full count. Hughes throws a seed on the outside corner and strikes Cabrera out.

Bottom 7
A Jeter walk, Teixeira double play ball, and ANOTHER Arod RBI has the Yankees up 7-2 going into the top of the eighth.
YANKEES 7, TWINS 2

Top 8
I feel like this is a waste of a Joe Mauer at bat since he’s leading off the eighth inning of a game in which his team is down 7-2.

Mauer unleashes that beautiful swing and lines a single to center. Not unexpectedly, three straight outs are recorded to end the inning as Phil Coke and Joba Chamberlain come in to get an out each.

Bottom 8
Ron Mahay is still kicking around, huh? Seems like over 10 years since he was in a Sox uniform. Oh, wait…it has! Ahhhh, the joys of being a lefty.
Three up and three down. Could this game be close to coming to an end?

Top 9
Mariano Rivera into the game with a 5 run lead. I don’t like the Twins chances here.
Despite a pair of hits with 2 outs, the end of the game was never “interesting” and Rivera induced a groundout from Cabrera to end it.

FINAL: YANKEES 7, TWINS 2

There is very little doubt in my mind the Yankees sweep this series.

I like the Cardinals both tonight and in the series to beat the Dodgers. I don’t see it going more than 4 games.

Check back tomorrow for a Sox-Angels preview.