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Are The Twins Cursed Against The Yankees?

/ CBS Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Do we really want the Minnesota Twins in a one-game playoff at Yankee Stadium for the American League Wild Card?

While baseball is weird and anything can happen, history says absolutely not. Stay as far away from Yankee Stadium as possible. The New York Yankees completed a sweep of the Twins on Wednesday with an 11-3 victory. The Bronx Bombers scored 11 unanswered runs after the Twins took an early 3-0 lead. The Twins got out-scored 18-6 in the series.

Most importantly, the Twins are clinging to a one-game lead for the second AL Wild Card, pending what happens between the Cleveland Indians and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Wednesday night. If the Angels win, the Twins wild card lead trims to a half game. An Indians win, and it's back to 1.5 games. So for the time being, Twins fans are Indians fans.

The Twins are now 1-8 at Yankee Stadium over the last three seasons. So is there a hex over the Twins, or are the Yankees just better. Yes, and yes.

So what happened in the latest series? It starts with pitching, and it wasn't very good for the Twins in this series. Jose Berrios couldn't find his command Tuesday and only went 3 1/3 innings as the Twins lost 5-2. Monday, Ervin Santana was good enough to win but didn't get through six innings as the Twins lost 2-1. Minnesota managed just four hits in that game and stuck out 13 times, nine off former Twin Jaime Garcia. Wednesday, Bartolo Colon only went three innings and allowed seven runs, six earned.

In true Twins fashion Tuesday night, Joe Mauer botched a routine ground ball at first that allowed a run to score. It would've ended the inning, but instead it was just his second error of the season. Only in Yankee Stadium.

And in true Twins fashion, in a big series to give themselves cushion for the playoffs and potentially build confidence for a return trip to New York, they played tight. There wasn't much hitting, and the pitching was lacking in the key situations. All they had to do was win one game to keep fans off the ledge. But it didn't happen, not in Yankee Stadium.

The Twins now head to Detroit for four games, needing to at least win that series to create separation in the Wild Card race. After Detroit, they head to AL Central champion Cleveland for three games and then host Detroit to end the regular season. The Angels, meanwhile, continue their series with Cleveland before traveling to Houston this weekend. They travel to the Chicago White Sox next week and host the Mariners to end the regular season.

The good news: The Twins still control their own playoff destiny. The bad news? Miguel Sano is still hurt, likely not returning any time soon and the reward for winning the second Wild Card is likely heading back to the Bronx. The truth is we would all rather have this than last year's 103-loss debacle, so let's enjoy it while we still can. Good luck.

Check out some Twitter reaction during today's Twins' loss. It appears most aren't optimistic about the Twins' playoff chances, between getting there at all or beating the Yankees in one game if they do.

First published on September 20, 2017 / 4:08 PM CDT

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