Oct. 5, 2004, by the way. The Twins topped the New York Yankees 2-0 in the first game of the American League Divisional Series. Johan Santana was the starting pitcher for the Twins and Mike Mussina was on the mound for the Yankees. Jacque Jones hit the game’s lone home run.
Since that game, the Twins have lost 18 straight playoff matchups — 13 of them to the Yankees.
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/the-last-time-the-twins-won-a-playoff-game/
Well, your lineup sure gameplanned well against Gausman*. The Jays have roughly two second best pitchers: Chris Bassitt and José Berríos. AFAIK, the Jays are starting Berríos today. I’m a little uncomfortable with going with an ex-Twins starter in a one-sided, must-win game for us after seeing what happened to Gausman because I figure your team might be better able to gameplan against a pitcher they’re so much more familiar with. Early runs will be important. I’d like to see Royce Lewis IBBed if he’s effective against Berríos. Polanco’s probably got his nerves out after game 1, so the Jays are going to have earn their runs to force a game 3
*edit: I don’t think he was tipping either. The Twins were great at taking low pitches – even with two strikes. That forced Gausman in the zone when he was pitching low (i.e., hittable pitches), and he wasn’t locating his fastball well at all. After the solid 4th, I would’ve liked to see him face the top of the lineup in the 5th but just IBB Lewis
