Article: That's The Ticket: How To Beat The Yankees

[Parker Hageman]

Perhaps the biggest thorn in Ron Gardenhire’s side during his tenure as the Minnesota Twins’ manager was the New York Yankees. Whether it was in the regular season or the postseason, the Yankees figured how to vanquish the Twins, often in spectacular fashion.

 

Now, with Paul Molitor at the helm, the Twins have new leadership and a new direction that hopes to return the favor to the Bronx Bombers. It won’t be easy -- the Yankees are in familiar territory, leading the American League East by five and a half games -- and are every bit a formidable opponent.

 

Here are three things the Twins need to do in order to top the Yankees in this three- game series at Target Field.AVOID THE BACK END OF THE YANKEES BULLPEN

 

For the most part, a lead heading into eighth inning for the New York Yankees is about as secure as Anthony LaPanta’s hair in a wind storm.

 

There of course is the closer Andrew Miller who has been every bit as effective as his pinstriped predecessors. But prior to Miller’s in-game arrival, the Yankees call on the right-handed Dellin Betances to quell any insurrection from the opposition. Betances is almost at Adolis Chapman-level unhittability. Armed with a 96+ fastball that cannot be touched, Betances dispatches opponents with a textbook diving slider (unlike Francisco Liriano’s sweeping slider) which has a here-it-is, there-it- goes movement to it that is hard to resist. At 4.2%, the Giants’ Joe Panik has one of the league’s lowest swinging strike rates but even he couldn’t lay off the diving slider during the All-Star Game.

 

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After Betances is finished, it’s the left-handed Miller’s turn. And like Betances before him, Miller also brings with him a lethal fastball-slider combination and has allowed just 12 hits while striking out 53 in 33.1 innings pitched. Miller uses his fastball to get ahead right away (67% first pitch strike rate) then puts opponents away with the slider.

 

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The best measure for the Twins is to score earlier and often to avoid having to tangle with New York’s two-headed, slider-breathing monster. In order to accomplish this, the Twins will have to get to the Yankees’ three starting pitchers, Michael Pineda, CC Sabathia and Nathan Eovaldi -- no small task itself.

 

DON’T LET MARK TEIXEIRA EXTEND HIS ARMS

 

In order to hold back the Yankees offense, one of the critical things the Twins pitchers need to do is keep first baseman Mark Teixeira at bay.

 

For the past two seasons, baseballs were mostly safe from harm when thrown toward the Yankees’ Teixeira. Wrist injuries followed by surgery had taken the switch-hitting slugger out of the lineup for most of the 2013 season when the Yankees finished fourth in their division. He struggled in 2014 in his first season back and he wasn’t quite the same at the plate. Almost all his power came from the left side of the plate (18 of his 22 home runs). Fans and pundits alike questioned whether the aging Yankee would ever provide enough value to match his $22 million a year salary.

 

What Teixeira has been so good is extending his arms on pitches on the outer-half and pulling them for home runs:

 

 

 

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As scary as the thought might be to attack the large-bodied Teixeira with pitches inside, one of his biggest weaknesses this season has been when he has been busted in. On both sides of the plate, the Yankees first baseman is hitting just .136 compared to the .298 average on pitches on the outer-half.

 

OH, AND ALEX RODRIGUEZ TOO.

 

Before mixing it up with Teixeira, Twins pitchers will have to battle a power-surging Alex Rodriguez.

 

After missing all of 2014 and the majority of 2013, people are genuinely surprised that Rodriguez is having the kind of season he is having at nearly 40 years old. You have to go back five years to see this level of power production out of the man baseball tried to run out of the game. His 18 first-half home runs are the most since his 19 dinger performance in the first-half of the 2008 season.

 

 

 

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Much like vintage Rodriguez, he has been punishing any ball thrown at the horizontal middle of the zone, hammering anything that hovers around his belt to his mid-thigh. The safest zone is to work him down-and-away while occasionally going upstairs with a fastball in two-strike situations. Rodriguez has detonated fastballs and hanging change-ups this year but has been susceptible to sliders and curves. Look for Kyle Gibson to lean heavily on his slider when these two meet on Sunday.

 

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[Brock Beauchamp]

"For the most part, a lead heading into 8th inning for the New York Yankees is about as secure as Anthony LaPanta’s hair in a wind storm."

 

Parker, you rarely let me down.

[by jiminy]

Great stuff! Thanks for making these points so clearly, as always.

 

Of course their solution yesterday -- hit four home runs a game -- works too, though admittedly it's not as reliable a long term strategy.

[ashbury]

Great stuff! Thanks for making these points so clearly, as always.

 

Of course their solution yesterday -- hit four home runs a game -- works too, though admittedly it's not as reliable a long term strategy.

I dunno. If your team can hit 4 home runs a game, the wins should come pretty reliably.

[h2oface]

Rosario goes 3 for 4, and is then is out of the line up for Shane Robinson! The great cooler. It happens all the time. Thanks Eddie.... now ride some pine. I don't know that the lefty righty thing is good in light of a hot batter. The Twins need every advantage they can get, and hot batters are one of them.