Playoff Game Thread: Twins @ Yankees 4:07 PM CT, 10/5/19

[Aggies7]

You became a fan in the middle of the 2002 Oakland series?

Lol was my math off? Oops I missed a few wins. Should be 6 wins. I’m 32 y/o so I don’t recall 91. Just the agony

[bighat]

Last night's bullpen decisions look pretty bad in retrospect....bringing in Stashak down 5-4 and Gibson down 7-4 (essentially waving the white flag) look like the wrong moves. The Twins seemed to treat last night like a warm-up game, when it looks like it might have been the only game they could have won.

[Don Walcott]

Actually i realized what I said was dumb. it’s kinda dumb to be proud to be a fan. You don’t hit or run or throw or manage. I should have said it’s embarrassing to be a fan when they play this way. They don’t give out trophies for being the 22nd team eliminated

I’m not the least bit embarrassed to be rooting for my hometown team while they are losing.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Last night's bullpen decisions look pretty bad in retrospect....bringing in Stashak down 5-4 and Gibson down 7-4 (essentially waving the white flag) look like the wrong moves. The Twins seemed to treat last night like a warm-up game, when it looks like it might have been the only game they could have won.

Tom Froemming made the same point today. So you are on solid ground there.

[Aggies7]

I’m not the least bit embarrassed to be rooting for my hometown team while they are losing.

Well, they aren’t my hometown team. That might be where the difference comes in. It’s Yankee country here

[bighat]

 

I’m not the least bit embarrassed to be rooting for my hometown team while they are losing.

 

Ditto.

[wabene]

Smeltz deltz

[Blake]

How many times has Smeltzer pitched against the Yankees and held them down?

 

Serious question.

 

Well, as serious as I can be, anyway.

[lukeduke1980]

I don't get the Duffey move today.

[glunn]

At least Smeltzer has been decent today. Maybe something to build on next year.

[Blake]

 

At least Smeltzer has been decent today. Maybe something to build on next year.

Considering next year is only 2.5 months away, cool!

[h2oface]

 

Pineda plays a part in this. Hard to forgive him...especially the way this has come unraveled.

 

I wouldn't have bet on Pineda, anyway. The bullpen had a good second half, too. This is the playoffs. Not the same. I am not buying in on Pineda just because of a couple of months.

[h2oface]

 

I am now in favor of the robot umps. This series has put me over the top on that issue.

 Very progressive of you. Better years late than never.

[howeda7]

 

Last night's bullpen decisions look pretty bad in retrospect....bringing in Stashak down 5-4 and Gibson down 7-4 (essentially waving the white flag) look like the wrong moves. The Twins seemed to treat last night like a warm-up game, when it looks like it might have been the only game they could have won.

Gibson maybe but the game was pretty much over. You weren't going to get through the 6-9th just with May, Romo and Rogers. Stashak or Graterol was going to have to give you something. And we saw how Duffy looked coming back after throwing 20 + pitches last night. 

[gocgo]

A couple of notes.

 

  I thought before last night that I wanted Schoop at 2nd for a couple of reasons.  First, rookie jitters.  Second, injury.  I still think it was a bad decision even though the rookie got a big hit.  The positive is that it is a good learning experience for our future 2nd baseman.

 

The ump last night and the ump tonight are not giving corners...and sometimes not even more than a corner.  The plate is tight, the Yankees know it and they are waiting for the meat.  We, on the other hand, have not been patient at the plate.

 

Last, I think Smoltz is spot on when he says we have to look for small victories for the rest of this game and we aren't going to get small victories when we give up....and it looks to me like we have.

 

 

[Danchat]

Pro tip: whenever a Minnesota team makes the playoffs, bet against them 100% of the time, no exceptions. It makes a miracle for one of big 4 teams just to win a single game.

[Mike Sixel]

Yet you question my comment on a managerial move?

He said it's not the manager, it's the players.

[howeda7]

 

Pro tip: whenever a Minnesota team makes the playoffs, bet against them 100% of the time, no exceptions. It makes a miracle for one of big 4 teams just to win a single game.

It's turning down free $ if you don't. 

[Mike Sixel]

Last night's bullpen decisions look pretty bad in retrospect....bringing in Stashak down 5-4 and Gibson down 7-4 (essentially waving the white flag) look like the wrong moves. The Twins seemed to treat last night like a warm-up game, when it looks like it might have been the only game they could have won.

The twins had a six percent chance to win when Gibson came in...... It was the right move.

[h2oface]

 

Last night's bullpen decisions look pretty bad in retrospect....bringing in Stashak down 5-4 and Gibson down 7-4 (essentially waving the white flag) look like the wrong moves. The Twins seemed to treat last night like a warm-up game, when it looks like it might have been the only game they could have won.

 

One would like to think Baldelli learned from it, eh? They will be now sooooo rested they are rusty if they even get in a ball game. In the playoffs, you only play to win today. Unforgiveable, really. I bet their butts are sore from sitting on the bench so much.

[MNT1996]

Twins can't build next year's pitching staff around Berrios being the Ace. They just can't. Twins need a Verlander, Cole, or Strasburg of their own if they want to actually succeed in the playoffs.

 

Unfortunately I don't have much faith in the Front Office having self-awareness. 

[twinsfaninsaudi]

I’ve been haunted by this matchup in a certain way for almost my whole life. My father grew up a Yankee fan in New York and moved to Minnesota in the early eighties before I was born. He switched to cheering for the Twins in ‘84 when they fell short of a pennant run and because he had been becoming disaffected with the Yankees since the late 70s when free agency came and he hated the way Steinbrenner used money to build a team, and he respected the Twins as an organization that built their team “the right way”, this and of course they were the team he could watch on local television. Watching the ‘91 series encompasses the earliest vivid memories I have of my childhood, I don’t have a great memory generally, but that series inspires in a young person the belief that amazing things do happen in life and events can actually turn out the way one hopes and dreams. In ‘92 my dad’s work moved us to north New Jersey and we would go see the Twins play in the old Yankee stadium whenever they’d come to town. Almost every time we’d go there’d be some heartbreaking loss. I can remember Daryl Boston hitting a pinch hit go ahead home run against Rick Aguilera, I remember Bernie Williams hitting a grand slam off Brad Radke (searing number 59) to put the Yankees up 8-5 in a game the Twins led 5-0, a young Mariano Rivera had come in in relief early in that game and shut the Twins down for several innings. It was one of his “breakout” games. We moved back to the Twin Cities in ‘97, on a visit back to New York in April of ‘03 I was at the game Hideki Matsui hit a grand slam off Joe Mays. It was dumbfounding to me how revisiting Yankee stadium at 19 brought the same sting I experienced in preadolescence, I wanted them to beat them in the playoffs that year badly for the sake of vengeance. The amazing thing is I had so much vengeance built up against the Yankees and their fans since the time they first started playin in the playoffs because those games I attended in the nineties, the Yankee fans were just awful. Swearing, even physically threatening, taunting, and harassing to me and my dad as Twins fans, and this was to a Dad with a son who was 10-12 years old. So I’ve always hated them so much because of that and these games are just hard to watch for how predictable they have become and how constant this sentiment against the Yankees has been. Honestly, I read it into in my life now as a sign from God to stop devoting so much time to watching baseball and just accept that there are more important things in life and every minute in life is precious and not to be wasted on vanities. I know that as a practical point but somehow it’s hard when you have strong childhood emotions and connections to baseball.

[Blake]

I keep thinking at some point the Bomba Squad will get things rolling and at least scare the Yankees.

 

Looking less and less likely, though.

[wabene]

Smeltz Deltz some more!

[Riverbrian]

If the Twins lose this game... It looks like they will.

 

The series against the Yankees this year will be at 6-2 in favor of the Yankees. 

 

I'm thinking 6-5 in favor of the Yankees sounds about right. 

[ashbury]

Smeltz deltz

He who smeltzit, deltzit.

[Blake]

One thing about a 101 win season with the patched together rotation, it should make the Twins more attractive to free agent pitching. 

[oldestguide]

I am a newbie here but just have to vent. The umpiring in this series has been atrocious, but so is our manger for not protesting it. One job for a manager is to protect and support your players. How much would the game have changed had Rocco come out of the dugout as Duffey kept getting screwed on calls? How much if he had gotten in the umpire's face when we didn't get the same call. Blaming the ref is the oldest excuse in sports, but here the shoe fits.

 

We have been watching the TV with the sound off and the radio tuned to some real broadcasters. Frankly tired of Smoltz commenting on Yankee hitters when Twins are pitching and Yankee pitchers when Twins are batting. There are TWO teams out there. But then what do you expect from the guy who lost game 7 to another guy who is a better commentator (and pitcher). Apparently he still hasn't gotten over it. Get him out of there. NOW.

[gocgo]

Oh, one more thing...they aren't gonna throw us fastballs.  We hit them.  They are going to throw us all kinds of garbage pitches...even in a fastball count.  Adapt.

[akmanak]

Lol, what did most of you actually expect? A win? You can't go against statistics.