3 Observations from the Twins-Yankees Series

[Melissa Berman]

The Twins series vs the Yankees ran the gauntlet of outcomes: Game 1 the Yankees won handily, Game 2 the Twins pummeled the Yankees, and Game 3 was a neck-and-neck match in which the Bronx Bombers prevailed. What should Twins fans take away from this series? Here are a few of my observations from being in the stands for these three games and a reason to walk away with some optimism. 

 1. The Twins can beat the Yankees. I repeat, the Twins can beat the Yankees- Never mind that pesky postseason losing streak or the Twins’ record vs the Yankees (now 38-111 since 2002). After the Game 2 blowout win, my main takeaway: was that that hard? The Twins not only beat the AL-leading Yankees on Wednesday night (a feat that has been built up in the minds of Twins fans to be an almost-impossible task) they clobbered them. The series finale on Thursday also was primed to be to be the best Twins game seen in recent years: the Twins started off with back-to-back-to-back home runs off Gerrit Cole and the Yankees of all teams.

Even though the Yankees ultimately rallied past the Twins on Thursday due to bullpen woes, there is a lot from this series for Twins fans to feel good about: the Twins tagged Yankees stars Nestor Cortes and Cole for season-high ER totals. Chris Archer looked solid for a second-straight start. Jose Miranda had his first 3-hit game of his young career.  Byron Buxton is now undoubtably back from his 0-30 slump. The Bomba Squad made its return on Thursday with 5 home runs, all against Cole.  In sum, despite walking away with just one win, the Twins came to play this series, especially offensively, where traditionally vs the Yankees the hitting has disappeared. This is especially impressive considering how incredibly depleted the Twins' starting rotation is (surely, pitching Cole Sands, Archer, and Dylan Bundy vs. the likes of Cortes and Cole wasn't in the Twins' master plan). 

I'm not trying to claim moral victories, but with how big of a Goliath the Yankees are built up to be by the Twins, perhaps we need them. The Yankees are the best team in the American League, and the Twins proved this series they can play right with them. This team can and has beaten the Yankees and could do so in the upcoming postseason if the teams' paths crossed, especially with Joe Ryan back in the starting rotation and the addition of some other arms. 

2. Twins fans aren’t quite sure how to feel about Josh Donaldson- Ever since Josh Donaldson was traded to the Yankees, bits and pieces have emerged that seem to suggest Donaldson might have a bit of a negative influence in the clubhouse. A “cancer,” if you will. However, Donaldson was traded to the Yankees, he didn’t leave, and he says he does not regret his time with Minnesota (though he didn’t mind being traded to New York either). This means no hard feelings from Twins fans, right? Mostly, The homecoming of the now-beardless Donaldson left Twins fans unsure of exactly how to react: his at bats were met with some muted boos, but the jeers were quiet and even a bit apathetic.  Though Donaldson's legacy with the Twins is up for debate, and he has captured some national attention with his spat with the White Sox's Tim Anderson recently, he has not become a maligned figure here quite yet, 

3. Stadium attendance is heating up- Finally, after months of mostly-empty stands, Twins fans returned to the stadium in droves this series. Beautiful weather, school getting out for the summer, and the hated Yankees being in town certainly contributed. The series' best attendance was seen on Tuesday night, Prince Night, which featured a giveaway t-shirt and a special ticket package with a Prince jacket. However, a large portion of the fans in the stands for all three games were donning pinstripes and Aaron Judge jerseys. Where all these Yankees fans come from, I don't know either, but at times when Joey Gallo or Giancarlo Stanton hit a home run, it almost felt like Target Field was transported to the Bronx. 

Of note, the Twins are running more deals coming up, including a "Vote Early, Vote Often" campaign for All Star voting, which provides fans with cheap ticket incentives for voting. Notably, any fan who votes at least 100 times before 1:00 p.m. CT on Thursday, June 30 will be able to purchase up to eight $1 tickets for a Twins game. 

So, the Twins emerge from this series with a mixed bag of results. Until we meet again, Yankees, but even if it's in the postseason, I think the Twins will be in good shape. 

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[Rosterman]

Attendance was huge because there was a Prince nite, and the Yankees always draw.

Twins pitchers have to attract the strike zone. If the batters are going to hit, make them hit. Veteran hitters aren't fooled if you want to play with the strike zone. Best you can do is mix speeds. And trust your fielders.

Twins batters work best, too, if they can see if the other side is throwing strikes. GREAT pitchers challenge the hitter. Expect strikes in the early innings. Do your hitting homework.

The Twins also have to consistently start their best eight players every game. They can use the DH to rotate folks. Right now, they have a pretty solid bench in Jeffers, Miranda, Gordon, Celestino. Soon it will be joined by another, be it Garlick or Lewis or Kirilloff. When a bench bat plays the field, their corresponding player is the designated hitter. 

Rocco has to trust his starters to go that third time. You may give up another run or two (or three). But, hey, the bullpen can do the same. You have to trust your veteran players. Yes, even they can get shelled (Smith, Cotton) like the newbies (Moran, Duran). The newbies havve an excuse, they haven't faced this sort of competition before.

[Trov]

Yes we can beat the yankees, the problem is we do not play like we can.  Of course they are talented team, we are not only team that has lost to them.  However, we seem to always make huge bone head mistakes, like no one trying to catch a pop up in the infield.  These get compounded and more mistakes get made.  We just play differently against them.  I mean over the time Gleeman posted, we had some good teams, division winning teams and like 90 win teams.  We had some bad teams too, but it is not like the Yankees were always the best team in league.  

There just happens to be something against them.  No matter the lead it is not safe.  We always find ways to blow it.  Now, I will say I am happy with how we hit their starters and over last 4 games we have faced 4 pretty good pitchers this year and done well against them.  Now we just need our staff to get right. 

[mikelink45]

Nice try - but please do not match us with the Yankees in the playoff.

[MABB1959]

Prince night was huge and the Yankees attract a larger crowd (many of those Yankee fans).  Who doesn't want to see a bunch of All-Stars play at once.  We are lucky to see ours play a whole week straight.

[High heat]

I think you see how poor our pitching is against the better hitters.  Bullpen has holes and get exposed when your pitchers can’t get out of the 4th inning.  You can play the matchup game and make it work for an inning or so.  But when you try to play the match up game for 5 inning is 3 straight games you get hit around!!! 
 

I saw how many quality pitchers we are away from contention both starters and in the bullpen. 2022 hopefully is a competitive fun summer as the offense and you kids shin (Larnich, Miranda Arraez Jeffers, hopefully Lewis and Kiriloff soon) but the pitching both bullpen and starters isn’t sustainable for a playoff series.

[PatPfund]

Need a healthy rotation instead of 2 TBAs and Archer , but yeah. Bring the Yankees on in the first round

[Puckettsprintstofirst]

Bullpen let us down in games 1 and 3.  Bullpen seems to be the biggest difference between the twins and yanks.  

[roger]

I am hopeful that the four young bullpen kids, Cotton, Cano, Duran and Moran all learned a lot last night.  Expect them to be better next time they see the Yankees.  Would have loved to have had Alcala available, but that isn’t looking good.  Add Jax to the above group with starters pitching deeper into games and this pen may not be all that bad.  Expect next time they will get the job done.

[KirbyHawk75]

The Yankees always brings in higher attendance.   Also I am not convinced they can beat the Yankees.  I also think many Twins fans just don't trust this team yet.  They are winning but are in a terrible division (not the Twins fault however.)  Plus when you throw out Cole Sands, Chris Archer (who did look good), and Dylan Fricking Bundy it is hard for the "casual fan" to get behind.  Plus, a lot of fans have PTSD from the playoff woes.  Fans who are on TD are mostly going to games. We are diehard fans. I still think the casual fan needs more convincing.   That is a reason attendance is down.  I love this site, but that article was a bit of a fluff piece.  I live in Iowa and that is the kind of media we get covering the Hawkeyes and the hated Cyclones and I am very critical of.  Just my opinion though.  What the hell do I know?  Still love this site but message boards are here for fans to share their thoughts.

[rwilfong86]

57 minutes ago, Puckettsprintstofirst said:

Bullpen let us down in games 1 and 3.  Bullpen seems to be the biggest difference between the twins and yanks.  

Imagine if we had a healthy Ryan and Gray for 2 of those games. The Twins have showed they can hit against the best pitching in the league. 

[ashbury]

1 hour ago, High heat said:

hopefully Lewis and Kiriloff soon

This post aged well.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

28 minutes ago, rwilfong86 said:

Imagine if we had a healthy Ryan and Gray for 2 of those games. The Twins have showed they can hit against the best pitching in the league. 

I agree with this statement. Gray and Ryan would have made a difference. Plus Maeda and Ober and Smeltzer, any of them, if they were healthy, would have been better selections for the Twins SP for 2 of these games.  Unfortunately they were not available.  I also feel Archer is coming around to becoming  a  good starting pitcher for the Twins. I hope we have all of the above named pitchers available for the playoffs and I look forward to playing the evil empire again this fall.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

8 hours ago, Melissa Berman said:

The Twins series vs the Yankees ran the gauntlet of outcomes: Game 1 the Yankees won handily, Game 2 the Twins pummeled the Yankees, and Game 3 was a neck-and-neck match in which the Bronx Bombers prevailed. What should Twins fans take away from this series? Here are a few of my observations from being in the stands for these three games and a reason to walk away with some optimism. 

 1. The Twins can beat the Yankees. I repeat, the Twins can beat the Yankees- Never mind that pesky postseason losing streak or the Twins’ record vs the Yankees (now 38-111 since 2002). After the Game 2 blowout win, my main takeaway: was that that hard? The Twins not only beat the AL-leading Yankees on Wednesday night (a feat that has been built up in the minds of Twins fans to be an almost-impossible task) they clobbered them. The series finale on Thursday also was primed to be to be the best Twins game seen in recent years: the Twins started off with back-to-back-to-back home runs off Gerrit Cole and the Yankees of all teams.

Even though the Yankees ultimately rallied past the Twins on Thursday due to bullpen woes, there is a lot from this series for Twins fans to feel good about: the Twins tagged Yankees stars Nestor Cortes and Cole for season-high ER totals. Chris Archer looked solid for a second-straight start. Jose Miranda had his first 3-hit game of his young career.  Byron Buxton is now undoubtably back from his 0-30 slump. The Bomba Squad made its return on Thursday with 5 home runs, all against Cole.  In sum, despite walking away with just one win, the Twins came to play this series, especially offensively, where traditionally vs the Yankees the hitting has disappeared. This is especially impressive considering how incredibly depleted the Twins' starting rotation is (surely, pitching Cole Sands, Archer, and Dylan Bundy vs. the likes of Cortes and Cole wasn't in the Twins' master plan). 

I'm not trying to claim moral victories, but with how big of a Goliath the Yankees are built up to be by the Twins, perhaps we need them. The Yankees are the best team in the American League, and the Twins proved this series they can play right with them. This team can and has beaten the Yankees and could do so in the upcoming postseason if the teams' paths crossed, especially with Joe Ryan back in the starting rotation and the addition of some other arms. 

2. Twins fans aren’t quite sure how to feel about Josh Donaldson- Ever since Josh Donaldson was traded to the Yankees, bits and pieces have emerged that seem to suggest Donaldson might have a bit of a negative influence in the clubhouse. A “cancer,” if you will. However, Donaldson was traded to the Yankees, he didn’t leave, and he says he does not regret his time with Minnesota (though he didn’t mind being traded to New York either). This means no hard feelings from Twins fans, right? Mostly, The homecoming of the now-beardless Donaldson left Twins fans unsure of exactly how to react: his at bats were met with some muted boos, but the jeers were quiet and even a bit apathetic.  Though Donaldson's legacy with the Twins is up for debate, and he has captured some national attention with his spat with the White Sox's Tim Anderson recently, he has not become a maligned figure here quite yet, 

3. Stadium attendance is heating up- Finally, after months of mostly-empty stands, Twins fans returned to the stadium in droves this series. Beautiful weather, school getting out for the summer, and the hated Yankees being in town certainly contributed. The series' best attendance was seen on Tuesday night, Prince Night, which featured a giveaway t-shirt and a special ticket package with a Prince jacket. However, a large portion of the fans in the stands for all three games were donning pinstripes and Aaron Judge jerseys. Where all these Yankees fans come from, I don't know either, but at times when Joey Gallo or Giancarlo Stanton hit a home run, it almost felt like Target Field was transported to the Bronx. 

Of note, the Twins are running more deals coming up, including a "Vote Early, Vote Often" campaign for All Star voting, which provides fans with cheap ticket incentives for voting. Notably, any fan who votes at least 100 times before 1:00 p.m. CT on Thursday, June 30 will be able to purchase up to eight $1 tickets for a Twins game. 

So, the Twins emerge from this series with a mixed bag of results. Until we meet again, Yankees, but even if it's in the postseason, I think the Twins will be in good shape. 

 

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Good thought provoking article. Thanks.

[DocBauer]

I'm not going to put lipstick on a pig or paint a psychedelic silver/rainbow cloud, but despite some poor performances and keystone cops plays, the Twins went 3-3 against a pair of very good and talented teams. And they did this with a lineup just getting healthy, an FOUR SP on the IL. 

The pen needs help, no doubt. But that same pen helped win 2 games against the Jay's, and one against the Yankees, and could have won game 3 with the Yankees if ONE GUY stepped forward that night. So while I am MASSIVELY BUMMED about game 3 with the Yankees, I can still see some light at the end of the tunnel. The lineup is working. A few days from now, we should have some of our best arms back. Duran will be fine, Jax is looking good, Pagan can be a solid middle and set-up guy with Thielbar and Moran....but somehow, someway, they need a couple more RP for the pen for this team to truly contend.

[RpR]

Fielding in the last game looked like the movie Major League.

[Shaitan]

Destroying Gerrit Cole was nice anyway.

[PNW twins]

I agree, if they can pitch Gray and Ryan next time.  At least put us in the ballpark.

 

[Aerodeliria]

8 hours ago, Trov said:

Yes we can beat the yankees, the problem is we do not play like we can.  Of course they are talented team, we are not only team that has lost to them.  However, we seem to always make huge bone head mistakes, like no one trying to catch a pop up in the infield.  These get compounded and more mistakes get made.  We just play differently against them.  I mean over the time Gleeman posted, we had some good teams, division winning teams and like 90 win teams.  We had some bad teams too, but it is not like the Yankees were always the best team in league.  

There just happens to be something against them.  No matter the lead it is not safe.  We always find ways to blow it.  Now, I will say I am happy with how we hit their starters and over last 4 games we have faced 4 pretty good pitchers this year and done well against them.  Now we just need our staff to get right. 

This! Of course, Trov is absolutely right. Game 3 epitomized exactly how we play again the Yankees most of the time. One can't sugarcoat the fact that the Twins play differently against the Yankees. If they can't figure this out, they will never go further in the playoffs. It's almost like there is this fear brewing just below the surface and it becomes exposed once the Yankees start making noise. Dare I say it is a mental block. Was there any doubt about the Yankees coming back and winning the game? (It's not other east coast teams that we have problems with; it's the Yankees in particular.) We play the Rays and no such problems, who interestingly enough have no fear of the Yankees themselves--they win some and lose some.

[Whitey333]

Keep in mind 1 game does not a great series make.  Sugarcoating it is silly.  Twins played one great game against the Yankees.  Yes they did some nice things but who isn't sick of moral victories?  They lost 2 of 3 in the series.  The 3-3 record against blue jays and Yankees was better than I thought we would do.  However keep in mind that through the 3-3 stretch the twins had only won 6 of their last 16 games.  Mixed results.  I hope they make the playoffs but our pitching is so thin.

[Squirrel]

1. Of course the Twins can beat the Yankees. If we face them in the playoffs, will we? I’d say the possibility is better than in other years. But it was good, really good, to see the Twins offense take down some really good pitching in both the Jays and Yanks series. That was definitely very encouraging to see. Very.

2. I wish TD would quit perpetuating the idea that Donaldson is to blame for last year. We won in 2020 with him. The roster this year is very different. While the chemistry this year is great, maybe it’s not because of who is gone from last year, but who is here this year. Correa. It’s not Donaldson being gone that is the difference but I think that Correa being here is, But the Twins did pretty well the latter half of the season, so who was gone off the team then? By the same logic, maybe the problem was Cruz? (Definitely not serious, but it has the same logic.) Some players just mix, some don’t. It just is and I think blaming Donaldson is kind of, well, petty. None of the players have ever hinted that he was the cause of problems or that there was even friction, Sometimes personalities just don’t mix and it is what it is without having to pin all the blame on one person.

3. Attendance. Yankees always draw … in every stadium across the country. Last night it showed the Rays do not. But I do expect attendance to go up throughout the summer now that better weather is here and if the Twins can remain in first! ?