The Twins just can't get past the Yankees. Not sure what they need to do. I was worried when they only won two in the last ten games after they clinched the division.
On to next year. :sad:
On to next year. :sad:
Twins get swept by Yankees
- Thread starter cyfan50438
- Start date
I'm not a Twin fan at all...(I am a White Sox fan)... thus, I don't like them at all.....
I must say though that I was hoping for them to beat the Yankees. But again the same old song and dance of the worthless "post-season Twins team" that reared their ugly head again .....another year of not winning in the post season is getting lame. Played out of your ***** at the end of the regular season only to get crushed in 3 games. Just makes me wish the Sox would have won the Central.
Just felt like a big waste of time seeing the Twins win the division....after it was tight for 90% of the season....only to suck like usual in the post season.
Here's to the Sox getting it done next year and stay healthy to make the Central strong again. And yes, it was a good race this year.... Though, to be kind to the Twinkies....you will be the team to beat in the Central again.
I must say though that I was hoping for them to beat the Yankees. But again the same old song and dance of the worthless "post-season Twins team" that reared their ugly head again .....another year of not winning in the post season is getting lame. Played out of your ***** at the end of the regular season only to get crushed in 3 games. Just makes me wish the Sox would have won the Central.
Just felt like a big waste of time seeing the Twins win the division....after it was tight for 90% of the season....only to suck like usual in the post season.
Here's to the Sox getting it done next year and stay healthy to make the Central strong again. And yes, it was a good race this year.... Though, to be kind to the Twinkies....you will be the team to beat in the Central again.
The Twins will be back next year. Hopefully a healthy Morneau makes a difference in the playoffs.
Here's a good stat for you, the AL and NL Central are a combined 3-27 in their last 30 playoff games.
I think Gardy just panics or something, and does not know how to get his team up to face the Yankees.
Seems like he changes what got them there.......like batting Young 4th when he had not batted there for most of the year. They had success batting several left-handed batters in a row and batting Young 7th during the year, so why suddenly change it? It just seems to me that Gardy always tries to adjust for the playoffs rather than just sticking with what has worked. Just my opinion.
Seems like he changes what got them there.......like batting Young 4th when he had not batted there for most of the year. They had success batting several left-handed batters in a row and batting Young 7th during the year, so why suddenly change it? It just seems to me that Gardy always tries to adjust for the playoffs rather than just sticking with what has worked. Just my opinion.
Young batted in the following spots this year:
3rd: 15 games
4th: 20 games
5th: 20 games
6th: 29 games
7th: 62 games
8th: 7 games
Almost all the games in the 7 hole were before Morneau went down.
Gardy isn't getting it done in the playoffs, but how much should it really fall on the manager to 'get his team up' to face the Yankees in the playoffs? It's the f'n playoffs, the players should be getting themselves up.
Every year the Twins have been in these games, had the lead in most of them, and then squandered chance after chance to take the game. IMO, this doesn't fall on the manager. The Twins just don't get it done, and I don't understand it.
The point is Gardy got away from what he had used all year in the lineup....using several left-handed bats in a row, even though it had produced one of the most productive offenses in the major leagues this year. He went back to his Left, right, left, right, left, etc. lineup which had not been used most of the year. And this was done even though NY only had one left-handed pitcher in the bullpen.
You have to put some of this on the manager. Yes, the players are responsible to get themselves in the proper frame of mind too, but so is the manager. Players have changed the last 4 times the Twins have been in the playoffs.......yet the record stays the same......3 and out. The one constant has been Gardy. He cannot beat the Yankees....in the regular season, or in the post-season. Doesn't even seem to matter who is the manager on the other side.
I love my Twinkies but when was the last time Morneau finished a season without missing significant time?
Not sure how much Morneau would have actually helped in this series. He did bat well against the Yankees - 7 for 20, for a .350 average and only 4 Ks, but because the rest of the lineup struggled around him, he only scored 2 runs and had 3 RBIs. Certainly would have helped, especially getting Kubel out of the lineup (who does absolutely nothing against the Yankees except for that one grand slam).
No, the major problem wasn't that the lineup wasn't that the Twins weren't missing Morneau, the real problem was that the Twins' 3-7 hitters were flat out owned by Yankee pitching. Mauer was flat out worthless, Young, Thome, and Kubel did nothing, and with the exception of his two-run homer, Cuddyer didn't do much either.
Liriano and Pavano pitched very well, just didn't get adequate run support and the Yankees eventually chipped away at them. Hudson, Valencia, and Hardy were really the only three guys with productive at-bats.
I honestly don't know what else Gardy could have done. It wasn't Gardy's faulty strategy that caused the Twins to flat out choke any time there were RISP. That being said, Gardy has the same "owned" face that the rest of the Twins had. You could tell that it was over as the Twins walked into the clubhouse following game 2 - it was written all over their faces. There was no fight left in them at all.
No, the major problem wasn't that the lineup wasn't that the Twins weren't missing Morneau, the real problem was that the Twins' 3-7 hitters were flat out owned by Yankee pitching. Mauer was flat out worthless, Young, Thome, and Kubel did nothing, and with the exception of his two-run homer, Cuddyer didn't do much either.
Liriano and Pavano pitched very well, just didn't get adequate run support and the Yankees eventually chipped away at them. Hudson, Valencia, and Hardy were really the only three guys with productive at-bats.
I honestly don't know what else Gardy could have done. It wasn't Gardy's faulty strategy that caused the Twins to flat out choke any time there were RISP. That being said, Gardy has the same "owned" face that the rest of the Twins had. You could tell that it was over as the Twins walked into the clubhouse following game 2 - it was written all over their faces. There was no fight left in them at all.
Didn't Liriano give up 5 runs in 6 innings? Or was that another pitcher?
Also...awhile back someone told me that Morneau (sp?) was getting some advice about not playing again...ever. Is this still the case? Has anything definitive been stated about the future of Morneau?
Liriano gave up 4 in 5 2/3 innings. While that's not a great outing, and Liriano wasn't dominating their lefties the way he should have, he held the Yankees scoreless for 5 innings, and all the Twins could score for him up to that point was 3 runs.
You cannot put 1 for 15 with runners in scoring position on the manager. 1 for 15, in the entire series. When did the 1 hit come? In the 8th inning of game 3. They had their chances, over and over and over again.
Also, once they lost Morneau... they strayed away big time from the lefty heavy middle of the order so you are wrong there. Anytime they faced a lefty in the second half of the season they had a right handed bat behind Mauer, then another lefty, then another righty, before getting to Thome or Kubel.
I'll add... what lefty loaded lineup would you have liked to see? You can't put Kubel and his .069 lifetime postseason average in the cleanup spot, or the 5th hole for that matter.
Last edited:
Actually I think it was 2 for 15, with 2 RBIs. One of those RBIs came on a Valencia sac fly, so only one of our base hits with RISP actually managed to score a run. That clearly won't get it done.
Yep. Hudson and Spann both had hits if I remember right. Spann's only moved the guy to 3rd.
We are all wrong. Either way, both hits game in the 8th inning of Game 3.
The Daily World | Baseball playoffs -- Yanks beat Twins to advance
The 1 RBI isn't correct, or at the very least it's misleading - Valencia had a Sac Fly that scored a run in the second inning of game 2, and Valencia was standing on third when Orlando Hudson hit him home in the eighth inning of game 3. That's 2 RBIs with RISP. Now, if they're talking about how the Twins only scored one run off those two hits, then that is correct. But the Twins did have 2 RBIs with RISP.
All technicalities, and in any case none of that is getting the job done. The really sad thing about Valencia's sac fly was it was with the bases loaded and it about killed any hope of having a big inning.
We have been pretty bad with RISP this year. In Game 1, we left some 7 or 8 runners in scoring position. At least two for sure on 3rd.
Maybe it's just me, but we also seem to do nothing with no outs or one out. Seemed like every time we were getting anything going in the past couple weeks, it was with two outs in the inning.
Liriano and Pavano played well for most of their games in Games 1 and 2. However they got exactly no help from the hitting. For a team that was apparently so great through the season getting hits, inexplicably collapsed.
Personally, I think it's just the psychological pressure of playing the Yankees that gets to the Twins. For whatever reason, the team seems to think the Yankees are unbeatable or something. It's not like we're necessarily getting shut out either. Until Game 3 of this series, we had some 8 games where we lost to the Yankees after holding a lead during the game.
The only way to beat the Yankees is to out-hit them. They can pretty much get big hits from anywhere in their lineup, and if we leave it to our pitchers, we will lose, regardless how good the pitching may have been up to that point. The Twins lineup needs to start producing hits and bringing in runs consistently, because the moment they slow or stop, the Yankees WILL pull ahead.
Maybe it's just me, but we also seem to do nothing with no outs or one out. Seemed like every time we were getting anything going in the past couple weeks, it was with two outs in the inning.
Liriano and Pavano played well for most of their games in Games 1 and 2. However they got exactly no help from the hitting. For a team that was apparently so great through the season getting hits, inexplicably collapsed.
Personally, I think it's just the psychological pressure of playing the Yankees that gets to the Twins. For whatever reason, the team seems to think the Yankees are unbeatable or something. It's not like we're necessarily getting shut out either. Until Game 3 of this series, we had some 8 games where we lost to the Yankees after holding a lead during the game.
The only way to beat the Yankees is to out-hit them. They can pretty much get big hits from anywhere in their lineup, and if we leave it to our pitchers, we will lose, regardless how good the pitching may have been up to that point. The Twins lineup needs to start producing hits and bringing in runs consistently, because the moment they slow or stop, the Yankees WILL pull ahead.
