Hello, fellow humans! My name is William Malone IV. Son of William Malone III. And I come with great news! It is another "What If Wednesday" with your ole pal William Malone IV.

Scenario: what would happen if Corey Koskie's ground rule double off Mariano Rivera in game two of the 2004 ALDS had stayed in play?

Let's set the scene! 2004 American League Division Series. Game two. The Minnesota Twins are playing in the Bronx against the mighty New York Yankees, but they lead the series 1-0. AL Cy Young winner Johan Santana had tossed an absolute gem in game one, but Brad Radke got hit around a bit in game two. They trailed 5-3 entering the eighth inning. Minnesota had the top of their order up, and Hall of Fame manager Joe Torre countered with veteran reliever Tom Gordon in a set-up role.

Gordon had no issues retiring Shannon Stewart, and he seemingly had no issues retiring Jacque Jones as well. But Jorge Posada couldn't hold onto strike three, and Jones arrived safely at first base. Torii Hunter lined a single to center field on the second pitch of his at-bat, forcing Torii to call upon legendary closer Mariano Rivera for a five out save.

This might've been a mistake on Torre's part. On paper, going to Mariano Rivera is the smartest decision any manager could ever make. But these games aren't played on paper. The humans who play them need to perform. And in order to perform, a pitcher like Rivera needs to be properly warmed up. He had not been throwing during the Jones at-bat. The ESPN broadcast cuts to him just beginning to stretch after Jones reached first. Because the Torii Hunter at-bat was just two pitches, there was almost no time for Rivera to get some real warm-up tosses from the bullpen mound. Go watch the broadcast footage for yourself.

The Yankees have other options. They could've simply asked Rivera for a six out save, something he had done several times under the bright lights of October. They could've stuck with Gordon, who was pitching well. It's not really his fault that Jorge Posada couldn't block a strike three pitch in the dirt that he got Jones to bite on. The only blemish was a base hit to Hunter. A third option would've been to start the inning with Rivera already throwing, so you know he'll be ready at the first sign of trouble.

But instead, they put an ice cold Mariano Rivera out there on the mound against budding superstar Justin Morneau. It wasn't the prettiest of RBI singles, but the 23-year old first baseman delivered a run scoring knock on the very first pitch he saw. The Twins now trailed by only one, and there were runners at the corners. 

After that, fellow Canadian infielder Corey Koskie pieced together possibly the greatest at-bat of his career. He battled with Rivera for nine pitches, eventually lofting an RBI double to the opposite field. It allowed the tying run to score, but also cost the Twins a run at the same time. Pinch runner Luis Rivas had the speed to score from first, but the ball bounced just over the left field wall for a ground rule double. Rivas was stuck at third, and now Rivera was a little more warmed up. He was finally locked in. Jason Kubel struck out. Cristian Guzman hit a weak groundout. The game was now tied going into the bottom of the eighth. 

So this is today's "What If Wednesday" with your ole pal William Malone IV. What if that double stayed in play? One assumption we are making is that Rivas can score from first, giving Minnesota a 6-5 lead. Juan Rincon pitched a dominant bottom of the eighth inning. He struck out Jorge Posada and Hideki Matsui, while getting Bernie Williams to ground out. He pitched an equally dominant ninth, striking out Ruben Sierra and Miguel Cairo, while getting John Olerud to ground out. But had the Twins been winning, it's safe to assume that Ron Gardenhire would've turned to Joe Nathan for those three outs in the ninth inning.

The playoff struggles of Nathan have been well discussed over the years. This game is even one of those examples of failure. But he did pitch a 1-2-3 tenth inning while the game was tied, retiring the Jeter-ARod-Sheffield trio. Nathan tossed a shutout 11th to, before blowing the game in the 12th. His failures in this game came in his third inning of work. We'd only need one inning if that Koskie double stayed in play. And it was against 7-8-9 in the Yankees order too. So for this "What If" scenario, we'll say Nathan can get those three outs in the ninth inning.

Now the Twins have a 2-0 series lead. They lost game three 8-4, once again scoring two runs in the ninth inning off Mariano Rivera when he came in trying to clean up someone else's mess without throwing warm-up pitches. For as great as he was, and he is the undisputed greatest relief pitcher of all-time, the inherited runner numbers are a little lacking. Part of this was because Joe Torre would frequently put him in the game without any time to properly warm-up. He allowed 35% of inherited runners to score under Torre, compared to just 24% after Joe Girardi took over in 2008. The Major League average is a little over 30% in any given year, give or take. It was 32% in 2004, the year of this playoff series. It was 33% last year.

Now that that sidebar about inherited runners is over, we've got a series that Minnesota leads 2-1. We'll assume game three plays out the same way. But game four is a little trickier. Johan Santana was asked to start on three days rest when the Twins were facing elimination. If they were ahead 2-1, they would likely start Kyle Lohse instead. Lohse was 9-13 with a 5.34 ERA during the 2004 season. He also had a really bad regular season start on September 29th that season. Weirder things have happened in the wonder sport of baseball, but you can't sit here and predict that the Twins would win that game with Lohse starting.

And now we're onto game five with a fully rested Johan Santana. He tossed seven shutout innings in game one, and five innings of run run ball on short rest in game four. He was pulled at 87 pitches in game four, laboring a bit in that final inning. It seemed like the short rest was finally catching up to him a bit. He had also tossed two gems against the Yankees during the regular season. They couldn't hit him. Minnesota was going to win that game with Santana on full rest.

That's right. They win the damn series if Corey Koskie's double against Rivera in game two simply stays in the field of play. But what next? Minnesota would've played the Boston Red Sox in the ALCS. Because of how the schedule worked out, Santana likely wouldn't have been available until game three. Boston had swept the Angels during the ALDS, so Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez were available in games one and two.

It's honestly somewhat reasonable to think the Twins could've won game one. Schilling's ankle was soup at that point. God know what possessed him to do what he did in game six with the bloody sock, but the initial injury occurred during game one of the ALDS against Anaheim. The Yankees hit him pretty hard in game one, and Schilling allowed six runs over just three innings. A very capable Brad Radke could've held down the fort, guiding Minnesota to a game one win.

Game two is trickier. Pedro Martinez pitched well, but the Red Sox just didn't hit. The Twins rotation fell off after Radke, and you feel like Boston could've scored a few more runs against Carlos Silva. Johan Santana can beat Bronson Arroyo in game three, and you're split at two games each after Derek Lowe beats Lohse.

One thing people never talk about with the 2004 ALCS is how the Red Sox were bailed out by Mother Nature. A rainout between games three and four pushed game five back into the scheduled off day for travel ahead of game six. This allowed them to flip Martinez and Schilling in the rotation, giving Schilling extra time to rest his ankle. Had game five been on its regularly scheduled date, Boston might've been stuck with a bullpen day. Schilling just wasn't ready to go yet. But a strong start from Martinez in game five followed by whatever voodoo magic Schilling had working in game six could be enough to send Minnesota home.

They probably would've started Santana on three days rest in game six while facing elimination. But again, Schilling just had something going for him with that damn bloody sock.

That's how things would've played out if Corey Koskie's double in game two of the 2004 ALDS had stayed in play. The Minnesota Twins would reach the ALDS, but lose in six games against the Boston Red Sox. I hope you all enjoied this week's edition of "Willy's What If." How do you think things would've played out if that double stayed in play? And if you have ideas for a future topic, please send them in the comments!