Remembering the Twins "recent" playoff history

[VandyTwinsFan]

I was looking at the game day thread and noticed a poster saying that he was going to cover all the playoff games. At the time of the post it was a joke, and a decent one at that. At this point in the season the chance of that poster having some work ahead is becoming a real possibility. Then I realized, the Yankees aren't doing too bad this year either. Those. Damn. Yankees. Oooh I hate those guys. Not because they're just a bunch of felons, or should be, but because they've destroyed the Twins in the playoffs during my entire Twins fandom. For a painful refresher, let's review the recent history with the Yankees.

 

2003: Won game 1, lost the next 3 including the last 2 in the dome. 

2004: Won game 1, lost the next 3 including the last 2 in the dome. Games 2, 4 in extras. 

2006: This year would be different!..Swept by the Athletics. Sorta different I guess.

2009: Swept. Game 2 was in 11 innings. 

2010: Swept: Games 1,2 at Target Field. Winning pitcher of game 3...Phil Hughes!

 

Wow. That's pretty rough. It was rough. It hurt. I remember watching those 2009 and 2010 series and just thinking that the whole team expected to be beat. They were facing the mighty Yankees! All the confidence from the entire  year just disappeared. I felt cheated. I wanted everyone to see how good this underrated team was. That they had the talent to play with the big boys. I told everyone to watch...and all they saw was a lifeless team crumble in big moments and then pack it in the next game, unable to recover from the blow.

 

I sure hope that we don't meet them again! Wait a second, there's only 3 guys on this team who were apart of that misery. Joe Mauer, Torii Hunter, and Brian Duensing. Plouffe played in 22 games in 2010, but not once in the playoffs.

 

Joe Mauer:

2006: .182/.250/.182

2009: .417/.500/.500 with a 2B

2010: .250/.308/.250

 

Torii Hunter:

2003: .429/.500/.786 with a 3B, HR

2004: .353/.368/.588 with a 2B, HR

 

Brian Duensing:

2010: 1 GS, 5 ER in 3.1 innings, 7 hits with 1 BB and 1 K

 

Hunter appeared to care less who the Yankees were...11 years ago. Ahem, he seems to be holding it together so that's a good sign. No Power Mauer is the version that seemed to show up against the Yankees. We can only cross our fingers on this one. As for Duensing, he's not starting anymore so that's a relief! One can now look at the rest of this team, the combination of new veterans and youth and wonder how they'd respond to facing the Yankees. I can't help but be optimistic that the likes of Sano, Rosario, and possibly Arcia will care very little who they're playing. The bigger the opponent, the more pumped they get to show what they can do. 

 

At least that's my hope. Fortunately, we won't have to wait very long to see how they react with a 3 game series in MN July 24th-26th. I'll certainly be watching. This very well may be a preview of the upcoming playoffs. Let's hope it has a much different ending than the previous 5. 

[drjim]

Of all those years, 2004 was the one that really hurt. That was a really good team peaking for the playoffs nose to nose with a really good Yankees squad.

 

03 and 09 were not that great, 10 was more a paper tiger (didn't have the pitching and key players were dinged), and 06 was a fun team that had run out of gas by playoff time.

[TwinsCD]

Ugh, thanks for the reminder!!  My brother's a Yankees fan and he doesn't let me forget about those playoff efforts when it looks like the Twins and Yankees might face off in the postseason.  2004 was the most hurtful, for sure, because of Nathan going out for that 3rd inning of relief in the 12th of Game 2 and giving up the lead that they had worked so hard to get.  If I was Gardy, I still would have left him in there to finish it.  But geez, they hold on to that one and they likely win one of the 2 games in the Dome to finish them off.

 

2009, though, could have been a whole different series had that donkey Phil Cuzzi simply done his job correctly and called Mauer's double fair then POSSIBLY the Twins win Game 2 and have a little bit of emotional momentum going back to the Dome.  Instead, the ball is called foul, the Twins leave the bases loaded (a horrific trend back then) and the rest is history.

 

I don't EVER want to see the Yankees in the playoffs again.  Too much bad team history there.  Plus, I wish bad things on Yankees players during those series....and I'm not that kind of person.  0 =)

[Thrylos]

I attribute 100% of the history of the Twins post-season ugliness the last decade on Ron Gardenhire.  Hope that Molitor does not prove me wrong.

[VandyTwinsFan]

 

2009, though, could have been a whole different series had that donkey Phil Cuzzi simply done his job correctly and called Mauer's double fair then POSSIBLY the Twins win Game 2 and have a little bit of emotional momentum going back to the Dome.  Instead, the ball is called foul, the Twins leave the bases loaded (a horrific trend back then) and the rest is history.

 

I had forgotten about that! That was crushing. There was a lot of anger towards umpiring and that the Yankees get all the calls because the league would make more money with a major market team in the playoffs. Jerks.

I kept thinking of Jesse Crain's 2nd hanging slider in a row to Mark Teixeira. Why, Jesse, why?!!!

[TwinsCD]

 

I had forgotten about that! That was crushing. There was a lot of anger towards umpiring and that the Yankees get all the calls because the league would make more money with a major market team in the playoffs. Jerks.

I kept thinking of Jesse Crain's 2nd hanging slider in a row to Mark Teixeira. Why, Jesse, why?!!!

What angered me most was that they put outfield umpires in place for the playoffs and they have ONE JOB -- get the calls right on the lines.  I've umpired 11 years in HS ball and it's a lot tougher to run down the line from first or third to make a call but he was standing right there and couldn't get it right.  Either way, I knew that series was dead when they left the bases loaded that inning because you're only gonna have so many chances to win at Yankee Stadium in the playoffs.

[drjim]

My other "favorite" part of that call was not only was it fair, it hit off Cabrera's glove.

 

http://larrybrownsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/joemauer-philcuzzi.jpg

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

I thought the third base coach (or anyone) should have gone out and gave the umpires a more educated report of what happened on that play. After that it felt like the Twins would just sit back and passively take whatever the Yankees gave them. Which was an early exit. But....all in the past. New team, new start.