Twins ALDS Game 2 Recap: Nothing Works, Twins Lose 12th Straight To Yankees

At least we have the homerun record!

Maybe they can snatch one Monday.

My 1987 Homer Hanky sits neatly folded on the coffee table.

The Yankees pitching staff was better briefed and coached for Twins batters.  Rowson and Hernandez have not been prepared with an answer, and they need to find one.  They should have been hard at work after yesterday's weak 4-run performance.  Whatever they came up with overnight was not apparent.  Safe bet that a lot of "rewind," "play" and "slow" buttons will be worn out between now and Monday night.

Enough has been said about Twins pitching.  Hopefully anyone who has been spouting the idea that the value of postseason pitching is overrated has been fully disabused of that notion based upon what has been happening in Yankee Stadium and at other ballparks.

The Twins front office and dugout management are demonstrating that they are not ready to play post season baseball.  This is humiliating.  The talent and desire are there - blame for this poor performance lies chiefly with the leadership.

I'm done. I'm just soooo over this train wreck of a franchise. Life has too much to offer to waste anymore time or concern on this nonsense. They suck when they're bad and they suck when they're good. No more. Goodbye Twins. 

Three of the Twins best pitchers (which isn't saying much), have not pitched yet and we are down 0-2 with a must-win game or season is over.  These would be; Odo, Rogers, and May.  It doesn't matter the circumstances (see Scherzer and Nats), with limited pitching you simply must find a way to leverage your best.  It has NOTHING to do with convention.  That only matters if you have a bullet-proof and complete staff.  I am at a loss......I also would have pitched Graterol again over Stashak and Littel, but that's just me.

Here are some notable Game 2 and 3 starters the Twins have run out in postseason games: Mays, Silva, Bonser, Duensing (Game 1!!!!), and Dobnak.

That simply isn't going to get it done.

Did you have a better idea than Dobnak?

Before the baseball forum was so crowded, I have repeatedly said you can't win in the postseason without an Ace. I was hopeful the twins could put together a few wins against the Yankees, but wasn't expecting a series win. The starting pitching needs to be better, at least getting deep into games, in order to win playoff baseball.

Luckily, I think this experience will be helpful for this core going forward. I still hope they can win Monday at home... Heck, I still hope they pull out the series win. I'm just a realist that knows baseball is hard.

Hopefully these losses send a clear message to the FO that they need to provide Rocco with better pitching next season.

Hopefully these losses send a clear message to the FO that they need to provide Rocco with better pitching next season.

It hasn't sent the message the last 4 times the twins have been swept, I doubt this will be any different.

Going into the series Rocco made sure everyone knew that this team didn't care about the history between these two clubs. And while he's right regarding the coaches and players, he omitted one big part of the equation, the fans. This series means A LOT to us fans of the team. The past 20 years have been brutal when Minnesota meets New York in both the regular season and playoffs.

Personally, I don't know if I can handle another sweep to the Yankees.

We can second-guess trade deadline moves.

We miss Pineda.

What is with all the bases on ball.

Come home and DOMINATE!

Well at least this disaster will be over soon. The Yanks are coming to sweep and we are going to let them .....then off to the off-season.

It hasn't sent the message the last 4 times the twins have been swept, I doubt this will be any different.

Completely different front office and coaching staff than the last four times?

This is confirmed.  Yankee Stadium smells like the armpit of the older brother who never let you win.

Completely different front office and coaching staff than the last four times?

And this team and coaching staff is different than the last four times, but same result.

Good enough to win the Central. Probably the same next year.

This was foretold when the front office punted on getting help for the rotation. Maybe they were right, I'm not sure it would have mattered. We could have run Mike Minor or Stroman out there tonight and lost 4-2 instead of 8-2. But at least we'd have given ourselves a chance. 

Okay, let's start talking about 2020. Dobnak, Littell, Duffey and the boys should burn this drubbing into their memories. Don't forget the bitterness, the embarrassment, the humiliation, etc. Instead, use those awful feelings to bolster your resolve to become far tougher next year. It is time to murder, dismember and bury all the emotional vulnerabilities you brought to this humiliating mismatch. Time to get tougher than rawhide. Time to chew nails and spit out carpet tacks. 

I don't care if next year's team sets a record for home runs. What I don't want to see is a Twins squad that can't field their positions. I don't want to see Twins pitchers throwing meatballs down the middle, or issuing free passes to hitters. I also don't want to see enemy hitters leaning out over the plate without getting a 95 mph reminder why you don't do that to Twins pitchers. 

Enough Minnesota Nice. Time for the baseball world to find out what Minnesota Mean looks like. 

Well. Pineda, Gibson, and Perez were not options. And this front office passed on Corbin and Keuchel. You'll love next year's starters!

Isn't Odorizzi still on this team?

Starting a guy who was driving an Uber last year, in a must win game in Yankee Stadium was preposterous.

Once again, saving players for situations that may never arise. I don't get it. Odorizzi doesn't even get a start until the series is, for all intents and purposes, over.

Against a tough Toronto lineup, Cleveland started Ryan Merritt in game five of the 2016 ALCS. Four plus shutout innings. Cleveland is where Falvey came from. I thought he or someone in the Twins front office might have an idea or something up their sleeve for this one.

 

With Dobnak, I assumed the Twins had a plan. How to pitch to the Yankees with the stuff Dobnak has. “Once through the order” or something, then someone else. The process they used during the season of following one pitcher with another type of pitcher. Or that Dobnak had the best chance out of their six-plus other guys like Smeltzer, Perez, Graterol, Thorpe, whoever.

What kind of plan were you expecting? You can't put lipstick on a pig.

I'm happy for Dobnak, great story for him and his family, but depending on him in a must win game is a joke.

There is no possible plan for a pitcher incapable of getting outs.

I expected the pitching to be an issue.

I never expected the offense to b score a measly 5 runs in 18 innings in a band box.

I don't care if it's different players. They know the history, and they once again are helpless at the sight of pinstripes. This lineup has had mostly putrid at bats through 2 games.

Dear FO,

This playoff outcome was foretold to you by many when you chose to cling to your precious prospects instead of trading for pitching.

We now tell you that history will repeat next year unless you change your ways.

Love,

Espousers of the Obvious

These 2 losses have been painful, much more so than years past. 

At least last decade, you expected it.  The Yankees top-to-bottom simply had much better teams - especially in terms of starting pitching and offensive depth.  Still, the Twins were competitive in most games, and were often in position to win until foiled by a bad bounce, a bad call or a bad pitch.

But there isn't that same talent disparity this time around.  

To watch this Twins lineup flail against utterly hittable Yankee pitching is maddening.  14K's?   Blech.

Let's see what happens on Monday, Severino is another hittable pitcher. 

But as good as this team has been, if Monday's game is a repeat of today's, the fans will be well within their rights to boo the hometown team off the field.

Baldelli says Dobnak threw the ball pretty well.

That's just insulting. I've been a fan of Baldelli all year, but I don't think he has any idea what he's doing in the postseason.

He's lost me. I don't think I've ever done such an abrupt 180 about how I feel about a coach or manager as I have about Baldelli.

These 2 losses have been painful, much more so than years past.

 

At least last decade, you expected it. .

I absolutely expected exactly this after the first third of Game 1. Different year, different players, different coaches, different FO....same old s*#$.