Danchat

This team is pathetic.

If the loud crowd is really the reason for why the Twins sucked at the plate and on the mound, then we should really try amping things up just for homefield advantage. I know that'll be hard with a Minnesotan crowd, but c'mon... they need to get some "Yankees suck" chants going midway through the game.

I think I'm cheering for the Braves to win the world series this year. I'm fed up with the rich teams (NYY and LAD) and Houston already got their championship, so bring on the Braves.

I'd like to see the Twins rack up some wins on teams above .500, the total win count isn't quite as important since there's so many teams in the AL that are hoisting the white flag. The only two teams that the Twins had an above .500 record against that were quality opponents were Tampa Bay and Houston... which was ironically the other two teams in the playoffs.

I totally agree with you, but even if Mike Minor or Marcus Stroman start today's game, I think we still lose because the hitting was so poor.

The Astros have taken care of the Rays so far... but at least the Rays haven't looked like a minor league squad, like the Twins have so far.

The Twins have stunk it up in the playoffs in real life, but would they do the same in Strat-O-Matic land? Let's find out! - GAME SUMMARY - The Twins got a double from Polanco in the first inning, and he moved to 3rd on an error that let Rosario reach, but they failed to knock any runs in. The Yankees had the same fate, as they left the bases loaded in the first after a Judge single, Encarncion double, and a Stanton walk. - The fireworks began in the second inning; Gonzalez took a walk, which was immediately followed by a Cron HR. Then, with 2 outs, Mitch Garver launched one out of the park. The Twins took a 3-0 lead, and the Yankees couldn't do anything in the bottom of the 2nd to strike back. - Nelson Cruz sent a bomba over the fence in the third, making it 4-0. In the bottom half, Berrios struck out the side, which was impressive against Judge-Gardner-Encarnacion. I imagine this would have shut up the New Yorker crowd. - After an uneventful 4th inning, Polanco singled in the top of the 5th and Cruz advanced him to 2nd on a groundout. The Yankees then pulled James Paxton for Chad Green, but that move proved to be a poor one as Eddie Rosario immediately hit a 2 run homer, making it 6-0. - The Yankees finally struck back in the 6th inning, as Encarnacion and Torres collected solo HRs of their own, and I yanked Berrios after getting 5.1 innings with just 2 earned runs, which was mission accomplished in my humble opinion. I relied on Duffey to finish the inning. That was a mistake, as he gave up a double to Sanchez, single to Urshela, and an RBI single to LaMahieu. I called on Romo to save the inning and he did, and we went on to the 7th inning with a 6-3 Twins lead. - The Twins increased their lead in the 7th on Tommy Kahnle, thanks to a Rosario single and a whopping 3 walks, making it 7-3. Sergio Romo gave up no baserunners in the bottom of the 7th. - Things got even better in the 8th, as Zach Britton walked the bases full. Rosario hit into a fielder's choice, nabbing one more run, and then Kepler swatted out a 3 run HR that broke this one wide open, MIN 11-3. The Yankees were not going to recover from this fatal blow. - For the lulz I sent out Graterol to pitch the 8th and 9th and he didn't even give up a run. Take that, dirty Yanks! - BOX SCORE - I'll tell you what, I wasn't expecting the Twins to win here. They've been a pathetic 2-5 in my simulations (I did a couple that I didn't report on in the past couple months), but they showed up today. And thus, unless the Twins make an unprecedented run in the ALDS, that will be my last Strat-O-Matic simulation of the year. I hoped you enjoyed this little mini-series.

This is why Sano drew so much criticism during the season... I don’t care that his OPS is great, he has no chance when he faces good pitching. Another gold sombrero to add to his collection!

Pro tip: whenever a Minnesota team makes the playoffs, bet against them 100% of the time, no exceptions. It makes a miracle for one of big 4 teams just to win a single game.

I expected the Twins to lose this series. I didn’t expect them to look this bad!

I’ve tried not to be Negative Nancy, but I just couldn’t see Dobnak coming through against the Yanks. He just doesn’t have the stuff to strike out MLB hitters... and now we need 6+ innings from the pen. *sighs*

Schoop has a .900+ OPS against lefties and on paper would be a good matchup against Paxton. Schoop's only useful against lefties, so if he's not starting against Paxton, I don't understand why he's on the roster.

Ugh... it's just more of the same. Hitters needed to step up and they didn't, defense was poor, pitching was poor. Trying to get through the game with Stashak and Gibson just made no sense to me... yuck. I did predict the Yankees would win this series in four games, so I suppose this is what I expected, but I was hoping for a 12-10 game... not a 10-4 one.

Gibson? I guess it’s time to hoist the white flag. *sighs*

I find it funny how the Twins have taken advantage of the short RF wall and the Yankees haven't so far. If only the Yankees could move the LF foul pole a few feet to the left...

Getting Ottavino, the Yankees best reliever, out of the game at this point... that's huge. Blow this pen up, boys!

Polanco = Twins MVP

The bullpen is going to be used very, very heavily this series, so they're gonna need to get what they can out of Berrios.

That was a pretty insane 8th and 9th inning to the Braves-Cardinals game. 3-1 Braves lead into the 8th, Cards win 7-6. Dang. Looks like the Dodgers are dominating, as expected. I'm starting to get nervous tomorrow... but in a good way. It's been a long 9 years since that last Twins playoff series.

Wow, that error by Grisham was a massive blunder. Washington suddenly went from down 2 to just 3 outs away from victory.

With some of the hitter prospects of higher clout nearing the majors (Rooker/Kiriloff/Larnich/Gordon kind of), I think the Twins can afford to send most of that money towards pitching. I also think the farm system is deep enough that we could make a trade or two for starting pitching and be fine.

This team is an automatic loss on the road against good teams, and this Bears squad has been chewed up by injuries... and yet the offense just looks atrocious. Cousins plays terribly, the O-line can't block, and Zimmer gets outcoached again. Yuck.

Graterol just turned 21 and has pitched only 52 innings above single A. He's really not ready to take on MLB pitching. He still has a ways to go to work on his pitches and mix speeds effectively. All he needs is time and good health, and those K numbers will increase.

Gibby again? Weird, we seem to be overusing the guy at this point.

We are currently dependent on Lance Lynn to shut down the Yankees and prevent any more HRs from being hit.