Those of you who regularly follow "On The Sportslines" know that I am a stats/numbers guy. Rarely does a show go by without me crunching them one way or another. Now I freely admit that in sports stats can lie and Lord knows that agents like say, Scott Boras are known to use them to make their clients look A LOT better than they actually are come contract time. But once in a while you come across a set of numbers that no matter how you try to spin them, you just can't.
Take the Yankees and the Twins and the post-season. The Twins are a really good team, no doubt about it. They have put their stamp on the AL Central for a long time and are one of the blueprints for how a team without the resources/finances of the Yankees can be an annual playoff contender. The one thing they just CANNOT seem to do is beat the Yankees in the post-season.
With last night's 5-2 loss, the Twins playoff record of futility against the Yankees continued. The Yankees just seem to have their number; and the numbers don't lie. Since 2003 the Twins are 2-11 against the Yankees, 0-7 at home. Last night's loss was their 11th straight playoff loss, 8 of which have been at the hands of the Bronx Bombers. And to add some serious insult to injury, the Twins led in each of those games, only to be outscored by a combined 42-8 as the Yankees snatched victory from the jaws of defeat each time.
Last night's win by the Defending Champs was more like a 2009 win. They got great starting pitching from Andy Pettitte, who was as masterful as he usually is in the post-season. You'd never know that he was not far removed from an extended stint on the DL. 7 innings, 2 runs, 5 hits on only 88 pitches (58 for strikes - practically a 2:1 strike to ball ratio). Pettitte, who has won his last 9 post-season starts, set down 17 of the final 19 batters he faced before turning the game over to Kerry Wood (who looks like Girardi's top choice as 8th inning guy) and the incomparable Mariano Rivera to close out the win.
The Yankee offense once again provided big hits late in the game, breaking a 2-2 tie, scoring 3 of their 5 runs after the 7th inning. The Yankees banged out 12 hits last night, with Jorge Posada the only regular not to make it to the party. That Curtis Granderson is 4-8 in this series with 3 RBI doesn't really surprise me. He seems to turning things around at the right time of year. He finished the season on quite a tear: 9HR and 25RBI in his last 99AB from September 1 onward, with half of his hits going for extra bases. Another Kevin Long Reclamation Project. Is there a better hitting coach in baseball right now? But the REAL story of last night's game was Lance Berkman. After a decade plus in Houston where he averaged 31HR and 103RBI in the 10 FULL seasons he played, Berkman came to the Yankees in a July 31 trade for a couple spare parts and became a role player, a part-timer, a platoon guy at DH just to have a chance at a ring. Berkman didn't see much time down the stretch, but Joe Girardi took a look at Berkman's career numbers against Twins starter Carl Pavano (3-9 with all 3 going for extra-bases including a yard-leaver) and took a chance. The chance paid off with Lance going 2-4 with both hits going for extra-bases (2B and a HR). One gave the Yankees the lead, the other put the game away. Overall a VERY 2009-type win.
A PAIR OF QUICK NON-SHAKESPEAREAN ASIDES:
Apologies for the lack of any "Texas Two-Step" references to Pettitte and Berkman as the #1 and #2 stars of the game, but they've been beaten to death, so I abstained. This sentence here notwithstanding. As for the Yankees appearing to be the beneficiaries of yet ANOTHER bad call by an Umpire? Yes, Hunter Wendelstedt missed what was looked like an obvious strike 3 to Berkman on the pitch prior to the one that wound up as a run-scoring double. Yes, Wendelstedt has a lousy strike zone. Yes, it is POSSIBLE that things would've turned out differently without that run. But NO, it wasn't PROBABLE. You'll see why when you get to my last paragraph, but try not to skip to the end.
The Yankees now come back to the Bronx up 2-0. On Saturday night they will send Phil Hughes to the hill and ask the youngster to close out a 3-0 sweep. Which Phil Hughes will we see in the biggest start of his young career? The Yankees are hoping for First Half Phil (11-2, 3.65ERA) while the Twins know that the only chance they have to stave off an early off-season is an appearance by Second Half Phil (7-6, 4.90ERA). Especially since the Twins are sending up Brian Duensing. Yes, his 7-2 record and 3.05 as a starter look pretty good. But I guarantee you that Twins and Yankees fans alike remember that in last year's ALDS opener he was tagged for 5 runs on 7 hits and didn't make it out of the 5th inning of the Yankees 7-2 win.
We all know that teams that are up 2-0 in a best of 5 or 3-0 in a best of 7 win the series an inordinate amount of time. But as the hated RedSox proved in 2004, Yogi Berra was right - it ain't over till it's over. The fact that Murphy's Law, the Law of Averages or the Laws of the Universe can raise their ugly heads at any time is the reason we play the games on the field, not in a Cray Super Computer. Then again this IS the TWINS the Yankees are playing. Hell with all those Laws. I'll go with Deja Vu and numbers that just don't lie. Yankees+Twins+playoffs=Yankee Wins.
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