The Twins lost again to the New York Yankees on Wednesday for the six-millionth time, which is an exaggeration, of course, but for Twins fans it might as well be the truth because we have suffered loss after loss to this team for way too long.
In fact, the unbelievable lopsided nature of this rivalry has moved beyond mere statistics, at least for me, anyway, and into the realm of the dark arts, black magic, the supernatural and of little figurines being poked with pins because there’s really no way to explain the unexplainable anymore.
How can one team struggle so mightily against this specific team? And why has that been the case with three separate managers? That’s the strangest one for me: Managers Ron Gardenhire, Paul Molitor and Rocco Baldelli have all struggled against the Yankees. So, are you telling me that with each change of manager it brought nothing new to this rivalry? I just don’t believe it. What I do believe at this point (other than Royce Lewis) is that there is a hex or curse or conspiracy afoot.
Take for example home plate umpire Larry Vanover on Wednesday. Listening to the game, it sounded as if he confused balls and strikes all night, which I’m sure did no favors for Twins pitching and hitting. As lead radio voice Kris Atteberry put it: “Larry Vanover is probably a perfectly nice guy, but he is having a terrible day at the office.”
It was over before it ever really began. The Yankees scored four runs in the first inning, four in the fifth and headed into the top of the sixth leading 8-0. The Twins chipped away with five runs of their own, but got no closer in the 9-5 defeat.
Starter Chris Paddack absorbed the loss, allowing seven runs on six hits across four innings. Pablo Lopez gets the ball Thursday.
Extra innings…
-The silver lining in all of this, though, is the return of Lewis from the injured list and how he homered in Tuesday’s game and did it again on Wednesday. He now has three home runs in three games. He homered in Game 1 of the season, spent two months dealing with an injury and now he’s back. This Twins team needs a lift and he’s just the guy to do it.