I'm Calling It: We Have an 80 Kansas City on Our Hands

The signs of another barren, encroaching autumn are all about.  Yesterday I searched the AM dial on my walkman in vain for The Master's voice.  Of course:  WFAN had switched the Yanks over to FM so the Giants, marching toward mere mediocrity instead of disaster this season, could rule the airwaves.

Even the YES website led with...NYCFC's loss in soccer.

Yep, the auguries all tell the same tale:  this season is over for your New York Yankees.

Do our boys in the Bronx have a better team than the Minnesota Twins?  They sure do.  Have they beaten the Twins like a rented donkey for, well, years now?

Sure have.  The Yanks have bested Minnesota in five straight playoff or play-in series since 2003, going 13-2 against them.  They have not lost a postseason game to the Twins since 2004—and their regular season record against them has been almost as dominant for the last 25 years, not to mention, forever.

These are, after all, the former Washington Senators that we're talking about.

But I'm still calling an 80 Kansas City here.

In 1980, as I believe most of us here are old enough to recall, your New York Yankees had, by most measures, the better team.  They won 103 games—just like this season!—which was 6 more than KC, withstood some pretty serious injuries, and had the better ERA and better OPS.

All of which...counted for nothing in a short series.  Willie Randolph got thrown out at home, Graig Nettles and Rick Cerone hit balls right on the nines in key situations—and right at infielders—and Goose Gossage, all but unhittable by mere mortals at that point in his career, had to demonstrate that he could throw a fastball past George Brett.  (He could not.)

Three games, and suddenly a Yankees team that should have won another ring was done for the season.  Well, those things happen in a short series.  But the loss led directly to the Mad King's firing of Howser, and had a devastating, long-term effect on the Yanks, ushering in the ringless '80s.

This year's Yankees should also be sitting in the catbird seat, at least for round one.  They are a better team than the Twins and—unlike the 1980 Bombers with KC—actually won the season series, 4 games to 2.  NYY has the better, deeper, all-around team, and as Duque, 13bit, and JM note, the layoff likely hurts the Twins much more than it hurts our boys.

But the trouble is, as Duque also noted, this is NOT the same Yankees team that won those games during the regular season.

The epitome of the sort of beer-league ball that Minny plays—and that the Yankees are tailor-made to best them at—came in the Yanks' extra-inning wing on July 23rd in Minnesota, the sort that sportswriters used to say was full of ding-dong action.

 It was a game in which, you'll recall, Aaron Hicks did his best Willie Mays imitation, bringing the Yanks from behind with a booming, two-out homer in the ninth, then making his mind-boggling, epic catch to end the game in the 10th.  A game in which Didi went 5-5 with 7 ribbies, Judge hit 2 doubles, and Tauchman, Voit, and EE had 2 hits apiece, as they belted around Kyle Gibson and a bevy of relievers.

Now, Hicks and Tauchman are out, EE is going to be doing "simulated games" this week, and almost the whole rest of the infield—The Gleyber, Didi, Gio, and Voit—seems barely ambulatory.

Minnesota's likely first game starter, Jose Berrios, is someone we didn't see this year—and you know how the boys fare against new pitchers.  Two of the hurlers we did beat, Odorizzi and old friend Michael Pineda, are out.

The Twins' pen, of late, has been at least as strong and as deep as ours, bolstered in no small part by Zack Littell (6-0, 2.68).  Littell, of course, was traded by us in late 2017 for the late Jaime Garcia, he of sordid memory.

The Master, yesterday, was going on about how things are so different when you get out there on the Yankee Stadium field, with all the playoff pomp and ceremony.  But the Twins are a team that was actually much better on the road than at home.  Chances are, their two starting lefty sluggers and two switch-hitters will be too busy salivating over the short porch in right to be overwhelmed by the performances of the Anti-Semitic Tenor and that scavenger bird flying around.

There is also the problem of strategy, in which we are sorely lacking.  Unlike 1980, there is no Dick Howser or Gene Michael in sight.

Instead, Tiger Tanaka was sent out yesterday in a relief role—"just in case that's necessary in a short series," as The Master informed us.  And when would that possibly be necessary?  For the No. 1 or 2 starter on a paper-thin starting staff?

And then there is the Return of the Flailers.

Much of the Steinbrenner Press is enthused about the return of Giancarlo Stanton...an enthusiasm based on two very good, meaningless games, against Toronto and Texas.  Overall, in the 9 games—count 'em, nine!—he has played since his return, Stanton has been 8-32, with 11 strikeouts and 2 home runs.  Whoop-dee-do.

His fellow Flailers look just as bad, or worse.  ICS has played all of two games, and seems to have nothing.

And sadly, I have to agree with whoever it was—13bit?—who says he has given up on Judge.  The man now appears to be a pure guess hitter, with occasional home run spates followed by flurries of strikeouts.

And let's face it:  he is just not clutch.  Judge is batting .182 this year (and .222 lifetime) with men on  base and two out—situations that always seem to find him.

Beyond their ineffectuality at the plate, the Return of the Flailers badly weakens the Yanks in the field.  If Stanton is really going to play left, good luck.  We saw Sanchez's brilliant contribution yesterday, with three SBs allowed, and a wild throw that allowed the Rangers to take the lead.  While he has improved on passed balls, Sancho now allows many more stolen bases and commits more errors.

Meanwhile, the starting pitching is iffy at best.  "Five Times Pettitte" Paxton, strong in neither body nor spirit, once again has the minor injury excuse he needs to lose.  Happ is also hurting, and Tanaka is amongst the permanent walking wounded.

The greatest bullpen that ever was is fine, except for the fact that it "Big Five" cannot pitch a game together without allowing at least a couple runs.

All in all, I think this overrides the extended R & R MLB has so charitably granted the team.

Three and out.  And if there is any consolation in that, it's that nobody is getting past Houston anyway this year.