Twins ignore playoff past as they prep for Yanks

KANSAS CITY -- The Twins only hit one homer in their 4-3 series-clinching victory over the Royals on Saturday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium -- a go-ahead jack by Nelson Cruz in the eighth inning -- to gain ground on the Yankees, who held a 305-304 edge after their game later in the evening in the race to set MLB’s all-time home run record.

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That doesn’t matter so much anymore. There’s now far more at stake against New York.

With the Astros’ victory over the Angels late Friday night, Houston officially clinched the American League’s top overall seed in the postseason, locking the Yanks into the No. 2 seed. Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but that means, once again, Minnesota’s path to October will go through the Bronx when the teams meet in the AL Division Series next week.

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Because of course it’s the Yankees, the gatekeeper that has greeted the Twins at the doorstep of five of Minnesota’s last six postseason appearances.

Those Yanks that Twins fans have grown to dread in a stretch during which Minnesota has dropped 13 consecutive playoff games, including 10 straight to the Bronx Bombers. Those Yankees that, most recently, ousted the Twins in the 2017 AL Wild Card Game.

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Twins fans are all too familiar with this scene. But this team? They don’t know -- or even care. Not one bit.

"Not completely, and I don't care, to be honest,” rookie skipper Rocco Baldelli said. “Nothing that's happened in the past affects our team in any way. And I mean that. I bet if you walked out there, our guys would say it and mean it with all their hearts.”

"That's before,” outfielder Eddie Rosario added. “That's before. Now is different."

“It's a playoff series,” echoed reliever Taylor Rogers. “We don't need to add any more significance to it."

Think about it this way: When this "curse" or whatever you want to call it, began with a loss to the Yankees in the 2003 ALDS, most of the Bomba Squad was still in grade school.

But still, they do acknowledge that this history exists, because it remains a fact that Twins fans have, indeed, endured a difficult history against the Yanks in October. There is redemption on the line for the fan base. It just doesn’t add any extra pressure for them.

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“I think this is more of the fan base looking for redemption,” reliever Trevor May said. “They have been for years. We know all about that. In sports, it's like one of those things. Curses are curses. Whatever you want to call them. Things like that. Stigmas are things until they're not. Just ask the Cubs in 2016, right? And the Red Sox in '04. It just ends. I'm excited to be a part of it this time around."

These Twins are talented, they’re battle tested, and they know it. They won the season series against the Astros, who entered Saturday with the best record in the Major Leagues. Minnesota went on the road and won a big series against Cleveland coming out of the All-Star break -- and did so again in September, when the Twins swept a doubleheader to put the AL Central title on ice.

They won a tough road series against a Red Sox team that had everything to play for. They took Cleveland’s best shot in the division race, fell out of first place for a day, and responded by convincingly wresting control of the division.

That track record also includes one of the most compelling series of the season, when the Twins dropped two of three to the Yankees at Target Field in July, but came within a miraculous Aaron Hicks diving catch of winning the series. The final scores were 8-6, 14-12 and 10-7 -- high-scoring barnburners, during which the two most prolific power offenses in the history of the game went toe-to-toe.

“I think we've competed well against them this year,” Baldelli said. “Our guys are pretty confident going into this. I think our guys would be confident regardless of who we're playing. But we know we have to go out there and face a very dangerous lineup. But we know they're human and they get dressed just like us.”

Many on this Twins roster experienced playoff baseball at Yankee Stadium only two seasons ago, when they raced out to a first-inning lead after a surprise AL Wild Card berth, but saw the lead quickly melt away in an 8-4 loss. Staff ace José Berríos, a leading candidate for a potential start in Game 1 of the ALDS, pitched in that game and he is eager for a chance at redemption.

“Obviously, it's on my mind for this next series in Yankee Stadium that I got the ball in that Wild Card Game,” Berríos said. “I'm just excited to go there and have a second chance to go against them and help my team win.”

Many others on a young roster haven’t been on that big stage before, though rookie pitchers Lewis Thorpe, Devin Smeltzer and Cody Stashak all pitched in that July series against the Yankees. But after all these Twins have accomplished this season, Baldelli isn’t worried about their ability to handle any of this.

“You also see some people really respond to that environment and really eat it up and step up in those types of situations and places,” Baldelli said. “I think we have several players who fall into that category. I’m just really excited because I’m looking forward to watching our players go out there and play these games.”

Whether they find any meaning in the Twins’ extended history of futility against the Yanks, why not remove any doubt with a flurry of bombas?

“I think we have an identity as a team,” May said. “It's less of an upstart team and more of a division champion that led the division all but one day all year. And so we have an expectation to win. That is evident through all 27 outs of a game.”