Beyond the box score and stacks of stats that make baseball our pastime, we also watch for themes, for stories and context, a way to turn a game into a high-wire battle of will. We embrace the mystery about to unfold and the memories it will provide.
Except when the Yankees play the Twins in the playoffs, when we find very little mystery and only endlessly bad memories for Minnesota. Each playoff series — six of them since 2003 — have ended with the Yanks spraying each other in champagne. So instead of theater, we can only rely on numbers once the Yankees dusted off the Twins in Game 3 of their AL Division Series, 5-1.
It's the 13th straight time the Yanks have toppled the Twins in a playoff game, and 16 of 18 overall since '03. The Yankees outscored the Twins 21-7 in the three-game sweep, and it also represents the first time a 100-win team has been swept in an ALDS. And the Yankees played with alarming cool and astounding precision, and seem to be getting better as the playoffs unfold.
It used to be easy to typecast the Yankees as a pack of overpaid ogres who smash the sport, rampaging the game by throwing money at their roster rather than tenderly tweak it with a delicate combination of homegrown players and a seasoning of sensible free agents. But that's what the Yankees have become since their Evil Empire days. Instead of me-first mercenaries who elbow their way into the lineup, bash the ball, then leave without any nod to the team, these Yankees are a perfect blend of team-first guys from the farm, their roster massaged by the right kind of selfless veterans who care only about the logo on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back.
And if cynics lament the way they bash their way to wins, pillaging road ballparks with their endlessly muscular lineup, consider Monday night's precise, artistic approach to the game. They won with pitching, behind Luis Severino, who tiptoed his way out of a bases-loaded jam. Then they unleashed their conveyer belt of bullpen arms, many of which pitched to full counts and dangerous situations, only to masterfully sneak their way out of peril.
And if you needed an example of the team's five-tool talent, you just had to watch DJ LeMahieu Monday night. The versatile, line-drive hitting machine who was rescued from the MLB wasteland of Colorado, has played nearly every position on the diamond with aplomb. And rather than help the team with yet another of his nearly 200 hits this season, he played a sterling first base in Game 3. First, he speared a scalding line drive that was headed for a double in the right field corner, then scooped a short-hop throw on a ball hit well past the infield, deep into the shift. Gleyber Torres snagged the grounder in short right field, desperately hurled the ball toward first, and LeMahieu smothered the ball as though he were Keith Hernandez.
And if Torres' fielding prowess wasn't enough, he's also the best young hitter on the planet. Torres went 3-for-4 in Game 3 and is the youngest Yankee to hit a postseason homer since some kid named Jeter did it in the 1996 American League Championship Series.
While the Twins and their fans have to feel snakebitten, if not biblically unlucky for having to face the Yankees every October, this isn't about hexes or jinxes or curses. The Yankees are just much better than Minnesota, and, like many champions, can beat you in many ways. And perhaps no game doubled as a message to the rest of MLB like Game 3 of the ALDS. The Bronx Bombers showed there need not be a meteor shower of homers for them to win. There need not be eight runs scored to win. They need not get six innings from their starting pitcher to win. They need not be at home to win.
Perhaps the only team with the arms, bats and mojo to beat the Bronx Bombers is the Houston Astros, who can send three aces to the mound in a playoff series. Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole have been scary good on the mound. The Astros still have many of the maddeningly good players who helped them win the 2017 World Series, from Jose Altuve, who just tied the MLB record for most playoff homers for a second basemen (10), to George Springer, who blasted 39 homers this year, to Alex Bregman, who pounded 41 round-trippers in 2019.
The Astros have also done something the Yanks haven't in these playoffs: lose. In Game 3 of their ALDS against the Rays, Zack Greinke got spanked, hemorrhaging six earned runs in 3 2/3 innings. If the Astros rotation has a weakness, it's Greinke, who hasn't been around for all their success over the last few years. And if any team is poised to pounce on a club's weakness, it's the New York Yankees, who may not have the best record in baseball, but sure look like the best team.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel.
