It’s playoffs time!!
Okay, you’ve spend the past 2 days listening about the upcoming playoffs. And I don’t know about you, but I hate watching ESPN and their love for the Yankees. Actually, their love for pretty much anyone but the Twins. (Side note. Watching the Randy Moss coverage this morning I heard this: “The city of Minnesota…”. Someone needs to let Adam Schefter know that Minnesota is a STATE and not a city.) Anyways, there are a few key items that I believe need to happen to be successful against the Yankees tonight. Here are some:
1) Liriano. I’m confident with his pitching. It’s his emotions I am worried about. He has never pitched in a playoff game and the game against Jimenez showed us that in high pressure games, sometimes his emotions get the best of him. Liriano needs to go out there, throw strikes and trust his defense. Don’t worry about striking every Yankee player out. Our defense will take care of that.
2) Intensity. Michael Cuddyer admitted that the guys stopped playing with intensity once they clinched the playoffs. I don’t blame them one bit for reducing their intensity while getting healthy for the playoffs. But I know it can take a little bit extra to get back up to the intensity where they need to be in order to beat the Yankees. So here is hoping that they found that and that it shows tonight.
3) Offense. Speaking of intensity, our offense needs to wake up. There are some that have stepped up (Mauer, Valencia, Thome) the second half but I am sick and tired of watching Hudson come up to bat only to strikeout, Kubel come up to bat with runners on and do nothing to help us get a run across, and Span failing to do his job in leadoff by getting on base. And with DY hitting in the number 4 hole tonight, he better show off some of his offense from the beginning of the season.
What are your thoughts on tonight’s game? How many games do you see this series going and what is the outcome? Also, I should be in the chatroom starting around 4pm for those who are as anxious as I am and want to talk about Twins. If you don’t know how to get into the chatroom, the link is on the right hand side of the page. See you there! AND there is a link to make a Twins Chat pick but it is at the top of the list.
I hope Frankie just takes a DEEP breath before throwing his 1st pitch tonight.. and if he gets into trouble hopefully Mauer can calm him down.. It would be nice to get to CC first, to get the crowd into the game early!
i think this will go to 5 games.. and we will take it 3-2!
Well, if it matters, Around The Horn was split 2-2 on who would win. All four said 5-game series.