Bind the Twins, gag the Twins. Fit them with headphones blaring “New York, New York” and lay them on the field of the old Yankee Stadium as it is coming down around them, same as it seemed when they played there while building a 5-28 mark in the Bronx since 2001.
Down 2-0 to a team deeper in starters, hitters and bullpen arms, the Twins have to dig deeper than even the depth of their depression after letting get away a Game 2 they had all-but won twice. Will they crack?
“We have had our back to the wall all season,” closer Joe Nathan said. “We were seven games back one week through September and everybody counted us out except for the guys in this clubhouse.
“We basically have had to play a month’s worth of playoff games, had a lot of must wins and played pretty well.
“Obviously we know we are in a tough situation playing a very good team that is very confident right now. But at the same time we’re heading home and we’ll regroup.”
Ah, home sweet home to the Metrodome for tonight’s likely either the last, or next-to-last, baseball game ever played there, and where the Yankees swept this season, too.
A team can’t get walked-off at home, that’s a plus. But along about the time in a first-round series that a team forced to win a Game No. 163 should have its ace ready to go on proper rest, the Twins tonight have nothing better than Carl Pavano, whom the Yankees would like nothing better than to embarrass after four years of waiting for him to come back from 4,679 different injuries.
Nathan, who gave up Alex Rodriguez’s two-run game tying homer in the ninth, said he would leave that behind when he walked out the visiting team clubhouse door. If he can do it almost as easily as the Twins left 17 runners on base in Game 2, then he is the same dominant Nathan of the last decade. A September ERA of 4.76 argues, however, that his arm is almost as tired as the Twins are of losing to the Yankees.
Clearly, there should be a boost from fans left delirious with joy when the Twins, charmed as late as two games ago, were putting away Detroit. But at the end of the series, there still would have to be a trip back to New York.
“We have to win one game,” said Carlos Gomez, arguing, as do all players facing a sweep, to take them one at a time.
Sort of like one drop of water between the eyes, or one John Sterling home run call until the Twins go mad. We’ll see if they have come home mad, or are resigned to their magic inevitably running out.