{"id":9379,"date":"2010-10-10T13:30:57","date_gmt":"2010-10-10T12:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=9379"},"modified":"2010-10-11T20:29:22","modified_gmt":"2010-10-11T19:29:22","slug":"rays-rally-against-the-rangers-yankees-sweep-the-twins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=9379","title":{"rendered":"Rays rally against the Rangers, Yankees sweep the Twins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MlbHlSq\"We hoped for two comebacks, but had to settle for one.\u00c2\u00a0 The Tampa Bay Rays managed to rally against the Texas Rangers to send their ALDS to a Game Four that will be broadcast live on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra from 18.00 this evening.\u00c2\u00a0 The Minnesota Twins were swept by the Yankees.<\/p>\n

Again.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to imagine how demoralising this series defeat will be to the Twins.\u00c2\u00a0 In previous years, they have always come into the postseason with an \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcunderdog\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 tag due to their relatively low payroll.\u00c2\u00a0 That wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the case this year.\u00c2\u00a0 The finance is there, as shown by the way they were able to tie Joe Mauer to the team for years to come, and the glorious new ballpark is in place.\u00c2\u00a0 Many felt it was time to deliver.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

It didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happen and what stands out the most is the nervousness among some of their fans as the regular season came to a close and the Yankees loomed large.\u00c2\u00a0 Reading blogs and tweets, there was an element within the Twins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 fanbase that was preparing for the worst before a pitch had been thrown.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a defence mechanism that any fan of a sports team will recognise (or at least fans who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t support a traditional superpower).\u00c2\u00a0 Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get your hopes up and then if the team does fail, you won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be so disappointed.<\/p>\n

The pessimism might seem justified when recent history is taken into account.\u00c2\u00a0 As a report<\/a> on the Twins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 official website notes, this is their third first-round sweep in a row and their fifth straight first-round exit since 2003.\u00c2\u00a0 Four of those defeats have come at the hands of the Yankees, including nine straight losses.<\/p>\n

We all like to look for storylines and the Yankees being the Twins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 bogey team is an obvious one to follow, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not convinced that history had a bearing on this series in any psychological sense.<\/p>\n

Every series lives on its own.\u00c2\u00a0 Not all of the personnel are the same and circumstances are always different.\u00c2\u00a0 The Twins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 top three guys in recent years have been Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Joe Nathan.\u00c2\u00a0 The latter has been out all season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, Morneau has missed most of the year due to the lingering side effects of a concussion and Mauer has been playing through various ailments most of the way.\u00c2\u00a0 The Yankees have had their share of injury problems as well, but despite topping the $100m payroll mark, the Twins still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the strength in depth of their rivals to compensate for losing that level of talent when it matters the most.<\/p>\n

Where do the Twins go from here?\u00c2\u00a0 The obvious place to start has to be the rotation and a top pitcher to set the tone for the rest.\u00c2\u00a0 They were one of the teams rumoured to be in the Cliff Lee trade deadline mix and undoubtedly he would have made a big difference.\u00c2\u00a0 Lee will be available again this offseason as a free agent; however the smart money has him going to the Yankees (just to add to the Twins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 misery) and there are not many other free agent pitchers to get excited about after that (Ted Lilly is probably the next in line).\u00c2\u00a0 That will likely make the Twins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 General Manager Bill Smith turn his attention to the trade market.<\/p>\n

Yes, the season\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s far from over, but the Hot Stove talk is already underway.<\/p>\n

Yankee celebrations again<\/strong><\/p>\n

Non-Yankee fans always root for the other team when they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re playing, but you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to give the Bronx Bombers a lot of credit.\u00c2\u00a0 Never mind the money, the players still have to perform under intense pressure and win the games.\u00c2\u00a0 Joe Girardi made a big decision in opting for Phil Hughes to pitch the third game and his pitcher completely justified the confidence shown in him with a commanding performance.<\/p>\n

Are we heading towards another Phillies-Yankees World Series?\u00c2\u00a0 You wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bet against it.<\/p>\n

Pena\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pain ends as the Rays stay alive<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Rays\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 radio commentators on WDAE were getting a bit depressed in the early stages of last night\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s game against the Rangers, not least with Carlos Pena\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s continued struggles.\u00c2\u00a0 They were looking for one moment to get him back on track and thought they had it in the fourth inning when he hit a 3-1 fastball towards the right-field fence.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s events like this that are perfect for radio commentary as you are left in suspense waiting to hear the outcome.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for the Rays, Pena\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s drive ended up in Nelson Cruz\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s glove.\u00c2\u00a0 In one second, the joy of a possible three-run bomb and Pena finding some confidence was deflated.<\/p>\n

That deflated feeling became a forgotten memory later on after Pena singled home Desmond Jennings to tie the game 2-2 in the eighth and padded the Rays\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 lead in the ninth with a two-run homer.\u00c2\u00a0 If that’s a sign of Pena getting hot at the plate, this series could be heading back to the Trop after all.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s slate<\/strong><\/p>\n

As well as the Rays-Rangers game on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra, the Senior Circuit postseason resumes with the Braves hosting the Giants from 21.37 BST and the Phillies hosting the Reds from 01.07 a.m.\u00c2\u00a0 Jonathan Sanchez and Tim Hudson will take the mound in the former game, while Cole Hamels has the chance to complete a series sweep for the Phillies against the Reds\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Johnny \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcKing Fu\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Cueto.\u00c2\u00a0 All games will be shown live on ESPN America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We hoped for two ALDS comebacks, but had to settle for one<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[107,82,122,25,110,553,66,98,99,134,102,126],"class_list":["post-9379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb-2","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-bst-guide","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-espn-america","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-mlb-2","tag-mlb-tv","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-texas-rangers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9379"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9392,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9379\/revisions\/9392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}