Three and done

Carl Pavano was great... until he gave up two homers in one inning. One of which looked catch-able by Delmon Young, who is slow and unathletic. A drawback to leaving Carlos Gomez on the bench, though Young would have been in left regardless. It was a sad way to give up yet another lead the half-inning immediately after taking it. Matt Guerrier is the only Twins pitcher to not give up any runs in the series, while also having the only scoreless inning proceeding a go-ahead effort by the Twins offense. That's the killer. The Twins held the lead in all three games of this series. They maintained none of them. Two of them immediately after taking them.

It was the little things that cost the Twins these last two wins. Little things like not getting the ball out of the infield with the bases loaded and none, one out. Little things like making unnecessary outs on the basepaths, and not hitting with runners in scoring position. Let's face it though, the big things were missing too. The Twins did not hit a single homerun, no thanks to Jason Kubel's nine strikeouts and .071 batting average. No, he did not have any RBIs, runs, or walks. Delmon Young did all he could to make himself an automatic out, Orlando Cabrera did nothing, and the other horses the Twins rode into the postseason stayed in the stable. One single player is not to blame, the entire team failed to get the job done. Except for Matt Guerrier, who's awesome.

Honestly, the Twins never had a chance. The Twins' four best hitters (Span, Mauer, Kubel, Cuddyer) would be lucky to bat sixth in the Yankees' line-up. The Twins' starters performed admirably (except for Duensing), but there's no comparison between them and the Yankees' staff. The Twins' have one pitcher with a 95+ fastball, the Yankees have three in their bullpen alone. Two of these games were very winnable, which is an accomplishment in and of itself. Our favorite team expended most of their energy just to get to the post-season, it was a stretch to expect anything besides this sweep, as humiliating as it is. The Twins had a good season, and I don't have any doubt that they'll put forth a season-long effort next year. Thank you Twins, you expanded the enjoyable part of the baseball season just a little bit longer, and given us hope that next year, you'll all be ready for a good playoff run. Have a good winter, and sign that extension Joe!