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NEW YORK -- The Minnesota Twins swore it would be different this time around.
Different team.
Different year.
Then, along came the mighty New York Yankees Friday evening at Yankee Stadium, and it was the same ol’ refrain.
A starting pitcher that lasted only four innings.
A two-run blunder.
A seven-run bullpen collapse.
Hello, heartbreak, it’s the Twins again.
The Twins self-destructed, and by the end of the night, set a major-league record with their 14th consecutive postseason defeat, losing once again to the Yankees, 10-4, in front of frenzied sellout crowd of 49,233.
The Yankees have now beaten the Twins in 11 consecutive postseason games, equaling the longest postseason winning streak over a single team in baseball history, tied with the Boston Red Sox’s streak over the Los Angeles Angels.
“Man, I feel like some of the ghosts from Yankees past are here with us,’’ Yankees slugger Aaron Judge said, “whenever that stadium gets rocking.’’
And when it rocks, it has a way of shaking the Twins down to its core.
It has now been 5,477 days since the Twins last won a postseason game, dating back to Oct. 5, 2004 when Johan Santana was their ace, Joe Nathan was their closer and Torii Hunter was patrolling center field.
And no team has punished them like the Yankees.
The Yankees, for those keeping count of the fatality totals, are now 100-37 against the Twins since 2002, including 14-2 in the postseason.
The Twins may have won 101 games during the season, hit a major-league record 307 homers, and even out-homered the Yankees this night, but once again were swallowed up by the moment.
“I did feel pressure, and obviously it’s a situation I’ve never been in,’’ said Twins reliever Zack Littell, who faced two batters, walked one, hit one and threw a wild pitch. “But it’s a situation that everyone in here dreams of being in. But it’s not a good excuse what happened tonight. I just didn’t execute pitches.’’
Despite hitting a home run, Nelson Cruz and the Twins lost Game 1 to the Yankees.
The Twins wound up walking eight batters, including five by their bullpen. Giancarlo Stanton and Judge combined for five walks. Stanton, who had one walk in 22 plate appearances last postseason, walked three consecutive times, flipping his bat in defiance twice.
“I just think it was a case that they were so much more patient today than they had been in the past,’’ said veteran pitcher Kyle Gibson, who gave up three walks and three runs in one inning. “They were aggressive early in the count, and then patient when they got to two strikes, and did a really good job battling off pitches.
“It’s a lineup that’s tough to navigate, no doubt about it. They can do some damage. The stress and pressure of dealing with that is always there, it’s just how you deal with it.’’
Welcome to the Bronx.
This was a game billed as a heavyweight fight, with a weigh-in more suited than a first pitch, with the two teams combined for 613 home runs -- 119 more than any two teams who ever played in a postseason game.
Yet, it was only the Twins who bothered to heed notice, homering in the first, third and sixth innings. The trouble was that all of the homers were only solo shots.
The Yankees instead opted to go rope-a-dope for most of the night with four doubles, two singles, eight walks, and a hit-by-pitch, before joining the fun by launching two solo homers in the sixth inning.
“The last time we played these guys was just a few months ago,’’ Twins catcher Mitch Garver said, “and some of the pitches they swung at then, they’re not swinging at now. Some of the pitches they missed then, they’re not missing now. We just got ourselves in situations we couldn’t dig ourselves out of."
The strategy proved to be effective, and another gut-punch for the Twins, who were 34-13 when homering at least three times in a game, and had gone 11 consecutive postseason games without scoring more than four runs.
“All we can do is shake it off and go back out there,’’ Twins reliever Tyler Duffey said. “We’ll be ready. No one’s going to be pressing. There’s no panic at all in here.’’
The Twins to a man stressed they weren’t intimidated by the atmosphere. They’ve won all year on the road, leading the major leagues with 55 victories. They love life on the road.
“We love it,’’ said Nelson Cruz, who hit his 17th career postseason homer in the third inning. He now has more homers per plate appearances (10.06%) in the playoffs than anyone but Babe Ruth, with the third-highest slugging percentage behind only Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
“We enjoy the hotels. And I guess we like hitting first, too.’’
Yet, by the end of this night in New York, the Twins had trouble seeing straight while the Yankees never blinked.
“We could have played in front of 2,000 fans tonight and it probably would have been the same way,’’ Garver said. “We’ll be fine. That’s the beautiful thing about winning the division. You get five games to advance. That’s the way we look at it. There’s no other options. It’s a growing experience. It could be a completely different story (Saturday).’’
Besides, even being down 1-0, the Twins say, they insist there’s no pressure on them. It’s all on the Yankees, who believe that every year they don’t win the World Series is the ultimate failure.
“We’ve got nothing to lose,’’ Garver said. “Are you kidding, we win 100 games and nobody thinks we can win? The Yankees 'are a good team. A great team. But they’re supposed to win.' They’re carrying that around.
“They either just do what they’re supposed to, or they hear about it forever.”
Forever is an awful long time, but then again, so is 14 years, 11 months and 29 days.
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