The Yankees won 103 games this season, cruised into the playoffs, and were 7-0 against their ALDS opponent. Yet, the pressure is squarely in Joe Girardi’s dugout in Game 1 against the Twins.
That might seem counterintuitive, but the Yankees have things to prove as the postseason gets underway. CC Sabathia must show that pitching in October is not his kryptonite. Alex Rodriguez has to snap out of a .159 batting average funk over his last 13 playoff games. And the pinstripes, as a team, are tasked with displaying the same domination that helped them clinch the toughest division in baseball by an eight-game margin.
Winning in the postseason is not the same as winning during the regular season. The stakes are raised and the pressure builds and builds and builds. The Yankees, suffering from their longest championship drought since 1996, are the ones with something to lose. The youthful, upstart Twins across the field barely made it to the party and have no expectations to fulfill.
Pitching in the postseason is not the same as pitching during the regular season. The series are short, putting significant emphasis on the performance of the staff ace. Minnesota’s Game 1 starter will be rookie left-hander Brian Duensing, who will surely be nervous, but has nothing from his past to dwell upon. Sabathia, on the other hand, has demons to exorcise, a reputation to shed, and a $161 million contract to live up to.
Momentum in the postseason can make a much bigger difference than during the regular season. The brief series reduce everything to a relatively tiny sample size — one in which any red-hot Cinderella squad can knock off a Goliath-like favorite if the latter endures even the shortest of slumps. The Twins fit that bill perfectly: They’ve won 17 of their last 21 games, have gelled extremely well as a team over that span, and are riding the energy of a five-game winning streak capped by Tuesday night’s thrilling walk-off win.
The pressure is on Sabathia and the Yankees to stop Ron Gardenhire’s Twinkies dead in their tracks. If CC throws a clunker and the pinstripes unexpectedly lose Game 1, the pressure will shift right onto A.J. Burnett’s right shoulder and double in magnitude. That’s a highly unlikely scenario — yet one that fans in the Bronx are dreading nonetheless.
Joe Girardi’s club is certainly the better team, and most metrics — like New York’s 162 to 52 advantage over Minnesota in regular-season run differential — show that. But what happened from April through early October means zilch once the first pitch of the second season is thrown, and it’s up to the pinstripes to once again establish themselves as the best of the eight teams remaining.
The Yankees can certainly beat the Twins. In fact, it’s perfectly realistic to expect them to advance to the ALCS in a three-game cakewalk. But they must start off on the right foot.
In the playoffs, if momentum builds in one dugout, undue pressure can take over in the other. That’s the doomsday scenario for the Yankees — just about the only one that could possibly lead them astray in this ALDS.
And that’s why the pressure is on the pinstripes to put their worries away with a definitive victory in Game 1.
