Minnesota Twins will face New York Yankees in ALDS

The Minnesota Twins will head to the American League Divisional Series for the first time since 2010, but they’ll have to exorcise some demons to advance.

As champions of the American League Central division, the Minnesota Twins will head to the American League Divisional Series for the first time since 2010. With the five-game series beginning on Friday, many are curious to see what a team that is one of the most prolific home run hitting teams in MLB history can do in the postseason.

For the Twins to advance to the ALCS since 2002 and win their first playoff game since 2003, they’ll have to exorcise some old postseason demons to do it. With the Houston Astros’ victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night, the AL postseason field was finalized and the third-seeded Twins will take on the New York Yankees.

The Twins’ history with the Bronx Bombers in October is not a good one. As part of the longest losing streak in MLB history at 13 games, the Yankees have been the cause of 10 of those defeats. In addition, the Yankees have eliminated the Twins from the postseason in 2003, 2004, 2009 and defeated them in the 2017 AL Wild Card Game.

However, there are some things that could make this series feel a little different. With 303 home runs entering Saturday’s matchup with the Royals, the Twins have the power to slug it out with the Yankees, who lead the league with 305 home runs.

Both teams are also having issues in the starting rotation as the Twins are looking to fill out behind Jose Berrios and Jake Odorizzi, while the Yankees are planning on using a piggy-back formula between their starters, using each for three innings at a time to get to their lights out combination of Adam Ottavino, Zach Britton and Aroldis Chapman.

With the Twins resurgence in the bullpen, this should make for an interesting series that saw Minnesota go 2-4 against the Yankees this season, but was competitive in all six games. The fact that the ALDS will start in New York also plays to the Twins advantage as they own the best road record in MLB at 54-25.

Although the past will hang in the mind of Twins fans, this should be an interesting series that could see the Twins advance to the ALCS for the first time since 2002.