Minnesota Twins: How the Twins let Game 1 slip away

The Minnesota Twins had their opportunities, but there were several developments that left the Twins dropping the first game of the ALDS.

The Minnesota Twins came into the American League Divisional Series looking to “slay the dragon” of past failures. While no members on the team had anything to do with the Twins’ losses to the New York Yankees during their run of success in the 2000s, the black cloud still hung over the team as they headed to the Bronx to open their series on Friday night.

Although they got off to a great start with home runs from Jorge Polanco and Nelson Cruz, the game turned out to be more of the same for the Twins as they fell to the Bombers by a score of 10-4. To be clear, the Twins had their opportunities to keep up with the Yankees throughout the night, but in the end, the Yankees were just better on this night.

As we enter Game 2 on Saturday afternoon, the Twins have to look at Friday night’s defeat and wonder what they can do to avoid heading back to Target Field in an 0-2 hole for Game 3 on Monday night. As part of that, the Twins can look at several developments in Game 1 and see that they need to be better than they were on Friday night.

With the Twins trying to break a now MLB-record 14 game postseason losing streak, they’ll have to cancel out the noise and try to fix these areas before taking the field in Game 2.