There really isn't a positive spin to put on what the New York Yankees did to the Minnesota Twins this season.
A year after winning the first season series over the Yankees in over two decades, the Twins were promptly reminded that they're forever doomed to be the little brother in the relationship. After what happened over the last eight games against New York, it could be argued that Minnesota isn't even a blood relative but the kid down the block that gets picked on.
That's the nicest way to describe the Twins-Yankees series this year, as New York completed an eight-game sweep on Thursday night. Not only that, New York outscored Minnesota 36-12 while Yankees pitchers on more than one occasion carried perfect games deep into their starts.
Even with some minor bright spots, it was a total ass-kicking, and everyone is coming out of the woodwork to try get in on the fun and dunk on the Twins.
MLB Insider comes off the top rope to pile drive Twins after season series sweep to Yankees
USA Today's Bob Nightengale bizarrely decided to use the Yankees sweeping Minnesota as a chance to dunk on both the Twins and baseball players who have been suspended for gambling.
In one tweet he took a swipe at the batch of players suspended this week for getting caught betting on baseball, saying they simply should have bet on the Yankees to beat the Twins and they might have made some money.
There wasn’t a single player recently suspended by MLB who actually made any money gambling on baseball.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) June 7, 2024
Well, they obviously made the mistake of never betting on the surest outcome in baseball:
Yankees-Twins games.
The Yankees, 8-5 winners, have now beaten the Twins seven…
Thanks, Bob.
What makes it even worse is that there's zero defense against this sort of punching down. It's super corny to snivel and laugh at the Twins for not being able to beat the Yankees but Minnesota hasn't done itself any favors in playing right into the trope.
The Twins have a pitiful .263 winning percentage against the Yankees since 2002, while being .514 against all other teams in baseball in that same time frame. It's gotten so bad that Yankees fans -- as annoying as they are -- have begun taking pity on the Twins in Reddit threads.
It's super weird for someone to gladhand the Twins getting repeatedly punked by the Yankees, but at the same time there's a pretty easy way to make it stop. For some reason, Minnesota just can't figure it out.