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2003
Yanks vs. Twins ALDS
Email:
Michael
Aubrecht Website:
Pinstripe
Press
OCTOBER BELONGS
TO Major League
Baseball. Why? Because that is
when the postseason begins for
the top teams that make the
playoffs. Until 1969, when there
were no divisions, the team
finishing with the best record in
each league won that league's
pennant and faced the other
league's pennant winner in the
Fall Classic. In 1969, however,
the sport experienced a major
shift in its post-season process
after both the American and
National Leagues were reorganized
into two divisions, the East and
West. As a result, the winners in
each division were now required
to play each other in a
best-of-five Championship Series
to determine who would advance to
represent their respective
leagues in the coveted World
Series. In 1985, the format was
changed to a best-of-seven
contest where it has remained to
this day. In 1993, baseball added
a third division, the Central, to
accommodate the introduction of
expansion teams and realignment.
Two years later, the Divisional
Series premiered adding another
elimination round to the
playoffs. With so much on the
line, it's no wonder that both
the LDS and LCS have given birth
to some of the most memorable
moments ever to take place on a
baseball diamond.
2003
American League: New York Yankees
(3), Minnesota Twins (1)
Excerpt from The
Complete History of the MLB
Divisional Series written for
Baseball-Almanac.com
After years of
less-than-stellar ratings, record
audiences finally tuned in to the
Major League Baseball postseason,
making it the most-watched
playoffs ever on cable. Fans also
flocked to the ballparks setting
a new attendance mark with over
1,858,979 tickets sold. Many
attributed this renewed interest
to the playoff's storybook
backdrop that featured two of
baseball's most beloved
underdogs, the Boston Red Sox and
Chicago Cubs. Both teams had
surprised the experts by making
the post season and each
continued to shock their
opponents by battling back in
their respective leagues time and
time again. After decades of
disappointment, thousands of
long-suffering fans from both
ball clubs reveled in the
possibility that the curse of
both "The Bambino" and "The Goat"
might finally come to an end.
The New York
Yankees entered their Divisional
Series anxious to "save face" for
their disappointing loss to the
Anaheim Angles in 2002.
Statistics were in their favor as
the last time the Yankees had
been eliminated in the ALDS was
in 1997, and they came back the
following year to go 11-2 in the
playoffs en route to another
World Series title. Home field
advantage was also clearly in
their favor as there had been "no
place like home" in October.
During the 1990's "The House That
Ruth Built" had emerged as
another "player" while
distracting visiting teams with
its Hall of Fame ghosts, Monument
Park, pinstriped uniforms and the
tradition of 26 championships.
New York had completed their
regular season 101-61 and won
their sixth consecutive division
title with baseball's best road
record. Their opponents, the
Minnesota Twins, were baseball's
surprise story in 2002 (after
rumors of team contraction) and
had remained at the top of their
game for the second consecutive
season. They boasted baseball's
best record after the All-Star
break (digging out from an
eight-game losing streak in July
that dropped them into third
place, 7 1/2 games out) and
finished their season with a
team-record 13-game home winning
streak. Minnesota also boasted a
home field or "home dome"
advantage of their own with the
indoor "Metrodome" which was the
exact opposite of the more
traditional Yankee Stadium. The
indoor turf surface and bright
tiled ceiling provided an
unfamiliar "feel" to the game
that the Yankees were not
comfortable with.
During the 1990's
"The House That Ruth Built" had
emerged as another "player" while
distracting visiting teams with
its Hall of Fame ghosts, Monument
Park, pinstriped uniforms and the
tradition of 26 championships.
Game 1 tipped the
scales in Twin's favor as the
franchise was able to finally end
a two-year, 13-game losing streak
to the Yankees. Although
Minnesota did not "dominate" the
3-1 event, they did play better
baseball and had better overall
pitching, defense and timely
hitting. Standouts Shannon
Stewart who made a spectacular
ninth-inning catch while crashing
into the left-field fence and
Cristian Guzman who poured it on
from first to third on a single
to left while sliding around a
tag, then scored on a sacrifice
fly led the charge against the
newly christened "Evil Empire".
New York remained unshaken though
as during its run of nine
consecutive postseason
appearances, it had won all three
first-round series after dropping
the opener.
Yankees lefty
Andy Pettitte came up huge in
Game 2 with a 4-1, series tying
gem. Not only did the win even
the score, but it prevented his
team from having to save their
season by trying to win two games
in the Metrodome, where the Twins
were 11-3 in postseason play.
Pettitte struck out 10 batters
(his postseason career high) in
seven innings and surrendered a
single homerun to Torii Hunter.
After a sloppy Game 1 loss in
which they went 1-for-10 with
runners in scoring position, the
Yankee batters made their
presence known by breaking open
the game with three runs in the
seventh.
As the series
shifted to the Twin Cities,
Japanese phenom Hideki Matsui
came up big at the plate with a
two-run homer in the second
inning that made the difference
(3-1) in Game 4. A 41-year-old
right-hander named Roger Clemens
followed the "rookie's" lead by
putting on a vintage performance
while keeping the Twins totally
out of sync and unable to start
the aggressive running game that
helped them win the opener.
Minnesota got close after A.J.
Pierzynski's leadoff homer in the
third and had a runner on with
two outs for Hunter in the
fourth. But Hunter struck out for
his 13th time in 23 hitless
career at-bats against "The
Rocket".
Game 4 clearly
belonged to New York after they
exploded for six runs in the
fourth inning off Twins starter
Johan Santana, knocking him out
of the game with Nick Johnson's
two-run double, their fourth
double of the inning. Alfonso
Soriano maintained the Yankees'
momentum after taking reliever
Juan Rincon with a two-run single
to boost the lead to 6-0. In the
end, every Yankees starter
contributed at least one hit to
the team's 13-hit offense that
led to the 8-1, Series clinching
victory. It was the 9th time,
since baseball went to the
division format and extended
playoffs in 1969, that the
Yankees were headed to the
Championship Series. Their only
loss to date had been against the
Kansas City Royals in
1980.
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