Twins season ends after Yankees defeat Minnesota in the Wildcard

After the long wait for the Twins to make the postseason, they ended the season with a rollercoaster of a game.

On Wednesday, September 27th, the Twins clinched their trip to the postseason as the second Wild Card seed and went to New York to face the Yankees on Tuesday, October 3rd. The first pitch was thrown at 7:09pm CT and if you were even five minutes late you missed a fantastic beginning, for a Twins standpoint.

The Twins started out hot as Brian Dozier, second baseman, sent the fifth pitch out of the ballpark. Only three batters later, the Twins extended their lead to 3-0 as Eddie Rosario, left fielder, silenced the crowd with another home run. This forced the yankees to get the bullpen going early and sent Luis Severino, ace pitcher, out of the game after a third of an inning complete.

Watching this first half of the first inning had me going crazy. Seeing not only the home runs but getting their ace out of the game that early was awesome. Before the game I even texted my friends calling that leadoff Dozier home run.

After that half inning the game went down hill for the Twins. During the bottom of the first, Didi Gregorius, shortstop, tied up the game with a three run shot off Ervin Santana, ace pitcher.

This couldn’t have been worse, I was so excited about how we played in the top of the inning, the bottom of the same inning changed my mood dramatically. At that point I could tell the atmosphere in that stadium changed for the worse.

Obviously with the year Byron Buxton, center fielder, has had in the field, he was bound to make an impact in this game. He did exactly that, in the second inning, Todd Frazier, third basemen, hit a line drive to deep center and Buxton made a tremendous catch leaping up, catching it just before slamming into the wall. That same play ended up sending Buxton out of the game later.

This catch got me so excited, and I thought it would help the Twins bounce back. It did not, the next batter, Brett Gardner, left fielder, homered to send the yankees up 4-3. The Twins then had an opportunity to take the lead back in the third when we had bases loaded with one out.

As a Twin fan, I knew how this situation was going to turn out and I was completely right. We were only able to get one run and tied the game up 4-4. That was the last run we would score this game.

Greg Bird, first basemen, was able to take back the lead in the third and in the next inning a Aaron Judge, rookie right fielder, sent another ball out extending the Yankees lead to 7-4, and the Yankees.

I still had not lost hope in the Twins until the Twins walked in the eighth run of the game in the bottom of the 7th. The Twins were down 8-4 and looked as if the season was truly coming to an end.

To make matters worse, in the eighth inning, Zach Granite, backup center fielder, missed first base on a would’ve been hit. The Twins ended the game striking out three times in the ninth and lost 8-4.

This ended the historic season for the Twins and a year to remember. After losing 103 games last year, the Twins came back and went 85-77 and made the postseason for the first time in seven years.

This didn’t come as a big surprise for Minnesota sports fans as we have seen all too much of this is the recent years. Last year, the Wild getting second in their conference only to get knocked out in the first round after a historic regular season, or in 2015 when the Minnesota Vikings missed a potential game winning 27-yard field goal in the Wild Card game. These are just a few examples of Minnesota sports fans getting let down.

After a very exciting season comes to an end for the Twins, the Vikings are four weeks into their season, the Wild just had their season opener and the Timberwolves kick off their season on October 18th. I couldn’t be more excited for these teams this season and I wouldn’t be surprised if one or more of these teams also made it to the postseason in their respected leagues.