TWINS HAVE "TRICKS" FOR YANKEES IN GAME THREE

Maybe you are laughing like I am right now. I know Halloween is coming up because let's be realistic here, whatever "tricks" the Twins have planned for the Yankees aren't going to "treat" the Twins to a guaranteed game three victory. Can you smell the desperation?

"We've talked about him adding some -not getting too specific- but some tricks. Some things he hasn't really done a ton in the past."

THIS is what desperation sounds like, courtesy of Twins manager Rocco Baldelli. I guess a do-or-die game three is as good of a time as any to experiment with tricks. I wonder if it will be like a Moneyball type of approach but that didn't work well for the Oakland A's. Or maybe Jake Odorizzi will literally try to pull of a magic trick on the mound. Maybe he will create a new pitch. Who knows.....but it sure sounds funny.

I'm not trying to take anything away from the Twins, they had a great regular season and they are a much better team then the Yankees have seen in years. It's just funny to hear the Twins talk about pulling out "tricks" in a possible elimination game after they were so confident that they were going to "slay the dragon" and finally beat the Yankees. I don't see that working against Aaron Judge, Didi Gregorius or DJ LeMahieu. This team is dialed in right now, they need more than just "tricks" to beat the Yankees.

I'm not sure what "tricks" they could really be thinking about here. Maybe Odorizzi will rely on his off-speed pitches and stay away from fastballs because the Yankees have proven to be good fastball hitters. Either way, Baldelli says "Jake has the answers to anything that he’s going to see out there" but hopefully he has no answers for the Yankees offense. Tricks are for kids, not for champions.

Let the Twins pull out everything in their bag of tricks, it's funny but you have to admire them for not going down without a fight. Their fight just happens to involve tricks. As long as the Yankees continue to play good baseball then no trick is going to keep them from advancing to the ALCS.

Slay the dragon has turned into tricks now....but whatever. Game on.

--Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa
BYB Managing Editor
Twitter: @nyprincessj