MLB: Yankees vs.

Max Kepler and his Minnesota Twins will open the MLB-Playoffs 2017 with their guest appearance at the New York Yankees (today night from 2 a. m. live on DAZN).In the American League’s Wild Card Game, two teams that you didn’t necessarily have on your bill before the season meet.SPOX makes the check: What are the chances for Kepler?And who’s gonna stop Super-Rookie Aaron Judge?

nearby

New York Yankees (91-71) – Minnesota Twins (85-77)

Initial situation in Yankees:

It’s a duel between two teams that you couldn’t necessarily expect in Playoff Picture: Sure, the Yankees are the Bayern Munich of the MLB, if you like, record champions with 27 titles and a glorious history.But the Bronx Bombers hadn’t really been treated as a playoff team before the season.Since 2012, the postseason has only been reached once, and in 2015, it went bankrupt in the Wild Card Game.

That’s why the Yankees aren’t necessarily in “Win Now”mode.Rather, the Big Apple was the last rebuild.In recent years of team legends such as Derek Jeter (end of his career in 2014) or Mariano Rivera (resignation in 2013) a large number of extremely expensive players had been accumulated, but without the desired success.Suddenly, one stood there with an outdated squad of overpaid stars.

Sure, it’s the Yankees – the payroll is still enormous (over 200 million dollars at the start of the season).Despite this, however, there was a certain amount of restraint, while the contracts of Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira slipped out of the balance sheet: the next major attack in the Free Agency was to take place in 2018 at the earliest, by which time the next big attack in the Free Agency was to be directed by the next generation.

But he delivered: Led by super-rookie and MVP candidate Aaron Judge (52 home runs), the Yankees even led their own division in the beginning and stayed within striking distance of the Boston Red Sox until the last week of September.Even if it sounds unusual, the achievement of the Wild Card Game alone makes it a successful season for New York.

Starting position of Twins:

The Twins are even more enthusiastic about the “Play-In Game”, the game for the privilege of competing against the Cleveland Indians in the Division Series.In the six years before, the company had only achieved a positive result once, and since 2010, playoffs have been waiting for them.And after a proud 103 defeats in 2016, no one had dared to dream of October baseball anyway.

But the blatant outsider from Minneapolis, with a payroll of around 108 million in 22nd place in the MLB, managed the miracle:”After a 100 defeat season, we were the first team ever to jump straight into the playoffs.Though it didn’t look like it for a long time.In the first few months the team played very well and the balance sheet was almost entirely positive.Still, you didn’t really know if you could trust the roasting.And indeed, at the end of July, there were 50 victories and 53 defeats.

The management decided to sell before the trade deadline rather than risk everything for a bold playoff push.Top performers such as starter Jaime Garcia and Closer Brandon Kintzler were handed in.Next year, that’s all.

The Front Office, however, had made the calculation without Paul Molitor’s players and managers:”Some were rather angry, others not.But the reaction was the right one,”Molitor explained the upturn.Of the last 54 games, 33 have been won, and thanks to the weakness of the competition, the Wild Card was suddenly there.

You’re an outsider against the Yankees again, but you don’t know anything else.In addition, one has to pluck a chicken with the great power from the east coast.Since 2003, the Division Series has been reached five times.Four times the Yankees were the winners…

Pitching duel:

Luis Severino (2.98 ERA) vs.Ervin Santana (3.28 ERA)

Both teams will of course send their aces to the Mound in front of over 54,000 spectators at the Yankee Stadium.In the case of the Yankees, this is the 23-year-old Severino from the Dominican Republic, who turned out to be the best man in the rotation of manager Joe Girardi due to the problems of Japan import Masahiro Tanaka.

Severino is a real “fireballer”: The right-hander whips his fastball with an average of 97.5 miles per hour into the catching hand of his catchers – no starter in the league can beat it.”His pitches are under power”, Twins-Second Baseman Brian Dozier jammed,”He throws hard and has a hard slider.On the 20th.However, he had problems against the Twins on September 9th (only three innings, three earned runs).

The Twins counter with old master Santana, also from the Dominican Republic.He’s now 34, his fastball moves between 93 and 94 miles per hour.The veteran has played a very good season by his standards, played 211.1 innings (ranked second in the MLB) and, unlike Severino, can look back on eight missions in the postseason.

His problem: the Long Ball.Santana gave 31 home runs in 2017, tenth place in the league and not a very good recipe, considering the power of the Yankees and the narrow Right Field in their venue.He was allowed to leave on 18.September against New York and promptly collected a home run from Judge.

Players to watch:

From a German point of view Max Kepler, of course!The 24-year-old Right Fielder is finally contesting the first playoff game of his career – and for me it’s an honour to be able to participate and represent the Twins and Germany in the playoffs,”he told the Tagesspiegel.Now it’s time to enjoy – and don’t overdo it:”I’m trying to see it as a normal baseball game.”

The good news for Kepler, who has set a new personal record this season with 19 home runs:”Severino is not a lefty.Against left-handers, Kepler didn’t look very good this season and sometimes even stayed on the bench.This time this goblet should pass him, after all, only Aroldis Chapman is a left-handed Yankee from the top-relievers.

The bad news is that the Yankees are still not his favorite opponents.This season, Kepler played 21 at-bats against his next opponent, scarcely scoring three hits (a home run).Furthermore, he hasn’t been in top form lately (four hits in the last six games).Anyway, it doesn’t matter: in the night from Wednesday to Wednesday, it doesn’t matter any more, the cards are shuffled again.

With the Yankees, of course, it’s all focused on Aaron Judge,”The guy is huge,”Santana said after the first encounter,”He’s so big that he’s covered the entire home plate,” and hardly anyone has as much power as Judge, who weakened after the All-Star Break before he turned up again in September and ended up with his 33rd birthday.Homerun in Yankee Stadium broke the Urals record of baseball GOAT Babe Ruth.If he strikes against the Twins again, it would be a first step in Derek Jeter’s footsteps.

Forecast:

The omens are not exactly favourable for Minnesota: Santana is the more experienced man compared to Severino, but against this Yankee line-up one has to reckon that he can’t prevent one or two homeruns.Severino is anything but infallible, but unlike Molitor, Girardi can fall back on an almost inexhaustible bull’s eye and, in case of doubt, take out his starter early.Molitor’s Bullpen is much worse equipped.In addition, there is the home advantage.The Yankees are taking hold.

This article was published without prior view by the Major League Baseball.