The Twins enter game 3 of the AL Division Series down 2 games to none to the high powered Yankees. They'll try to leave the controversy of Friday night's game behind them and hope that the Metrodome magic can, once again, propel them to victory with their backs against a wall.

The Twins will send mid-season acquisition, Carl Pavano, to the mound. Pavano spent 4 injury plagued seasons in New York before the team cut ties with him. His mound opponent will be 38 year-old lefty Andy Pettitte. It seems like the Twins always struggle against left-handed pitchers, but the team, as a whole, has actually hit left-handed pitching slightly better than right-handed pitching this year.

• 2009 Twins vs. LHP: .285/.344/.441
• 2009 Twins vs. RHP: .269/.345/.423

The Twins faced Pettitte once this year, managing 12 hits and 4 runs on him in 6 2/3 innings. The Yankees won that game by a score of 7-6, thanks to 6 first inning runs against Glen Perkins. In 2008, the Twins also faced Pettitte and again scored 4 runs against in through 7 innings.

Pavano has had some recent luck against the Yankees lineup. While still with the Indians, he posted a 2.70 ERA and an 8.0 SO/BB ratio in 13.1 innings. Those 2 starts came in April and May. After a nice month of August, Pavano fell back to earth, posting a 5.06 ERA in the final month of the season. In his last outing he allowed 4 runs through 5 2/3 innings to the Royals on the last day of the season when the Twins offense scored 13 runs.

It will be interesting to see what Ron Gardenhire does with the lineup today. Matt Tolbert was put on the disabled list after Friday night's game and Brian Buscher was activated. Brendan Harris had a couple big hits on Friday, so I'd expect him to get the start at 3B. Buscher could be a decent option to pinch hit considering the Twins lack of depth on the bench.

Carlos Gomez got the start in CF on Friday, and obviously made a costly baserunning mistake. His defense could be helpful with Pavano, a fly ball pitcher, on the mound, but I suspect Gardy will revert back to a Delmon Young, Denard Span and Jason Kubel outfield--not that I agree with that.

It was reported yesterday that Joe Mauer has been suffering from a sore hip flexor recently, but he will still be behind the plate tonight.

Winning tonight would force a game 4 on Monday night. Losing would finally close out the Twins' Metrodome era. With unseasonably low temperatures expected to be in the 30's at game time, I'm glad this one's still being played in the dome.