Derek Jeter Topic Page

The Twins were beat handily in the opening series of the ALDS by a few of the biggest names on the team. C.C. Sabathia pitched almost 7 strong innings. The Twins got to him for 8 hits, but Sabathia got the big outs when he needed them and didn't walk any Twins.

The Twins scored first with 2 runs in the 3rd inning, but the Yankees struck back immediately in the bottom of that inning with a 2-run home run from Derek Jeter. Jeter reached base in all 4 of his plate appearances, getting 2 hits and drawing 2 walks. Alex Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui also had 2 RBI a piece.

This is part 1 of a series of pieces over the next couple weeks that will take a position-by-position look at the Twins over the past five seasons. You'll see how the team has changed, where they went right and where they went wrong in personnel decisions.

It's been a busy day at Twins Nation. Since releasing my vote Neshek script late last night the traffic has been about 5x what it typically is. The response has been pretty good and I know several people are using it. Although Pat Neshek was still in third place, there still may be hope with almost a full day of voting left.

The high-powered Yankee lineup was no match for...Ramon Ortiz??? I fully expected another beating from the Yankees, but Ortiz stepped up big-time for the longest Twins start of the season. He allowed just three hits and a walk through eight innings. The Twins offense came around just in time with four runs in the eighth inning to give Ortiz the win. The first two starts of the season for Ortiz have been about as encouraging as possible.

I couldn't believe it when I loaded up the home page of ESPN.com and saw Justin Morneau had been named the 2006 AL MVP. There's definitely plenty of room for argument (even within the Twins roster), but it's still pretty satisfying that the Twins have the AL MVP, Cy Young (Santana) and Batting Champion (Mauer).

It's pretty impressive that the Twins have people in the running for virtually every big award this season. Two of them are official or very probable:

A dramatic Twins season ended in dramatic fashion. The final day of the regular season couldn't have been scripted much better than it played out on Sunday. The Twins headed into Sunday's game needing to win and needing the Royals to complete the sweep of the Tigers. How it all played out was truly unbelievable. On top of all that Mauer headed into the final game with just a slight lead over Derek Jeter for the AL batting title.

The Twins lost their second straight game to the White Sox as they attempted to move ahead of the Tigers in the AL Central. Fortunately, the Tigers have also lost the first two games of their series with the Royals so the two remain in a tie. The Twins will get their last chance on Sunday and they'll need more help from the Royals. Saturday's game was an early one and the Twins didn't seem to wake up until about 1:30 when they finally scored a few runs on Michael Cuddyer's 9th inning homerun. By then it was too late.

The Twins won Thursday night's series finale in 10 innings by a score of 2-1. The big story of the night was Brad Radke's encouraging start. He needed just 57 pitches to get through five innings and allowed just 1 unearned run. The Twins offense waited until there were 2 outs in the ninth inning to do anything, so Radke didn't get in the win what was likely the final regular season start of his career. Assuming he's healthy enough, it seems likely that Radke will be the Twins' third starter in the playoffs.

Scott Baker, the Twins fifth starter, gave the Twins their best start of the season, against arguably their best opponent. Baker went 7 innings giving up only 3 hits, 1 walk and 1 run to a potent Yankee lineup.