Being the personal punching bag of the New York Yankees isn’t an easy job, but somebody’s gotta to do it.
Unfortunately, it’s the Minnesota Twins, and the Yankees are fresh off a great heavy bag workout that involved three blowout wins followed by a low blow with a walk-off home run winner to sweep a four-game series from Minnesota.
Since 2002, when the Yankees play outside of their division in the American League, no team gets taken behind the shed quite like the Twins.
- .500 Astros (16-16) *joined AL in 2013
- .492 Angels (65-67)
- .445 Athletics (57-71)
- .432 Rangers (54-71)
- .420 White Sox (45-62)
- .394 Indians (39-60)
- .394 Mariners (52-80)
- .384 Tigers (43-69)
- .302 Royals (33-76)
- .277 Twins (31-82)
The Royals haven’t fared much better against New York, but the gap gets bigger when postseason play is factored in.
Minnesota is 2-13 against New York in the playoffs, including 10 straight postseason losses. That equates to the Twins winning just one of every four games (25.8 percent) against the Yankees since 2002.
As Aaron Gleeman recently tweeted, that’s the equivalent of a 42-120 regular season record.
Meanwhile, Detroit has had no trouble with the Yankees in the playoffs, eliminating them in 2006, 2011 and 2012. Cleveland (2007), Houston (2015, 2017), Texas (2010) and the Angels (2002, 2005) all can claim postseason series wins over New York.
Detroit knocked New York out of the playoffs in 2006, 2011 and 2012, and Cleveland beat them 3-1 in a best-of-five series in 2007.
