After the New York Yankees 8-4 win over the Minnesota Twins in the wild card playoff in the Bronx an interesting statistic was revealed.

The New York Yankees relievers set a postseason record with 13 strikeouts of the Minnesota Twins.

Of course this happened primarily because the Yankee starter only lasted a third of an inning.

Baseball keeps track of every imaginable statistic.

How batters fare against lefties and right handed pitchers.  In day or night games.

The New York Yankees ranked 19th in the majors in strikeouts at 8.56 per game.

Minnesota ranked 16th with 8.28 per contest.

New York also averaged the most home runs per game at 1.49 and Minnesota was 16th with 1.27.

The Yankees were 7th in hits per game and Minnesota ranked 10th.

On the pitching side New York was third in strikeouts with Cleveland on top.  Minnesota ranked 29th out of the 30 teams.

New York's team ERA of 3.70 ranked 4th in the majors and Minnesota was 19th with a team ERA of 4.52.

The numbers don't lie.

If the front office of the Twins want to go deeper in the playoffs they need to get a pitching staff that is better at striking out the opponent.

I'm certainly glad we don't have to hear that "pitch to contact" stuff anymore.

The goal of every pitcher should be to try to strike the batters they face out.

Minnesota might have to five up a good player on this team to get a power pitcher for the bullpen or as a starter.

We might have to say goodbye to a Brian Dozier or Max Kepler.

Until the pitching gets better I don't see the Twins doing much better than their miraculous 2017 season.

Give Paul Molitor an extension as Manager.

To make the playoffs with that pitching staff took an excellent operation of the right moves during each game.

Target Field- Minneapolis photo by Gordy Kosfeld
Target Field- Minneapolis photo by Gordy Kosfeld
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