SteemSports Presenter/Editor: Scott Frank,
And here we go! The Major League Playoffs get started in just a few hours! After a long and brutal 162 game season, it is all going to come down to this for theses 2 teams. The Minnesota Twins face the New York Yankees tonight in a 1 game, sudden death, lose and go home battle.
The game takes place at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York. It starts in 5 hours from now and the crowd will be wild. There is no better atmosphere than a Yankee home game in October. They are a huge favorite at -255 and Vegas doesn't give the Twins much of a shot. But in a one game scenario, anything can happen in baseball.
The Twins making the playoffs seemed like an unlikely idea back in April. They were just awful the previous season. But they bounced back in a big way and went 85-77 on the year. They were lead by veteran batter Joe Mauer who hit .305 on the season. He has been a life long Twin and will be on his game for tonight, that is for sure. Twins starting pitcher Ervin Santana will face a hostile environment and experienced Yankee offense. He will need to get through the first two innings scoreless to calm the team, otherwise the pressure will mount at a rapid pace.
The Yankees went an impressive 91-71 on the year and are ready to make a deep run. They were 1st in the league in homeruns hit with Rookie Aaron Judge hitting 52 home runs himself. But Judge also set the all time strike out record. Will he be able to handle the pressure of the playoffs and this one game scenario? The Yankees are sending one of their best pitchers to the mound, Luis Severino. He has incredible stuff and it will be a challenge for the Twins to hit the long ball off of him.
Wildcard games are extremely exciting and fun to watch. I will be surprised if there are many runs scored in this game. The over/under in Vegas is 7.5 which is pretty low for an American League game. Who do you think will win? Welcome to the 2017 MLB Postseason! Cheers!