This is it. The 2010 season boils down to tonight.
There's no way on earth this is easy. Or believeable. We're walking into the lion's den: New York City, the Bronx, Yankee Stadium, the absolute worst place in baseball for the Twins to be when playing for their post-season lives. Most of the country, as much as they hate the Yankees, are counting this series as officially over. Especially these assholes.
But this isn't over.
As impossible as this task seems, the task of running the table on the series, the task of taking three in a row from the Yankees including the first two in enemy territory, all it takes is one game. Outplay the Yankees one time, just once, and everything changes.
Win once, with the pressure on, and the series becomes 2-1. That puts the pressure back on the Yankees...at least a bit. Because suddenly they're in a position where they need to win game four or they'll be back in Minneapolis playing a squad that was written off as dead. A squad that, at that point, would be playing with all the confidence in the world. A squad playing in front of a fanbase that would be out of it's nice, friendly, midwestern mind. And there is nothing that would make me happier than seeing the Twins clinch, at home, in front of a Yankee-hostile crowd.
Forget the hype. Forget everything. Win tonight. All it takes is one win, and this series could be turned right on it's head.
One at a time, let's count to three.