Wild Card
Minnesota Twins (85-77) (Ervin Santana) vs New York Yankees (91-71) (Luis Severino)
Twins key to winning: Ervin Santana. He led the league in complete games and shutouts. However, he allowed 31 home runs in regular season, which is not good considering the game is in Yankee Stadium vs guys like Aaron Judge. But, his pitching repertoire and experience should give him the edge vs the young Severino. With the bullpen being very weak, veterans like Mauer and Dozier are going to need to come up with some big hits against the Yankees pen.
Yankees key to winning: Get 5 decent innings out of Severino then the pen needs to dominate. Chapman can’t fold under pressure. May need to play some more small ball than normal to catch Ervin Santana by surprise.
Prediction: Yankees 5-3, Twins will beat up on Severino a bit, and take early lead, but Yankees pen will hold down fort and scratch some runs off of the Twins pen.
