Gardy and the Yanks
The year 2000 was the last of eight consecutive losing seasons for the Twins. They went 69-93 with a young roster of up and coming players. The Yankees won their third consecutive World Series that year, but the Twins still managed to split the 10-game season series with the Bombers.
In 2001, the Twins finally snapped their streak of losing seasons, going 85-77 and staying in the pennant race for the first two-thirds of the season. They went 4-2 against the 95-win Yankees that year.
After the season, Twins skipper Tom Kelly retired and was replaced by Ron Gardenhire. Gardy led the Twins to their first playoff appearance in 11 years in his debut season as manager, and the Twins advanced to the ALCS where they were eliminated by the Angels. The Twins went 0-6 against the Yankees that year.
In 2003 the Twins returned to the playoffs despite going 0-7 against the Yankees. They had to face them in the ALDS, though, and after winning the first game of the series, lost the next three, making them 1-10 against the Yankees for the season, and 1-16 against them under Gardy.
Since then….
2004: 3-7*
2005: 3-3
2006: 3-3
2007: 2-5
2008: 4-6
2009: 0-10* (seriously)
2010: 2-7*
2011: 2-6
2012: 3-4
* includes playoffs
Tom Kelly had a career 74-86 record against the Yankees (.463). 40-42 at the Dome and a respectable 34-44 (.436) at Yankee Stadium.
Gardy is now 23-67 all-time against the Yankees. This year’s 3-4 mark against New York actually improved his winning percentage against the Yanks to .256.
Then again, 3-4 is a .428 winning percentage. The Twins’ overall winning percentage this year is .417.
So they’ve actually been slightly better against the Yankees than the rest of baseball this year.
That’s…..sad.
