The Strib Sports team is at Yankee Stadium preparing for Game 2.
Here are my lingering questions regarding Game 1:
-Should the Twins have kept Berrios in the game past the fourth inning?
I think their argument, if they were willing to publicly make it, would be that Berrios had reached 88 pitches and would have trouble surviving the Yankees lineup a third time.
My argument: The Twins aren't going to win this series without getting a certain number of innings out of their ace. I would have preferred Berrios in the fifth over Zack Littell, who did not seem prepared for this stage. It's an easy second-guess. But that's the way I felt at the moment. Why have an ace if he can't pitch into the fifth in a playoff game?
-Should Luis Arraez have been in the lineup with a sore ankle?
The easy second-guess here is that he barely missed a popup and didn't convert a double play so the Twins would have been better with Jonathan Schoop.
This one, I'm not so sure about. Arraez ran well on the bases and it's hard to tell if his ankle affected his throw. And Schoop isn't as fast as Arraez, so I don't think he makes the play on the popup. Schoop is excellent at turning double plays, so maybe he saves a couple of runs by making a better throw in that situation.
But Schoop's bat probably wouldn't have caught up to Yankee fastballs, so he may not have produced a double and a run the way Arraez did.
The Twins are invested in Arraez as a building block. They wanted the better player on the field. This one is harder for me to second guess.
And if C.J. Cron scoops Arraez's low throw, as he did so often this season, we probably aren't talking much about this.
-The Twins are playing Marwin Gonzalez in left and Eddie Rosario in right because they consider Gonzalez the superior outfielder and leftfield is bigger in Yankee Stadium. Rosario may still be slowed by his midseason hamstring strain, as well.
Keep checking Startribune.com for updates. We have myself, LaVelle Neal, Phil Miller, Jeff Wheeler and Ben Goessling covering the game tonight, and then our usual contingent covering the Vikings and Giants on Sunday.
@Souhanstrib
You can find my podcasts at TalkNorth.com
