Yankees watching Twins, Tigers closely

The television sets in the Yankees clubhouse before Saturday’s game were tuned to two different channels – one showing college football and the other keeping tabs on the Twins-Royals game.

Baseball players don’t tend to do a whole lot of worrying about things that are out of their control, and in this case, there isn’t a thing the Yankees can do about the race for the American League Central. But this battle between the Tigers and Twins is just as compelling for the Yankees as it is for the rest of the baseball-viewing public.

“It’s a great series, no doubt – two great teams going up against each
other,” Nick Swisher said. “But what are you going to do? You’re going to watch it and
whoever gets in the playoffs is going to play us. Both of them have two
great teams and I think it’s going to be a battle either way.”

Johnny Damon said that the competition was especially interesting because of how long Minnesota has kept on breathing, hoping to pump a few playoff games into the final days of the Metrodome.

“Everyone wrote off the Twins, it seemed like, a long time ago, especially when (Justin) Morneau went down,” Damon said. “Those guys continue to keep fighting and they’ve been one of those special teams for a long time, teams that don’t give up.

“That’s the great thing about baseball. You never know, and in this case, we won’t know until probably tomorrow.”

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said that the upshot of this is that the Tigers and Twins should both have to keep running their pitching into the ground, ensuring that no matter who wins, they will be dragging a tired pitching staff to New York for Game 1 of the American League Division Series.

“I think that’s why it’s so curious,” Girardi said. “It’s great for baseball. But we’re
also very curious because we’re curious who we’re going to play.”

With approximately 18 innings of baseball left on the regular season slate, the Yankees seem relatively loose and ready to get the playoffs underway.

“I think if we stick to our game plan, we have a pretty good shot,” Swisher said. “They have a pretty good team, both teams do. I think it’s going to be a battle, but we have that inner confidence and that’s a great thing. We’re looking forward to it, I know we’re excited, and I know the city of New York has to be excited.”