Major League Baseball

YANKEE MOTTO: 'NEVER '04-GET' - HEED LESSON OF BLOWN ALCS - EVEN WITH 2-0 ALDS LEAD

Published Oct. 11, 2010 10:09 p.m. ET

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Six years after the low point of the current Yankees dynasty - the 2004 AL Championship Series - those who lived through it can't forget. And perhaps that's the only positive to come out of a very dark moment.

The Yankees are one win away from capturing the AL Division Series, and many, including Mayor Bloomberg, believe it's a done deal they will oust the Twins.

With a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five affair, the Yankees will send 18-game winner Phil Hughes to the Yankee Stadium mound tonight for his first postseason start, against lefty Brian Duensing. It's the first home playoff game of the year for the Yankees and the first in The Bronx since George Steinbrenner died in July.

They are nine innings away from advancing via a sweep, yet 2004 is alive, if not well, in the Yankees universe.

"We had the Red Sox's number for a hundred years and they found a way," general manager Brian Cashman said of the 2004 ALCS, in which Boston erased a 3-0 deficit to get to the World Series and leave a fleshy scar on the Yankees' skin that still is visible today. "This game can turn around real quick on you in an ugly way. We are doing everything possible to win and not take anything for granted."

Before and after yesterday's workout at The Stadium, not one voice was calling for the champagne and ice to be chilled.

"The way we look at it is [tonight] is a must-win," Derek Jeter said. "If you have that approach in every game you play, then nothing changes. We try to win every game we play.

"It's important for us to win a game. We don't necessarily sit around and think about letting teams back in or anything like that. Every time we play we take it as though it's a Game 5 or a Game 7. If you have that approach, then nothing ever changes."

The first two games have been close, the difference being the Yankees' .333 (7-for-21) average with runners in scoring position and the Twins going hitless in 10 clutch at-bats.

Can the Twins come off the canvas? Sure, but that isn't the way to bet. Even if they get by Hughes, CC Sabathia goes tomorrow night in Game 4 on three days' rest. Should the Twins get the series back to Target Field, they will have to face Andy Pettitte, who pitched brilliantly in Game 2, in a re-match with Carl "American Idle" Pavano, who didn't.

It can happen. The Red Sox lost the first two ALDS games to Oakland in 2003 and beat the Athletics. The 2001 Yankees were down, 0-2, to the A's (losing both games at home) and won.

Yet, the Twins against the Yankees is a bigger mismatch than Braylon Edwards against a breathalyzer.

In 2003 and 2004, the Yankees beat the Twins in four games in the ALDS. Last year, the Yankees swept the Twins.

This time, as usual, the Twins have flushed leads in each game.

"It's not fun. We know what's out there," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "We haven't been able to finish them off. We have to figure out a way to finish these guys off. They are a great team, they find out ways to win. We have to figure that out."

An 0-2 ditch isn't always a grave. Yet when it's Twins- Yankees, all that's missing is the casket marked "TC" - despite the scars that have been in place for six years.

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2-0, 2-0 vision

Of the 39 times a team has taken a 2-0 lead in the five-game Division Series, 35 have won the series. Here are the four times a team in a 2-0 hole has won the series since the division round was introduced in 1995:

1995 ALDS - Mariners over Yankees: This classic series ended with Ken Griffey Jr. sliding across the Kingdome home plate.

1999 ALDS - Red Sox over Indians: Pedro Martinez pitched six innings in relief with an injured back in Game 5.

*2001 ALDS - Yankees over A's: Yankees got two hits in a 1-0 Game 3 win, but it's enough with Mike Mussina on the mound.

2003 ALDS - Red Sox over A's: Trot Nixon's walk-off home run in Game 3 turned the series.

* Only team to lose first two games at home and win.

- Brian Costello

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