The Yankees beat the Twins 5-1 Monday night to become the first team to advance to the 2019 LCS. I expected this to be a close series , but the Yankees completely dominated the Twins, outscoring them 23-7 in the three games. The Yankees hit .293/.403/.525. They worked the counts, got lots of men on base, and hit .324 with men in scoring position. Note that most of their power came with the bases empty; this series was the Yankees winning by other means. The Twins staff was good during the season at limiting power, so the Yankees walked, singled, and doubled them to death.

On the pitching side, the starters and relievers evenly split batters faced, 56 for the starters, 57 for the relievers. Both were great, but the relievers held the Twins to a .200/.298/.380 slash line. Meanwhile, the Yankees slugged .566 against the Twins relievers. While the New York pen was closing the door, the Twins pen was fanning the flames.

New York now gets four days off. They will wait to see if they host the Rays or fly to Houston for the ALCS.