MINNEAPOLIS — A few weeks later these Yankees would go down as chokers, gaggers, the first baseball team to ever allow a 3-0 advantage in a best-of-seven series go to hell. But that was for later. For now, inside old Yankee Stadium, an old-time crowd of 56,354 was trying its best to summon the ghosts. They were succeeding.
The Twins had won Game 1 of the 2004 ALDS 2-0 behind seven shutout innings from Johan Santana the night before. They were still plenty full of confidence in Game 2 on Oct. 6, wiping out a 5-3 eighth-inning deficit against Tom Gordon and Mariano Rivera.