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Despite splits, underdog Twins and Angels have uphill battle

The Twins were hammered by the A's on Wednesday in Game 2 of their Division Series, but it was hard to find anyone moping in the Minnesota clubhouse afterward. No one flipped the postgame spread. No one angrily stared into the depths of his locker. Music played -- albeit quietly -- on the stereo as players packed their bags for the flight back to Minneapolis. (Curiously, there were no tunes in the victorious Oakland clubhouse.)

How could a team take a 9-1 drubbing so well? Because the Twins could treat Game 2 the way a quarterback treats a play when he knows the defense has jumped offsides -- it's essentially a free down. By winning Game 1, Minnesota had guaranteed itself at least a split on the road, the holy grail of teams without home field advantage in a short series. Steal a win in the other team's park, conventional wisdom goes, and enjoy the flight back to your home turf for Games 3 and 4. "When I came out of the game in the eighth inning I felt OK," Twins center fielder Torii Hunter said after Wednesday's contest. "It's one game. What we wanted was a split."

The Angels said similar things in New York after surviving the Yankees in Game 2. There's one problem with that thinking, however. Historically, splitting Games 1 and 2 on the road hasn't worked out too well for the away team. Coming into this year, 10 of the 28 Division Series since 1995 have been tied after two games. The road team that "won the split" ended up taking only four of those series. (A fifth, the 1997 Indians, went on to the ALCS, but they had the advantage of playing Games 3, 4 and 5 at home. The current 2-2-1 schedule was adopted the following year.)

What does all this mean as we look ahead to Game 3 Friday in the A's-Twins and Angels-Yankees series, both of which are tied, 1-1? Only the obvious: The underdog Twins and Angels still have their work cut out for them. First of all, they'd better take care of business at the Metrodome and Edison Field, respectively. Only one of the aforementioned 10 teams, the 2000 Yankees, has won its series on the road after splitting Games 3 and 4 at home. Here's what Anaheim and Minnesota will have to do to set up -- cover your ears, Fox network executives -- a Twins-Angels ALCS.