Twins got what they deserved after stubborn scheduling caused Yankees lineup change

Sure, the New York Yankees' fellow MLB teams owe them nothing, but the Minnesota Twins crossed an unofficial line in building this week's schedule.

I know you likely thought a 7:40 PM EST "getaway day" game before a 7:15 PM EST game in Baltimore the next day was all MLB's decision, but according to Brendan Kuty of The Athletic (subs. required), one important Yankee called the Twins' decision "absurd". So there you have it.

The reality is that all MLB teams — good, bad, or completely indifferent (that's most teams) — will face some form of travel adversity in a given season. The onus falls on them to band together, regroup, and get over it. It's not a plane's fault, for instance, that the Yankees arrived in Minnesota late on Sunday and looked like dead dreck on Monday.

Still, one would hope that these disadvantages would all even out over the course of a long season, and that MLB and the powers that be at least wouldn't legislate obvious rest deficits into the initial schedule. A rainout causes mass chaos? Totally get it. The Yankees play the Red Sox four times, and Boston gets a scheduled off day before the series four times while the Yankees receive zero? No. No, that's not what you should do.

This time around, the Twins' refusal to shift to a traditional getaway day led to Aaron Boone being cautious with his lineup. He wants to use Giancarlo Stanton against both lefties the Orioles plan to start on Thursday/Friday, so he bumped him out of Wednesday's (also very important) game and told him to sleep. He gave Austin Wells the day, too, treating the situation like a day game after a night game.

Yankees bench Giancarlo Stanton, Austin Wells after Twins refuse to change night game

The Yankees, thankfully, won 10-5, sprinting to an early advantage, watching it recede, and then taking care of business late as the bullpen (oddly) thrived. That's the kind of outcome Minnesota deserved for their meddling.

Now, the responsibility falls back in the Yankees' laps. You've been dealt a bad hand — again. You overcame the frustration with a series victory in a must-triumph three-game set. Now, it's onto another one against the over-.500-since-the-break Orioles. Did the lineup shuffle work? Or will this team let the league's oddly uneven rest schedule create more rust?