The Yankees have never lost a playoff game in Minnesota, improving to 7-0 Thursday when they beat the Twins 5-2 at Target Field to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five Division Series.

And the Twins have now lost 11 consecutive playoff games, their last victory coming in the 2004 series opener at the old Yankee Stadium. Eight of those losses are to the Yankees.

But Michael Cuddyer, who has been a part of every Twins playoff team under manager Ron Gardenhire, isn't ready to give up, even though the odds are tremendous against the Twins coming back to win this series with the next two in New York. Only one major league team has ever come back in a best-of-five playoff series after losing the first two at home, the 2001 Yankees against Oakland.

Let's face it. The Yankees, who have dominated the AL East for the past 15 seasons, have the Twins' number.

It's not that the Yankees win big against the Twins. The Twins are almost always in games against them -- but they can't finish. The best example might be the 2009 regular season, when the Twins played a four-game series at the new Yankee Stadium and the Yankees won all four games by five runs, with the first three victories coming on their final at-bat.

"As far as motivation, we're in a must-win situation; if that's not motivation enough then I don't know what is," said Cuddyer, whose .286 average in the first two games of this series is second on the Twins. "... When it's all said and done, we have to go out there and win. It doesn't matter what you're feeling, you have to go out there and win the game."

The Twins are 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position in the series. They didn't have as many chances in Game 2 as in Game 1. "Andy Pettitte pitched well, did a good job of keeping us from [threatening]," Cuddyer said. "... That's the thing about those guys, is when you have the opportunities, you've got take advantage of those opportunities, especially a guy like Pettitte, he's been known to shut the door really quick. Unfortunately, we didn't get the big hit and that's obviously what sealed our fate."

Cuddyer said he wished he had an answer for why the Yankees continue to dominate the Twins both during both the regular season and in the postseason. "If I could, we would definitely change it up and go out there and beat them the next night, which hopefully we'll be able to do on Saturday," the Twins first baseman said.

The Twins have led in each game during their eight-game playoff losing streak to the Yankees. "You can't explain it," Cuddyer said. "It's good that we're getting ahead, it's good that we're scoring first, it's just unfortunate we can't continue to put the pressure on them and we can't hold them down."

Said right fielder Jason Kubel of the Twins' problems against the Yankees: "It's just baseball. I don't think we take it any differently than any other team. They just have got our number. I don't know what it is. We've got more to do, and hopefully we can keep fighting."

Jottings Twins righthander Carl Pavano, who spent four years with the Yankees, said of his outing Thursday, when he gave up four runs and 10 hits in six innings in losing to New York in the playoffs for the second year in a row: "I didn't get the job done, no doubt. We ended up tying it up and I ended up giving up the lead, so that's obviously disappointing. I think the leadoff walk [to Jorge Posada in the seventh inning] really led to some bad things."

Gardenhire sang the praises of Yankees designated hitter Lance Berkman, who was one-man machine Thursday with a home run and a go-ahead double, both off Pavano. "Berkman is a great player," Gardenhire said of Berkman, a midseason acquisition from Houston. "Another guy you can bring off the bench, DH him, do a lot of things. He has a track record and you make a mistake against a guy like that, he is going to kill you. That is what the Yankees do. They build a lineup, and they build a bench."

Twins left fielder Delmon Young came into Thursday's game hitting .579 against Pettitte and went 2-for-3. Young's .375 batting average in the first two games leads the Twins, who are hitting only .219 overall.

Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman sang the praises of the Twins organization. "I think they have probably the best reputation in all of baseball," Cashman said. "The ownership is full of nothing but class, their baseball operations is dedicated, consistent, they work hard, they have a philosophy, they stick to it, and all they do is win. They made themselves a premier franchise and they pulled themselves -- I was talking to [Twins GM] Billy Smith the other day, they're no longer considered a small market. They've arrived and they continue to arrive. Their fan base has a lot to be proud of. For the people that are running this team and how they go about running it on a yearly basis and with this beautiful ballpark, they've done an unbelievable job. It's a team that I look up to."

Twins President David St. Peter points out that contrary to what many people believe, big payrolls are not the dominant factor in the makeup of the playoffs. Looking at the eight playoff teams, the Yankees began the season with the major league's top payroll, the Phillies were fourth, the Giants 10th, the Twins 11th, the Braves 15th, the Rays 21st and the Rangers 27th. St. Peter noted the list would have been more interesting had the Padres, who were 29th in payroll, edged San Francisco for the NL West title.

Dr. Sheldon Burns, the longtime team physician for the Vikings, Wild and Timberwolves, returned from Europe on Thursday after he watched the Wolves beat the Lakers in London and the Knicks in Paris in exhibition games. While Burns doesn't pretend to be a basketball expert, he has seen his share of NBA games, so when he says the public is going to be surprised how much improved the Wolves are, I listen. By the way, Wolves owner Glen Taylor was on the trip, and being the great man he is when it comes to charity, Taylor then headed for Africa, where he joined Bill Austin, owner of Starkey Laboratories, giving away hearing aids to the needy.

Sid Hartman can be heard weekdays on WCCO AM-830 at 6:40, 7:40 and 8:40 a.m. • shartman@startribune.com