31 August 2023
So, the Twins didn’t exactly put the fear of God into the Cleveland Guardians this week.
Given the opportunity to mortally wound Cleveland’s chances of winning the American League Central with a sweep, the Twins instead encouraged their closest division to keep fighting.
Do something more than keep fighting, in fact.
On Thursday, the last day major league teams could add players and make them eligible for postseason play, the Guardians claimed, and were awarded, three pitchers who could start making a difference immediately — right-handed starter Lucas Giolito, and relievers Reynaldo Lopez and Matt Moore.
All three were recently released by the Los Angeles Angels, who, suddenly without both their star players, Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, are shedding payroll and roster spots with a zeal that should alarm Major League Baseball’s front office. They are completely focused on payroll tax and compensatory draft picks.
By claiming those arms, the Guardians proved they are focused on the last month of the regular season.
It’s only appropriate. In first place for all but four days this season, the Twins have had all summer to pull away from what was assumed to be an inferior group of division rivals. With the chance to all but put Cleveland away this week, they instead convinced the Guardians they can, by season’s end, overtake them.
The Guardians finished a three-game set with the first-place Twins on Wednesday by rallying for a 5-2, 10-inning victory at Target Field to take two of three to leave Minnesota with a five-game deficit in the Central with three games left against the Twins — Sept. 4-6 at Progressive Field — and 28 games in their regular season.
The Twins started the series with a six-game division that could have been nine had they followed a 10-6 victory on Monday with another pair of wins. Instead, they went down meekly in a 4-2 loss on Tuesday and coughed up a 2-1 lead in the ninth with their closer on the mound on Wednesday.
“It’s a little energy that we needed,” Cleveland ace Tanner Bibee said after the game. “It’s not even September yet.”
It will be tomorrow, and while not exactly neck and neck in their race for first, the Twins and Guardians find themselves in a genuine contest when the Twins could have, by playing just a little better, made next week’s three-game set at Progressive Field all but meaningless.
And while the standings say otherwise, it’s hard to say with certainty the Twins are the better team after watching the teams play this week, especially after Cleveland shored up their biggest weakness with Giolito, right-hander Reynoso and left-hander Moore.
With Wednesday’s win, Cleveland is 6-4 against the Twins with three left. The Guardians won the last two games despite strong outings from starters Pablo Lopez and Sonny Gray. Starting pitching is the Twins’ clear strength — Minnesota starters rank first in strikeouts (809), second in innings pitched (750⅔), and fifth in earned-run average (3.86) and walks allowed (193) — yet their starters are a combined 39-40.
That statistic somehow sums up the 2023 Minnesota Twins, whose offense, like most, will occasionally explode for a small stretch but inevitably settling back into the lineup that has struck out a major league-high 1,382 times.
Still, the Twins were two outs away from building their division lead to seven games on Wednesday when closer Jhoan Duran put runners on first and third with a walk and single. He allowed the tying run to score on a wild pitch thrown behind pinch hitter Bo Naylor’s back.
In the 10th, Kole Calhoun hit a three-run home run off rookie left-hander Kody Funderburk to break the Twins’ late-inning spirit.
“It’s tough. It’s tough all around,” Gray said after pitching seven scoreless innings on 80 pitches. “I don’t think anybody in that locker room feels good about it.”
After a day off Thursday, the Twins resume play with a four-game series at Texas, a game behind first-place Seattle and Houston in a strong AL West. The Rangers will be playing for their postseason lives this weekend.
The Twins had better be, too.