5 October 2023
As Game 2 of the Wild Card Series between Minnesota and Toronto wound down on Wednesday, a reporter who shall remain nameless mentioned to a Twins employee that the last time the Twins won a playoff series, he was painting the bedroom for his first-born toddler.
That child is now 23 years old.
“Let’s talk about that after the game,” the employee said somewhat, uh, tersely.
Yes, there were some tight muscles in the press box and elsewhere in Target Field this week as longtime Twins watchers waited for the other shoe to drop. Eighteen consecutive playoff losses, some from pretty darn good teams, will do that to you. On the diamond, though, it was loose.
The Twins themselves played as if they expected to win and dispatched the Blue Jays in two games, punching their American League Division Series ticket with a crisp, 2-0 victory in front of 38,518 ecstatic fans.
It started a little rough when third baseman Jorge Polanco shorted a throw to first base for an error on the series’ first play. But starter Jorge Lopez got out of the inning, and in the Twins’ half, rookies Edouard Julien and Royce Lewis put the Twins on the board when Julien coaxed a leadoff walk off Jays ace Kevin Gausman, and Lewis hammered a two-run homer to left in his first postseason at-bat.
It was as if the clouds lifted. When Lewis, who hadn’t played since Sept. 19 and was nearly left off the playoff roster because of a hamstring strain, hit a solo homer in his second at-bat to make it 3-0, the mood in Target Field was unusually giddy.
“It was huge,” Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers said. “That was a breath of fresh air for the city, for the whole state, just to take a step back and admire what was going on. I think that really took the weight off our backs.”
Both of these games were close. The Twins wound up winning the opener, 3-1, and on Wednesday the Blue Jays had plenty of at-bats with the tying run at the plate. But to a relative outsider, someone with no skin in the game, the Twins always seemed in control because they never trailed, made the defensive plays they should make, then added a few most teams wouldn’t make — Carlos Correa’s pickoff of Bo Bichette at the plate and Michael A. Taylor superb both shallow and deep in Game 1, a giant pickoff play and double play in Game 2.
Correa was at the center of three of those plays, and while Lewis has stolen most of the headlines lately, it’s impossible not to notice that it’s Correa — now a veteran of 81 postseason games — who is running the ship. And if you haven’t noticed, the man who signed him to a six-year, $200 million contract this offseason, will remind you when asked.
In a Twins clubhouse that smelled like last call in 1983, Falvey was asked about the impact Lewis’ early home runs might have made on his team. Falvey, who also used the No. 1 overall pick on Lewis in the 2017 draft, immediately changed the subject.
“I watched Carlos slow the game down in the field,” he said.
And it’s true. Correa, who played in five straight AL championship series before joining the Twins ahead of the 2022 season, was brought here to help the Twins break out of a record postseason slump. Before Wednesday, they hadn’t won a playoff series since Eddie Guardado shut down the Oakland Athletics in 2002. And 18 straight postseason losses, well, that’s just plain bad.
Let’s be honest, just about everything came up roses for the Twins this week, especially on Wednesday. Matt Chapman’s liner to left off Caleb Thiebar in the sixth inning bounced a foot left of the foul line with the bases loaded. That would have at least tied the game. Instead, Thielbar got a grounder to short that Correa calmly fielded to start an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.
In the fifth inning, the Blue Jays were a single away from tying the game on starter Sonny Gray with George Springer on third and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at second. But Correa and Jeffers noticed Guerrero listing a little at second, and the catcher called for a pickoff play. Gray turned and fired to Correa, who applied the tag to end the threat.
“Those plays are incredible,” said Falvey, beer- and champagne-soaked polo sticking to him in the clubhouse. “I mean, everything matters, but those things make a huge difference even if they don’t look like it in the stat sheet.”
“The runs obviously help; having a gap is the key,” he added. “But it’s having those experienced guys find a way, too.”
Correa, incidentally, had the game’s only RBI in a two-run fourth inning on Wednesday. Slowed by plantar fasciitis in his left foot, he has had something of an aberrant year as far as numbers go — a .230 batting average and .711 OPS in the regular season. But make no mistake, he is still the heart of a team that just isn’t your older sister’s Twins.
The 2023 team isn’t different because it finally won a playoff game, and a playoff series. It won a playoff game and a playoff series because it’s different.