12 October 2023
After they watched the team on the field wither away during the final month of last season mostly as a result of injuries, the Twins’ front office worked tirelessly over the course of the offseason to prevent a repeat.
They brought back Carlos Correa, a leader on the field and in the clubhouse who comes with a championship pedigree. They swung a major trade for a pitching ace, Pablo López, taking a leap of faith and shipping away a batting champion to do so. They filled the rest of the holes on the roster via trade, free agency and with a group of rookies, whom they watched blossom right in front of their eyes at the major-league level.
This team, one of the best pitching Twins teams of all time, seemed well-positioned to make a deep postseason run. After breaking a playoff losing streak that had haunted the organization for nearly two decades a week ago, it felt as if they just might.
But this season, like so many before it, ended in disappointment for the Twins and their fans. The Twins fell 3-2 to the Houston Astros on Wednesday night at Target Field in Game 4 of the American League Division Series, forced to watch the Astros have a muted celebration on their home field.
For the Astros, who are well on their way to becoming a modern-day dynasty — if they’re not there already — it’s their seventh consecutive trip to the American League Championship Series. They will meet an AL West rival, the Texas Rangers, in the ALCS.
The Twins never viewed the Astros as some inevitable force, though. They were ready for the Astros’ best, firm in their conviction that they could compete with them — and everybody else who might stand in the way of their ultimate goal.
But their downfall was an inability to get a clutch hit with runners in scoring position in Games 1 and 3 — sandwiched around López throwing one of the best starts in Twins postseason history to lead the team to a Game 2 victory — and an inability to do much of anything offensively in Game 4.
The Twins finished Wednesday’s game with just three hits — solo home runs from rookies Royce Lewis in the first inning and Edouard Julien in the sixth accounted for all of their offense — in a game that much more closely resembled the Twins of the first half, who often saw solid pitching performances go for naught, rather than the team in the second half that looked as if it could be a postseason force.
That overshadowed performances from starting pitcher Joe Ryan, who gave up a solo home run to Michael Brantley in his two innings pitched, and the bullpen that were more than good enough to keep the Twins hanging around. Reliever Chris Paddack, in particular, looked dominant, helping the Twins stay competitive in the middle innings with 2 1/3 scoreless innings of relief.
The separator in the loss was a two-run homer from José Abreu, a familiar foe, in the fourth inning off reliever Caleb Thielbar. Abreu hit pair of home runs a day earlier to help seal their fate in Game 3, joining his teammate Yordan Alvarez in tormenting the Twins with his bat.
As former Twin Ryan Pressly put an end to their season with three straight strikeouts and Correa left on deck, the Twins could do nothing but look on, thinking about what could have been.
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