2 October 2023
Pablo López learned of the Twins’ miserable recent postseason history very shortly after an offseason trade from Miami. One of the reasons he stumbled onto it, he said, is because his boyhood hero, Johan Santana, was the last to pitch the Twins to a playoff game victory.
That game was on Oct. 5, 2004. The very next day was the beginning of heartbreak and disappointment for the Twins that spans 18 games and is the longest playoff losing streak in North American professional sports.
While many of the Twins players on the current roster, López included, have not been on the team for any of those games, Twins fans have been waiting patiently for 19 years. And a number of players, López included, have not been shy about talking about it, ready to tackle it head on.
In the moments after the Twins clinched their American League playoff berth on Sept. 22, infielder Kyle Farmer proclaimed this was the group that would get the organization’s first postseason win since 2004, ending nearly two decades of fan misery.
“I promise you that,” he said.
Their first chance to do so comes at 3:38 p.m. Tuesday when the Twins play host to the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 1of their best-of-three Wild Card Series at Target Field. López will get the ball to start that game, the hefty weight of expectations on his shoulders.
López said the Twins would use the streak as motivation and fuel, not only for themselves, but for a fanbase desperate to see postseason success, as well.
“I feel like just like anything in life, nothing lasts forever,” López said. “I feel like if there’s a group that can lean into this opportunity and embrace it, I feel like this group, sharing a clubhouse with these guys, I can tell this group is as good as any to go out there and give the team, the fans, the community, the opportunity to celebrate something.”
This year’s version of the Twins seem very equipped to tackle that challenge, perhaps more so than some of the recent teams. Led all year by their starting staff, López and Sonny Gray at the top of it, Twins pitchers were among the best, finishing the season with a 3.87 earned-run average, sixth best in the major leagues.
They’ve had the offense to match that, particularly in the second half of the season, where the emergence of their rookies as well as the contributions of their veterans, led them to a .808 team OPS post-all-star break, third best in the majors.
Eleven different players finished the season with 10 or more home runs, and the same number had at least 40 runs batted in, paced in both categories by right fielder Max Kepler, whose offensive production bounced back in a big way in the second half of the season.
“It just screams good team, is what it screams,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Knowing that we’re going into the playoffs, knowing that our 8-hole hitter could go out there and hit three doubles or (Edouard) Julien could get on base five times, you can tell a story about every single guy on our roster because they’ve all been productive.”
And the balance of the roster, from the starting pitchers to the revamped bullpen to the lineup, has the Twins feeling plenty confident heading into the postseason — and plenty ready to put their long-living playoff narrative to bed, as well.
“I don’t know how it was in the past, but this is a different team and this is a different mentality,” shortstop Carlos Correa said. “… We’re thinking about winning every single inning, and from there, you win games.”
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