Parker Burman-
Last Tuesday, the Minnesota Twins defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 3-1 to break the longest playoff losing streak in professional North American sports history. The Twins snapped an 0-18 losing streak that had begun on Oct. 6, 2004, where the Twins fell 7-6 against the New York Yankees after blowing their late lead.
On Wednesday after defeating the Blue Jays 2-0, they snapped their playoff series losing streak when they advanced to the American League Division Series against the Houston Astros. It was their first series win since they had defeated the Oakland Athletics in the American League Division Series in October 2002. The losing streak then began in the American League Championship Series as the Twins fell to the eventual champion Anaheim (now the Los Angeles) Angels.
These milestone-breaking wins put the Twins on their first winning playoff path since before the majority of campus was even born yet, and those older on campus were still very young.
With a packed Target Field and a crowd begging for something good to finally happen to Minnesota sports, they were in for a treat on a toasty Tuesday afternoon. The whole crowd was on its feet as Twins legends Kent Hrbek and Tom Kelly threw out the first pitch to kick off the post-season festivities. Not many people sat down before the start of the first inning with Twins Ace, Pablo Lopez, on the mound for Minnesota.
I had the great joy of attending the game personally. The playoff atmosphere was so much fun to be a part of. The crowd was into it the entire game and the whole stadium was skating for much of the game when the Twins did something on either offense or defense. It was hard to hear the people around you having conversations because of the volume of the crowd and the echoing within the stadium.
After a shutdown first inning from Lopez to start the game, Twins Designated Hitter Royce Lewis put the team on his back in his first at-bat with a runner on. On a poorly executed pitch by Blue Jays’ Ace Kevin Gausman, Lewis turned on a ball and deposited it into the left-field bleachers.
Lewis is actually one of my favorite players in the league, especially on this team and for him to hit that homer after everything he has gone through over the last few seasons… it just seemed right for him to do it.
In his next at-bat in the third inning Lewis, again off of Gausman, took a fastball the other way and hit it to one of the furthest parts of the ballpark for a right-handed hitter. The ball jumped off of his bat and found its way above the high right-center wall to give the Twins a 3-0 lead, giving the Twins an 84.8 percent win probability.
The Twins offense would be quiet the rest of the game and the Blue Jays would fight back in the top of the sixth, pushing one run across to make it 3-1. With a bullpen full of flame throwers, the Twins shut down the Blue Jays the rest of the way with Closer Johan Duran closing out the game on a diving ground ball stop by first baseman Donovan Solano.
Watching Solano dive and field that ball and then flip it to Duran covering first base was one of the most exhilarating moments of my life. I was recording the whole play on my phone but missed most of it as I was too busy jumping up and down celebrating and high-fiving strangers sitting around me.
Royce Lewis became only the third player in Major League post-season history to have a home run in each of his first two at-bats. The only other two were fellow Twin, Gary Gaetti, who hit two on the Twins run to their first World Series title in 1987, and former Tampa Bay Ray Evan Longoria who accomplished the feat in 2008.
Game two of the series on Wednesday was just as loud and crazy from a fan perspective as game one had been. For the first time in 19 years, the Twins had a chance to advance past the first round of the playoffs since Minnesota and Twins legend Joe Mauer was in his rookie season.
Twins Co-Ace Sonny Gray was on the hill for the game two start, looking to prove the Twins’ right for acquiring him from the Cincinnati Reds the previous off-season. And for those in attendance at Target Field, Gray would do just that, as he threw a five-inning shutout gem of a game.
With the bases loaded and nobody out in the fourth inning, big off-season acquisition Carlos Correa came up clutch with a single up the middle that drove in Lewis. Pinch hitting for Minnesota native, Matt Walner, utility man Willi Castro bounced into a double play but right fielder Max Kepler was still able to score on the play, giving the Twins a 2-0 lead.
These two runs would be enough for the Twins as once again the bullpen of flame throwers shut down the Blue Jays’ offense for the eventual shutout. Duran entered the game and threw more than a 100 mph fastball after 100 mph fastball past Blue Jays’ hitters, striking out outfielder Daulton Varsho for the win.
“Growing up watching this team I have never known them to have any postseason success. They have had a lot of great division-winning teams and hall-of-fame caliber players but never anything like. One of the greatest moments of my life was watching them win Wednesday,” Senior Nolan Wetzel who attended Wednesday’s contest said.
With new confidence after breaking the curse, this group of Minnesota Twins will look to do something that has not happened in Minnesota since the fall of 1991: win a World Series.