I said prior to this year's MLB postseason that it would be a tremendous burden lifted if my Minnesota Twins could win just one playoff game. Not series, but game. Thankfully that was taken care of Game 1 in the AL Wild Card Series vs. the Toronto Blue Jays. They then exorcised the playoff series demons with a win in Game 2 of that best of three matchup.
While I wasn't overly confident the Twins could topple the defending World Series champion Houston Astros in the Division Series, I felt it would be a good gauge of where the club stands. And after that resounding Game 2 victory in Houston to square the series, my pessimism pivoted to visions of a run to the World Series. But a mere 72 hours after Twins starting pitcher Pablo Lopez's dynamite performance in Game 2, the season ended with a resounding thud. A mere 6 hits and 28 strikeouts (Yup. Twenty Eight strikeouts) in the two home games combined brought those aforementioned visions to a halt. While the Twins finally overcame their postseason doldrums, one persistent flaw remained: the offense being downright...uh....offensive. The six runs they scored in Game 2 of the ALDS was the first time in twenty postseason games they scored more than 5 runs. This year's club had the deepest pitching staff arguably since the 1991 World Series run, and overall they were solid this postseason. However, when your lineup averages 3 runs and 12 strikeouts per game in the playoffs, you're not gonna win a lotta series even if you have a modern day 1-2 punch of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.
So can this "run" be considered a stepping stone to something greater? Time will tell. But Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic believes a deeper run in future postseasons is absolutely plausible now that certain mental obstacles have been cleared.
(The Twins have) won in October, and they’ve given their fans some of the highs and lows that come with experiencing playoff baseball with your mind open and your guard down. There’s no longer reason to assume they can’t do it — and even more — again next season, which is such an essential part of fandom that Twins supporters had been deprived of completely.
“It was awesome,” Joe Ryan said. “The regular season feels like, I mean, I don’t want to discredit the big leagues or anything, but it just feels like a wash at this point, once you make the postseason. Like, this is what it’s all about. I think everyone’s energy is reignited and feels great and this is where you want to play the whole time. You just want to get back.”
Now that only losing in the playoffs is no longer inevitable, it’s safe to dream of winning. Games, series and even championships. That belief is the lifeblood of sports fandom, and now it’s flowing again through Twins fans’ veins thanks to López, Julien, Royce Lewis, Carlos Correa, Jhoan Duran and other players who showed that the October lights don’t always have to be too bright.
“The team is hungry in a way that I don’t think we probably even were before,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “You get a taste of something like this, you show this to people, what this looks like, what it is. We’re not that far from playing in the World Series.”
Exactly how far away is certainly up for debate. There will be plenty of time to analyze and discuss what comes next for the Twins. For now, though, the most valuable development from the 2023 season might have been changing what a modern Twins fan believes is possible in October and ending the soul-crushing notion that everything should be viewed through the lens of playoff ineptitude.
Despite the Twins' ineptitude in Games 3 and 4 of the ALDS, Target Field was filled beyond capacity with fans ready to believe again. Though the home crowd had very little to cheer about in those two games, I'm told the atmosphere inside the stadium was absolutely electric. Also, the first year of significant rule changes (i.e. a pitch clock and no more infield shifts) dramatically reduced game times to where fans started to show up to the ballpark again. MLB has been woefully behind the NFL and NBA in marketing to fans that diehards like myself feared the sport was dying. But not only has it come back, there's a chance it's appealing to a younger generation.
All those factors would suggest that the future is bright for the Minnesota Twins franchise as well as Major League Baseball.
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