It bears repeating how remarkable it is that the Twins are likely to grab the 2nd Wild Card.
The Twins lost 100 games last year and sold off a few pieces at the deadline this year. Their ace is a journeyman vet with a 4.03 career ERA. 44-year-old Bartolo Colon was their midseason addition and remains a fixture in their rotation. Their 1B and franchise icon is an aging contact hitter with 6 HR. And their young 3B in the midst of a breakout season is on the shelf with a leg issue and might not play again this season.
And yet here they are holding off the Angels and Mariners, with their star studded lineups and paper mache rotations. How? Brian Dozier, uneven but emergent seasons from their top prospects who many wrote off for dead after terrible performances last year (Berrios and Buxton), and solid showings by a bunch of guys no one outside of Minnesota could pick out of a lineup: Eddie Rosario, Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco, and Eduardo Escobar.
Would be fun to see them get a champagne bath at the beginning of October, and positively delightful if they followed it up by going into Yankee Stadium on Wild Card Day and overcoming decades of franchise history against the Evil Empire by sending that team to the golf course for the winter.
The Twins lost 100 games last year and sold off a few pieces at the deadline this year. Their ace is a journeyman vet with a 4.03 career ERA. 44-year-old Bartolo Colon was their midseason addition and remains a fixture in their rotation. Their 1B and franchise icon is an aging contact hitter with 6 HR. And their young 3B in the midst of a breakout season is on the shelf with a leg issue and might not play again this season.
And yet here they are holding off the Angels and Mariners, with their star studded lineups and paper mache rotations. How? Brian Dozier, uneven but emergent seasons from their top prospects who many wrote off for dead after terrible performances last year (Berrios and Buxton), and solid showings by a bunch of guys no one outside of Minnesota could pick out of a lineup: Eddie Rosario, Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco, and Eduardo Escobar.
Would be fun to see them get a champagne bath at the beginning of October, and positively delightful if they followed it up by going into Yankee Stadium on Wild Card Day and overcoming decades of franchise history against the Evil Empire by sending that team to the golf course for the winter.
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