CLEVELAND -- What a difference a year makes.
In the Twins’ do-or-die series in this ballpark last September, an injury-decimated roster simply ran out of gas as it began its season-ending implosion by dropping four of five to the Guardians. This season, Minnesota came to Progressive Field and took care of business.
Wednesday afternoon’s 2-1 loss in a rain-extended finale notwithstanding, the Twins did what they needed in the final head-to-head series against their only real competitor for the American League Central title by winning the first two.
Minnesota left Cleveland with a six-game lead and no direct way for the Guardians to control their destiny in the 22 regular-season games that remain.
- Games remaining: vs. NYM (3), vs. TB (3), at CWS (4), at CIN (3), vs. LAA (3), vs. OAK (3), at COL (3)
- Standings update: The Twins (73-67) hold a six-game lead on the Guardians (67-73) for the AL Central title. Cleveland clinched the tiebreaker by winning the season series, 7-6. Minnesota is currently the third-best division winner, meaning it would host a best-of-three Wild Card Series vs. the final Wild Card entrant starting on Oct. 3.
- Magic number: 17 (for AL Central)
“Going to Texas and handling our business right there against a good team … and then to come here to a team that’s played us really well every time we’ve played them, and handling our business, handling it the way we did, shows us what kind of team we are and where we think we can go at the end of the year,” catcher Ryan Jeffers said.
The race is far from mathematically over, of course, and regardless of the relatively favorable schedule that remains for the Twins in the rest of September -- 16 of Minnesota’s final 22 games will come against opponents with a losing record -- they still have to close it out.
But unlike this point in years past, the Twins are trending up -- not down.
Case in point: During this matchup last September, Minnesota fielded a starting outfield of Jake Cave, Gilberto Celestino and Mark Contreras. Luis Arraez was on his last legs. Jorge Polanco, Royce Lewis, Alex Kirilloff, Max Kepler and Jeffers had been long since lost.
“It was a challenge, because every time we would get something going, we'd lose two players,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It was like two at a time. Whack off two at a time until you're running out of people to bring up at that time of the year.
“But I think the roster looks a lot different this year.”
And even before that, when the Twins buried the Guardians for the division title in 2019, Polanco, Arraez, Byron Buxton, Ehire Adrianza and C.J. Cron all struggled with injuries down the stretch, while the pitching staff lost a key cog in Michael Pineda.
That undoubtedly played no small part in Minnesota’s aggressive pursuit of depth before this season began, as the club brought in not only new Opening Day starter Pablo López, but also the likes of Tuesday night hero Donovan Solano and Michael A. Taylor, who has hit 20 homers and played Gold Glove defense in center field, while Buxton has been unable to play the field.
“It's not the same hero every night,” Christian Vázquez said. “That's very important on a winning team.”
“The argument could always be made: ‘Well, there’s too many guys, there’s just too many guys,’” Baldelli said. “And sometimes, once in a great while, everybody is healthy at the same time. It's once in a great, great while. Almost never. We haven't really had to run into that.
“We have not had our entire group healthy at any one particular point this year. It's all fit pretty well.”
Yes, there was injury attrition this season, too, but that built-in depth stepped in, and it also afforded the Twins to learn what they had in their rookies. That young core of Edouard Julien, Matt Wallner and Lewis has arguably carried the offense through its second-half success, establishing itself as the building block of teams to come.
And, at this point, more help is on the way. Kirilloff is soon due back from his rehab assignment as a key middle-of-the-order bat. Chris Paddack began his own rehab assignment on Wednesday, and Brock Stewart looms as a possible bullpen reinforcement, too.
Buxton’s status remains unknown -- but the offense has more than held up in his absence.
That’s what also has these Twins feeling good, in addition to the important series wins on this road trip -- and they feel the difference.
“We had plenty of days [last year] that were not good days for us,” Jeffers said. “There were a lot of days when we left here really frustrated with ourselves, with us as a team, our performance, how we played.
“So to be able to come here, you can really see the different team we are this year -- from not only a physical play standpoint, but a mentality standpoint.”