In September, the Twins won 18 games and lost 9. Fifteen of the games were against the White Sox, Royals, and Tigers, the weak sisters of their division, and they won twelve of those, which I guess means they were 6-6 against the Red Sox, Nationals, and Indians. It was their second best month of the season, behind only May, when they won 21 of 29 games. Looking back, it must have been sometime in May that people realized, or should have, that the Twins had a really good team. The schedule wasn't easy. On May 1 and 2, they were finishing a home stand with games against the Astros. They then went to New York to play the Yankees, had a west coast trip in the middle of the month in which they pummeled the Mariners and Angels, and finished up with series against the Brewers and Rays: 21-8, sterling.
The highlight of September, probably of the entire regular season, was a doubleheader sweep of the Indians on Saturday, September 14, in Cleveland. The Indians had won two of three at Target Field earlier in the month, and were only three games out of first when the Twins arrived for a weekend series. The Friday night game was rained out and rescheduled as part of a doubleheader the next day. In the first game, Jorge Polanco hit a homer with a man on base for the only runs of the game. He also made a diving stab of a liner with two out and the bases loaded that saved at least two runs. The tattered Twins starting rotation took a game off and four relief pitchers—Littell, Duffey, Romo, and Rogers—backed up three shutout innings from Devin Smeltzer, a September call-up who was the beneficiary of Polanco's diving catch. In the nightcap, our starter was another September call-up, the Australian Lewis Thorpe, who struggled, but in the top of the eighth the Twins perpetrated one of their patented muggings, scoring five times highlighted by a grand slam from Miguel Sano: Twins win again, 9-5.
So the two biggest games of the season were played on one day and our starting pitchers were Devin Smeltzer and Lewis Thorpe. We won them both, one a pitcher's duel, our bullpen topping Indian ace Mike Clevinger, and then a come-from-behind job in which the Twins clubbed the back end of the Indians' bullpen for the doubleheader sweep. I remember nursing a few beers through the Sunday game at my favorite neighborhood joint and feeling disgusted that we gave away a game that the Indians tried to give us but, due to our even worse play, couldn't. It looked like both teams thought the divisional race had ended the day before, a reasonable assumption in retrospect. It's hard to catch a good team that's playing only the White Sox, Tigers, and Royals for the last two weeks. The Twins finished the season with 101 wins, only their second 100-win season in their 59-year history.
Who is the Twins' MVP for the season? Kind of an interesting question. Kepler fell out of contention when an injury kept him in the dugout for most of September. I'd give it to Polanco over Cruz, because he (Polanco) went out and played shortstop almost every day, whereas Cruz, who had league MVP-like batting numbers—average of .311 with 41 homers and 108 RBI—was "only" the designated hitter. I'm tolerant of divergent opinions on this question. If the upcoming playoff series comes down to one at-bat in the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium, and the home team is thinking about walking Cruz to pitch to Rosario . . . I think I'm cool with whatever they decide to do. Actually, I'd be cool with the series on the line and Luis Arraez at the bat, and will be heartsick if the ankle sprain he suffered on a freakish play yesterday prevents him from playing against the Yankees.
Eric,
Fun to read your take on the twins ! I think Cruz is the choice not only because of his offense but his
Leadership to coral a young group that needs guidance can’t be over looked. I think that out weighs
Him catching a few grounders . I don’t think one person was so influential on a team like him. Maybe Willy
Stargell comes to mind.
Thanks for staying away from politics this time # more fun
Borch
Posted by: Pat Borchardt | September 30, 2019 at 06:06 AM