20 games over, 10 games up

The Twins will head to the ballpark on Memorial Day with the best record in all of baseball. 20 games over. 500. 10 games ahead of Cleveland. The highest scoring team. The most homeruns. Players scattered all over various statistical leader boards.

My Minnesota sports fandom demands this be a situation to fear. It cannot ever be like this, and if it is, that just means the other shoe is going to drop that much harder.

But honestly, if it does, that shit ain't happening til October. It's not even June yet. This Twins team could truly be set up to finally awaken the echoes of 87 and 91. Or they could just be another Gardy era-esque club that gives us a nice summer before puking all over themselves once the postseason arrives.

It's hard to not feel this is more of an 87 or 91 thing though. This team simply does not feel at all like one of those 2000s clubs. They don't just play plucky small ball and scrape by 4-3 every game. They beat the hell out of teams. Some are putting the Twins down for beating the White Sox and the Angels and the Mariners. But that's what you're supposed to do. You play teams beneath you, you beat them. You pile up a lot of wins that way. And these Twins aren't fucking around. They spent their last road trip embarrassing Seattle and LA in their own houses. They spent this weekend smothering a White Sox team that had just beaten Houston a couple times. And they still have so many games against the division yet to come.

Now, of COURSE things won't continue at quite this level. They are not winning 110 games. Baseball is a sport that makes such domination nearly impossible to sustain. They will hit a few snags, although it's hard to imagine them having any prolonged slumps given how well balanced and deep this team is. They've already survived long absences from Sano, Cruz and Garver. Their bullpen hasn't even been in a position to be an exploited weakness of late, and is likely to get bolstered at the trade deadline. Berrios has been quite mortal recently but they still won.

Sure it's dangerous to think this way, but I honestly feel like this division race is already over.

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