Twins took the Central. Now they HAVE to make a run.

The final Sunday of the weirdest of all baseball seasons was pretty damn weird too.

It began with the Twins simply needing to win to take the division, or have the White Sox lose. 

The Cubs got up 10-1 on the Sox very early, so we seemed on easy street regardless of what the Twins actually did. The Twins game was tied late, but the was no real drama.

And then there WAS, as the Cubs started trotting out the worst of their bullpen and the Sox turned a 10-1 game into a 10-8 game in a matter of 2 innings. And then the Reds took the lead in the 10th. 

Oh god. After all of this (the Sox collapse, the Twins surge, and the Cubs leading by 9 runs), the Twins were STILL going to wind up opening the playoffs against the Yankees, and have another season go down the drain. 

But Operation Avoid New York finally came through. The Cubs stopped the rally and got the win, clinching the division for the Twins, who themselves lost.

So finally, for the first time since 2006 the Twins will get to play a playoff game against someone other than  the Yankees. They will host the Houston Astros at Target Field. 

So the pressure is off? No, it's just changed. .Now the Twins absolutely HAVE to put an end to as many of their embarrassing postseason streaks as possible. 

No playoff wins since 2004.
No playoff series wins 2002.
No trips to the ALCS since 2002.
No trips to the World Series since 1991. 

Even that last one is pretty bad. Only 6 franchises have gone longer without a league pennant.

It is all set up so well for the Twins to make a real run. You get a sub-.500 Astros club that lost Verlander and hit horribly, and played atrociously on the road (the Twins had the best home record in baseball). Then in the ALDS you would face either Oakland or the White Sox. Then if you still draw the Yankees in the ALCS so be it, but they have to get through both Cleveland and Tampa. I don't think they will.

The Twins have had lineup production issues all year. They go into the playoffs with many of their key bats facing injury problems (we don't even know if Buxton or Donaldson will even play). But they have the best pitching staff they have had entering the postseason since the early 2000s at least. 
And frankly, after last October's no show by the Bomba Squad, they have a LOT to prove.

It's time for this franchise to join the party. Stop being the amusing little midwestern story that once in a while has a good regular season only to then wilt under the postseason spotlight while every other franchise at least occasionally tastes a win or two in October. The only other franchises to go so long without winning a single playoff game are Seattle and Miami, and that's because neither have even MADE the playoffs since 2004 (and Miami can end their own streak this week too).

If this Twins club, with the deck so clearly stacked in their favor, STILL cannot win a thing in the playoffs, then they never will. I will never again take the tiniest bit of pleasure in a Twins run for the playoffs. I will join the rest of the baseball world in treating them as an object of mockery.

Change the damn narrative, Twins. Change your reputation.

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