THE STREAK ENDS

Wild Card Series Game 1:
TWINS 3
BLUE JAYS 1

6,937 days. 

That is how long the Twins went without winning a single playoff game. 18 games over 19 seasons. So many missed opportunities and wasted seasons.

But at long last that humiliating albatross of a streak is over. The Twins combined some excellent pitching and 2 huge swings from their now unquestioned best hitter to take game 1 over the Blue Jays. 

Royce Lewis wasn't even a guarantee to be on the playoff roster, having hurt his hammy late in the season. But he was well enough to DH. And boy did that pay off. 

In the first inning he lasered a Kevin Gausman pitch into the left field bleachers for a 2 run homerun. The burst of energy this seemed to give the crowd was palpable.

And then, two innings later, Lewis did it AGAIN, lifting one out to right field for a 3-0 lead. So much of the 18 games were marked by top Twins hitters pulling no shows. And here you got Lewis coming up this huge in this spot. It could prove to be one of those legendary games that we talk about for years.

And those 3 runs were all it took. Pablo Lopez was excellent, going 5 2/3 with just 1 run allowed (a Carlos Correa web gem saved another). And the bullpen put up nothing but zeroes. Only Griffin Jax even let a guy reach second. Then Jhoan Duran closed it out for the win. (Duran was 6 years old when the streak began)

So the monkey is off the back. Does this mean that relief will translate into a bonafide playoff run? Or will this just be a momentary bit of happiness? 


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