Twins hit the break. What are they?

Twins 4

Angels 2

I made it out to Target Field for my 1st Twins game in nearly 3 months, a gap caused by an assortment of reasons. It was the last game before the all-star break, a sweltering hot day for a ballgame. It was the rubber game against the Angels, the worst team in the AL.

The game itself was a little nondescript. Taj Bradley started for the Twins, and went 7 very strong innings. The only blemishes were a pair of solo homeruns, but he wiggled out of a 1st and 3rd, nobody out jam in the 6th. 

The Twins didn't get a lot of offense, but 4 straight hits in the 3rd inning gave them 3 runs, and Trevor Larnach homered for a late insurance run.

Andrew Morris pitched a 2 inning save, and the Twins had their 8th series win in the last 9, which included the exceptionally rare 2 of 3 at Yankee Stadium. 

They hit the break just 48-49, but have been playing pretty well for the last month, and even with a still sub-.500 record are tied for the final wild card and are just a few games back of the 1st place White Sox (really, that's a thing) and 2nd place Guardians. And fwiw just a few up on the resurgent Tigers. This could be a mad scramble in the central. 

The AL overall is not good, full of teams that have underperformed (Tigers, Jays, Red Sox, Mariners). I still question if the Twins can stay in this all the way cause you figure 1 or 2 of these sluggish AL teams will get on a roll.

How real are the Twins? Well, their offense has scored the most runs in the AL so far, paced by another terrific Byron Buxton season (whose health remains a concern), and supported by a resurgent Larnach and the realization that Kody Clemens is.actually a pretty good hitter. The lineup has even survived the demotion of Royce Lewis, who has been a little better since returning, and minor league injuries to a couple of top prospects who might have been up doing something by now.

The rotation lost Pablo Lopez before the season, lost the promising Mick Abel after just a handful of starts, lost Bailey Ober for a while and gave up entirely on Simeon Woods-Richardson after a horrific first 2 months, yet they have hung in there. Joe Ryan made his 2nd straight all-star team, Bradley has been excellent, and they've kind of pieces it together after that.

The bullpen has been the issue. The 2025 firesale plus offseason inactivity put them in a terrible spot, and for much of the season its been a self-fulfilling prophecy. So many games have already been blown that the team would likely be leading the central with just an average overall unit. They've already picked up so many bums off the scrap heap. Of the roughly 20 relievers they've tried out so far, only a few have been usable. There's a reason 11 pitchers have saves. 

Morris has emerged lately, and Yoendrys Gomez, picked up from Tampa in May for the infamous "cash considerations," has become the de-facto primary closer. Bit this is still not a collection that you can go into a playoff race with.

The trade deadline is weeks away. We all know what this means in Minnesota. Other teams will make moves, and we will have to be satisfied with some minor move.

I guess the fact that a season that seemed lost before a single pitch was thrown and now looks like it could stay interesting into the fall is better than it could have been. But it's hard to shake the feeling that this team still has an early expiration date.