Twinkie Town

The 1987 Twins are proof that regular season records don’t often mean much in October | Photo by Rich Pilling/ October is built for upsets and Cinderella runs. That’s a good thing for these Twins. It turns out that the 2023 American League Central division did not end up as the worst-performing division in baseball history. The Twins, Tigers, Guardians, White Sox, and Royals went 358-452, good for a .442 combined winning percentage. That mark eked just past the 2018 AL Central’s combined .436 to avoid such an indignity. Meanwhile, the 2023 American League East,...

Photo by Mark Blinch/ The Twins are a completely different team since they last faced the Blue Jays in June. Ben and John Ke break down the Wild Card series in, frankly, way too much detail. The regular season has wrapped and the Twins officially have their playoff opponent. In the latest episode of the Twins Talk podcast, I was joined by my podcast cohost John Ke (I know, we already have too many John’s around here) to break down the Wild Card series with Toronto. Topics include: What, if any, role will Byron Buxton have on the playoff roster? Playoff roster...

Photo by Matthew Stockman/ A game that no one cared about went two innings too long. And just like that, its time for playoff baseball. The Twins will face a team that isn’t the Yankees, for the first time in eleventy-billion years. Before they could move onto the postseason though, they had to get through one more regular-season adventure, and visit the Rockies at altitude. The Twins put up both runs in a string of second inning singles. Max Kepler started with an infield grounder, followed by Ryan Jeffers. Eduoard Julien plated Kep, and then, following a strikeout...

Hats off to my 2023 second half ballpark outings! First Pitch: 2:10 PM CT TV: Bally Sports North Radio: TIBN Know Thine Enemy: Purple Row Over the first three months of the 2023 season, the Minnesota Twins went 7-8 when I was a paying customer. I still had a lot of fun at the ballpark from April-June, but was hoping for a few more witnessed victories in the second half. Well, the baseball gods certainly honored that request from July-September when I compiled a 10-2 mark through the turnstiles! Before regular-season play wraps up this afternoon, here are my top second half...

John Leyba-USA TODAY Sports Minnesota works their way through some final reps. Who’s ready for a little late-September stat-padding? New managers Kyle Farmer and Jorge Polanco are, that’s who. Don’t let the score deceive you — the Twins had a 14-0 lead in this one before allowing Colorado a couple of runs, as a treat. It was the kind of offensive explosion befitting a Coors Field game against a 102-loss Colorado Rockies squad; everybody in the starting lineup got in on the action and scored a run. Given that none of those runs have any bearing whatsoever on...

Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports It all comes down to... other people’s games. First Pitch: 7:10 pm CDT TV: Bally Sports North / ~ / Radio: TIBN Get your scoreboard-watching eyes ready. Yes, the Twins are playing tonight, but Emilio Pagan is the starter, so let’s temper our expectations and get back to reality. Minnesota has made the playoffs — the Wild Card Series will begin Tuesday at Target Field, likely in the afternoon. The only remaining variable? Who the heck they’ll be playing. A litany of convoluted tiebreakers, dependencies, and arcane rituals mean that the...

Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports Meaningless baseball? No such thing! After our fearless—if often luckless—Twinkie Town leader has covered my Minnesota Vikings-loving butt for the entire month of September, I’m paying it forward tonight for noted Friday fiend James Fillmore (who may or may not be freebasing pain medication this very moment). Some might call this “meaningless baseball”—what with the Twins having clinched all they can clinch and the Colorado Rockies in triple-digit losses—but us die-hards know better. Any baseball can be fun baseball and...

Photo by Hannah Foslien/ I am glad to be done looking back on that mess The period after an MLB division clinch is always a bit of a twilight zone. Regular season games continue—and sometimes a Bobby Kielty will do something memorable—but for the most part the focus shifts towards putting the best postseason foot forward. As such, I wanted to take this opportunity—before “serious baseball” begins again in October—for one last look at the 2013 squad we’ve been remembering (if not as fondly as 2003) all summer. We all recall that ‘13 had not been going...

Photo by Stephen Maturen/ Twins successfully do not hurt themselves! In preparation for next week’s regular post season opener, Minnesota continued September Training today against a team generated on the fly by artificial intelligence. Staring opener Sonny Gray struck out Ryan Noda to begin the game, and then gave up a single. Wait, who is on first? -Gelof is on first. No, not asking who is off first, who is on it? -Gelof. No. Who is ON first? -Zack Gelof! The guy from Gremlins? -No that’s Zack Galligan Zac Gallen? That’s a pitcher for the Diamondbacks. How is...

Photo by Stephen Maturen/ A game in which players simply try not to get injured First Pitch: 12:10Reversed Pitch: 12:10 but on rewind.Thirst Pitch: My DMsCursed Pitch: Last 18 Playoff GamesWurst Pitch: Also my DMsFred Durst Pitch: 12: 10 (Air Raid Vehicle)Worst Pitch: TBDTV: FSNORadio: The usual suspects Today's Lineups ATHLETICS TWINS Ryan Noda - 1B Edouard Julien - DH Zack Gelof - 2B Willi Castro - 3B Brent Rooker - RF Donovan Solano - 2B Seth Brown - DH Alex Kirilloff - 1B Shea Langeliers - C Matt Wallner - LF JJ Bleday - LF Ryan Jeffers -...

Willi get there or Willi not? | Photo by Stephen Maturen/ Why settle for a loss when we can win baseball games? It was a beautiful game, the lights beamed down,We couldn’t wait to go on, we were thrivin’.A’s went down, Ed and Max were swingin’,Lots of fun today, we’re arrivin’. Yeah, we’re runnin’ town and team; our victory is guaranteed,Offense hot and quickening, ever extendin’ our lead,Runnin’ town and team. It felt so good, the cheering was audible,Went on a roll with eager eyes.Our batsmen jelled, relievers were laudable,Still our final goal —...

Sell. | Photo by Dustin Bradford/ We want the A’s to suffer on the field tonight, not off it. First Pitch: 6:40 PMTV: BSNRadio: TIBN, WCCO 830, The Wolf 102.9 FM, AudacyKnow Thine Enemy: Athletics Nation To the state of California came an owner one dark day;Hardly dared to spend a dollar, shipped his every star away.Just a man who lives for business, how much money he could grip;He soon would gain an ally of a big liar at his hip,Big liar at his hip. It was early in the season when the owner called his friend,Planned to tank a losing season so the fans would not...

Photo by Adam Bettcher/ A five run first inning was more than enough to seal this one. On a rainy Tuesday night in a meaningless game Matt Wallner absolutely destroyed a baseball. With the bases loaded and two out in the bottom of the 1st, Wallner crushed an inside pitch 463 feet to right center for a grand slam. I’m not even sure where or if this ball landed, despite video evidence. That came after a bases loaded walk by Kyle Farmer, and gave the Twins a 5-0 lead. That was more than enough for Bailey Ober, who went 5 innings and gave up just 2 hits while striking...

Photo by Aaron Doster/ Just stay healthy, everyone. First pitch: 6:40 PM CDT TV: Bally Sports North Radio: TIBN Know thine enemy: Athletics Nation The regular season is almost Ober. Today's Lineups ATHLETICS TWINS Ryan Noda - 1B Edouard Julien - DH Zack Gelof - 2B Jorge Polanco - 2B Brent Rooker - DH Donovan Solano - 3B Seth Brown - RF Max Kepler - RF Shea Langeliers - C Alex Kirilloff - 1B Jordan Diaz - 3B Kyle Farmer - SS Lawrence Butler - CF Matt Wallner - LF Nick Allen - SS Christian Vazquez - C Esteury Ruiz - LF Michael Taylor -...

Photo by Nick Wosika/ The rain delay woke up the Twins’ bats and Joe Ryan looked solid in his second to last tune up before the playoffs. With the division secured and the Twins almost assuredly locked into the third seed in the AL, Minnesota has two goals the rest of the regular season: stay healthy and figure out who can fill roles in the playoffs. So let’s take a look at this game with those goals in mind. First up was Joe Ryan. Currently the frontrunner to start a potential third game in the playoffs, Ryan was solid against the Angels today, but not flawless. He...