October 9, 2022

Too bad we had to wait until Game 162 to see the Twins at their best

The Twins wrapped up the 2022 season in style, getting a convincing 10-1 win over the Chicago White Sox on Oct. 5. But the victory left this Twins fan wondering: Where was this all season?

You might be wondering the same because the Twins hit, they hit with power and they hit win runners in scoring position, which almost feels like a stop-the-presses moment because the Twins struggled like crazy with their clutch hitting.

The Twins scored their 10 runs on precisely 10 hits.

On the mound, rookie Louie Varland picked up the first win of his career. He scattered four hits over five innings with no walks and five strikeouts, and reliever Cole Sands earned his first save with four innings of relief.

The best moment of the game, of course, was the Luis Arraez double that solidified his American League batting title. He hit .316 this season, five points better than Gotham slugger Aaron Judge. Congratulations to Arraez on the accomplishment. Win or lose, Arraez was a reliable and steady presence in the Twins lineup. I hope he is with the club for a long time.

Extra innings…

-The Twins finished in third place in the AL Central at 78-84.

-A tale of two months: The Twins were neck and neck with the Cleveland Guardians before September and October rolled around, and then the two teams went in completely opposite directions. The Guardians went 24-10, while the Twins were 11-22 to end the season.

-Against the AL Central: The Twins were 6-13 against the Guardians, 10-9 versus the White Sox, 11-8 over the Detroit Tigers and 12-7 versus the Kansas City Royals.

-And the Guardians are moving on in postseason play. They took small ball to new heights in their series win over the Tampa Bay Rays, beating the analytically-minded Rays 2-1 and 1-0 in 15 innings on Saturday.

-And then there was this…

Source: Baseball-Reference.com

COMMENTS

Hi, I’m Rolf Boone, Twins fan.

I became a fan of the Minnesota Twins after a friendly wager in the early 1980s. I survived Ron Davis, the meltdown in Cleveland, Phil Bradley at the Kingdome and then marveled at a rising generation of stars and two World Series wins in 1987 and 1991. Brad Radke made the 1990s bearable, while Kirby Puckett’s eye injury, exit from the game and eventual death made it almost too much to bear. The new century ushered in more talent — Joe Mauer, Johan Santana, Joe Nathan, Torii Hunter, Justin Morneau — and consecutive seasons of playoff baseball, followed by consecutive seasons of losing baseball. A winning season returned in 2015. So here we are. Go Twins.