Now we know why the Twins let nearly 7,000 days go by with nothing but losses in the postseason. They were waiting for Royce Lewis to grow up enough to win one.
Lewis, a 5-year-old kindergartener the last time the Twins took a lead in a playoff series, jumped directly from the injured list to the winner’s circle, smacking home runs in his first two postseason appearances as a professional. As is custom in the postseason, the Twins’ offense was otherwise largely absent, but Lewis’ heroics were enough to end pro sports’ longest postseason drought and deliver a 3-1 victory over the Blue Jays in the Wild Card Series opener at Target Field.
After 18 consecutive losses since Game 1 of the 2004 Division Series, the Twins’ playoff winning streak finally stands at one. Even better, they only need to stretch it to two in order to snap their six-series losing streak and advance to a best-of-five ALDS starting Saturday in Houston.
“I thought the place was going to split open and melt,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of the uproar caused by a sellout crowd of 38,450. “It was out of this universe out there on the field.”
Sonny Gray will be on the mound for the Twins on Wednesday, and a tie-breaking game would take place on Thursday if necessary.
That’s plenty more work for the Twins to do, especially if they intend to fulfill their boldest ambitions of a World Series in Minnesota. But there was little doubt that putting an end to the decades-old storyline of futility — and for that matter, a 13-game home losing streak that stretched back to the 2002 playoffs in the long-since-demolished Metrodome — was cathartic for both the Twins and their stadium full of fans.
Just playing again, after a two-week absence with a strained left hamstring, was a victory for Lewis, who received a loud ovation when he came to the plate as the Twins’ designated hitter in the first inning. Those cheers, though, were but a whisper compared to the eruption that echoed around the park when the rookie infielder pivoted on a 3-and-2 fastball from Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman and drove it 10 rows deep into the left-field stands.
The blast, which also scored Edouard Julien, who had walked to start the inning, made Lewis the second rookie in Twins history to smash a home run in his first postseason plate appearance. But Lewis wasn’t done making history.
Two innings later, the newly crowned American League Player of the Month for September — seriously, he was informed of the award Tuesday morning of his first playoff game — got an even more vulnerable fastball from Gausman, this one curving into the barrel of his bat. Lewis lifted it the opposite way, and it just cleared the flower pots in front of the seats in right-center field.
“This atmosphere, truly, like when I tell you it was electric, it brought that electricity into my body,” Lewis said. “My heart was beating — it was the most nervous game, exciting game I’ve ever played in my life. It was so much fun.”
Lewis became only the third player in major-league history ever to open his postseason career with back-to-back home runs, joining the Rays’ Evan Longoria in 2008 and the Twins’ Gary Gaetti in 1987.
The Twins never scored again, never even managed another extra-base hit. But Pablo López, a quartet of Twins relievers, and especially a dose of big-play defense made it stand up.
Michael A. Taylor, for instance, came racing in to steal a hit from Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk in the second inning with a diving catch in short center field, a play that snuffed any chance of a big inning for Toronto. Taylor also ranged back to the center field wall just after Kevin Kiermaier singled home Toronto’s lone run in the sixth inning. With two runners on and two outs, the veteran outfielder prevented the Jays from tying the score by jumping to catch Matt Chapman’s near-home run.
And in the fourth inning, when Jorge Polanco overran a slow chopper at third base and allowed the ball to roll past him, Carlos Correa rushed over to retrieve the ball, then fired it to the plate, where Ryan Jeffers tagged Bo Bichette out.
“The defensive was on point all day,” said López. “They showed up like how we expected to show up.”