Twins advance in first since ’02: ‘Not done yet’

MINNEAPOLIS — Caleb Thielbar was 22, freshly drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers but still a devoted follower of his hometown Minnesota Twins, when the most painful memory of his baseball fandom took place: 11th inning, Game 2 of the 2009 American League Division Series, Joe Mauer lofts a fly ball down the left-field line that’s ruled foul, even though replay confirms it landed fair.

Every Twins fan seems to have a bitter moment like that; this just so happens to be Thielbar’s. Minnesota’s record-breaking, 18-game playoff losing streak spanned 19 years before it finally ended Tuesday. And the Twins’ stretch without winning a playoff round spanned even longer, 21 years, all the way back to 2002 — until they finally vanquished it Wednesday, defeating the Toronto Blue Jays 2-0 to sweep their wild-card series and advance to an ALDS matchup against the dominant Houston Astros.

Few savored it more than Thielbar, now a high-leverage reliever on a scrappy, dangerous Twins team that is already historic.

“It’s hard to fathom how many times you get to the playoffs, and then you’re swept and you’re out,” said Thielbar, a product of neighboring South Dakota. “It’s hard to realize how quick that happens. Whatever our playoff run ends up being — to have a little bit of an extended run, I know it means a lot to the people out there. It means a lot to us in here, too, to be a part of the team that ends that streak. A lot of the guys in here throughout the week were talking about it — that we wanted to be the team that ends it. That was kind of a chip on our shoulder for us going into this postseason.”

The Twins’ pitching staff — led by Pablo Lopez and Sonny Gray, the two frontline starting pitchers who did most of the heavy lifting this season — held the Blue Jays to only one run in 18 innings, letting what little production their offense could muster hold up. In Game 1, it was Royce Lewis returning from a hamstring injury in time to belt two home runs. In Game 2, it was a brief fourth-inning rally — triggered by the surprising exit of Jose Berrios — that proved to be the difference. And all throughout, these Twins — some young, many of them unheralded — continually executed on the little things that mattered.

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was inspired by it in his postgame speech, in the middle of a home clubhouse ready to explode in champagne and beer, when he went around the room and pointed to every contributor he could find.

Moment after moment after moment after moment — came through, came through, came through, came through.

Nobody came through like Carlos Correa, the star shortstop who spent most of the year hampered by plantar fasciitis but has long brought his best for stages like these. In Game 1, he retrieved a slow roller that trickled away and made an off-balance throw home to nail the speedy Bo Bichette, turning in a play that Baldelli believes “we will see forever.” In Game 2, he executed a pickoff of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at second base with Toronto threatening, once again swinging the momentum of the game with one play.

Correa found Gray after the first inning and informed him that the Blue Jays’ baserunners couldn’t hear their third-base coach yelling “back!” because the Target Field crowd was so loud.

“He’s like, ‘The timing pick is going to be there,'” Gray recalled. “‘It’s going to be there.'”

The Twins held a 2-0 lead in the top of the fifth, but the Blue Jays had runners on second and third with two outs and Bichette up to bat. When the count ran full, Correa gave the signal to a coach in the Twins’ dugout, who relayed it to Gray’s PitchCom headset.

Timing pick, second base.

Gray executed the pickoff perfectly, then returned to the dugout and was shocked to find out it had been put on by Correa.

Said Correa: “I felt it was the right spot to do it.”

“For me, it was just about executing the play,” Gray said. “But for him to have that awareness is what makes him special.”

The Blue Jays, with a decorated lineup that underperformed throughout the year, rallied often but barely came through. Their 15 hits was the most ever by a team to score one run or fewer in its first two postseason games, according to research by ESPN Stats & Info. This year’s Tampa Bay Rays held the record for only a couple of hours.

Maybe it was meant to be.

Lopez wore Johan Santana’s jersey prior to his Game 1 start, then became the first Twins pitcher to win a postseason game since Santana, who just so happens to be his boyhood idol. Afterwards, he alluded to the possibility of fate being at play. The following afternoon provided a different example, one that harkened back to the Mauer foul ball that still haunts Twins fans everywhere.

This time, the opposite occurred.

The bases were loaded with Blue Jays with only one out in the sixth inning and Louie Varland, another lifelong Twins fan, on the mound. Matt Chapman hit a line drive down the left-field line that would have at least tied the score. Instead, it drifted slightly, landing mere inches to the left of the chalk for a foul ball. On the next pitch, he bounced into the 6-4-3 double play that ended the threat. For the first time in a long time, the Twins had the October luck they needed on their side.

“It was a long time coming,” said LaTroy Hawkins, the former Twins reliever who was on the 2002 team that last won a postseason round and now works within the front office. “I’m just excited for this group. This is a different team now. This team is built around pitching, and as we know, pitching wins championships — pitching and defense. I’m just excited to see what the future holds. They’re not done yet.”