Postseason baseball continues to roll for the Minnesota Twins.
It’s the first time in two decades that we’ve been able to say that, with the Twins managed to win their first postseason series since 2002 this past week. As great as it was to end the most miserable streak in professional sports, the work is only just getting started.
Not only that, but the Twins snapping an 18-game playoff losing streak wasn’t the energy drain that we’ve seen it be with other long-suffering franchises. There was euphoria to spare, but the AL Wild Card victory over Toronto felt more like the start of something than the end.
Minnesota’s reward is a ticket to Houston, where the defending World Series champion Astros await in the ALDS. The Twins had the upper hand this year, beating the Astros 4-2 in the regular season, but Houston causes a different sort of problem in October.
The Astros are built for this, and have proven over the last decade of sustatined success that they’re not to be triffled with in the postseason. Minnesota has its work cut out, but for the first time in a long time it feels like the Twins stand a chance.
So many times in years past, the Twins would come into a series like this one with the Astros knowing that their chances for survival were slim. It wasn’t that long ago that minor league pitchers were being used in a playoff series in the Bronx, but the Twins now bring a solid all-around roster into a series against a baseball titan.
Pitching is a strength for the Twins — which is also a brand-new experience for fans — and the offense is starting to click in all the right ways. Royce Lewis is a superstar on the rise, Carlos Correa has been a defensive maestro so far, and both Pablo Lopez and Sonny Gray have carried the team.
Houston is giant, but it doesn’t feel like an insurmountable difference between the two teams.
Here’s all the information you need to know to catch the Twins in Game 1 of the ALDS today:
The Twins and Astros are competing with a College Football Saturday, which is one of the reasons the game isn’t on FOX. Neither of the ALDS games today will be on FOX thanks to Big Noon Saturday, as both will be airing on FS1.
Unfortunately, the Orioles-Rangers game got off to a late start thanks to a rain delay, which means it will now significantly overlap with the Twins game. MLB Network and FS2 will be airing the start of the Twins-Astros game, and the action will switch over to FS1 once the Orioles-Rangers game is over.