The Minnesota Twins knew their mission when they came to the ballpark on Wednesday for their do-or-die Game 4 matchup against the Houston Astros. Like the fabled 1991 championship team , who also suffered a deflating loss that pushed their backs to the wall, they needed somebody to step up and even the score. That was Twins legend Kirby Puckett in Game 6, of course, when he belted a walk-off home run that still echoes across Twins Territory. Not only did Puck hit that epic bomb, but he also had a single, a triple, a sac-fly and a historic leaping catch at the wall. Just as he said he would, Kirby put the team on his back that night.
But the Twins didn’t have a Kirby in their corner this time around. There wouldn’t be a Black Jack pitching on Friday, and the parade plans would have to wait at least another year. The club lost a 3-2 nail-biter, ending their season at the hands of the American League’s current dynasty club.
So now that there is closure to the series and the two teams make their separate ways, many are asking the same question. How different are the Twins and the Astros, and what is it going to take for hometown nine to reach the heights of the latter?
At a broad level, the two clubs are built in similar molds. The difference in this series was in the execution more so than the design. Both offenses had similar success in the regular season, each landing among the league wide top-five in most categories. So while the Astros finished with three more wins in the regular season, the two clubs really finished closer to each other than many want to admit. But they got there in very different ways.
Their differences this season were on full display in their series. Let’s start with the offense. While both clubs did exactly as they set out to do — score runs in abundance — the Astros did it with the league’s second-lowest strikeout rate. And it’s not to say an effective offense can’t have high-strikeout tendencies. Minnesota proved that if the long-term payoff is enough, then it can be well-worth the price by the end of the season. But when everything is hyper-focused in the post-season, that’s where this kind of flaw on teams like the Twins can be exploited.
That’s exactly what happened. The Astros had a game plan that kept Minnesota’s hitters off-balance, and they mixed in the necessary adjustments to keep it that way throughout the series. Many of those adjustments were steered by their veteran glove-first catcher, Martin Maldonado.
“He knows what he’s doing behind the plate,” said a disappointed Carlos Correa as he dissected the lineup’s struggles after Game 4. “He knows every hitter’s weaknesses and he’s going to try to exploit [them].”
Despite advantageous matchups on paper in their two games at Target Field this series, opposing pitchers sliced and diced the Twins. They struck out a whopping 28 times and mustered only six total hits. It was clear that Maldonado and his pitchers identified their opponents’ plans early, and stayed a step ahead throughout, and the young hitters just couldn’t adjust.
On the other end of that, the offensive approach of the Astros beat Twins’ pitching all the same (save for a brilliant performance by Pablo Lopez). They executed when they needed to, hitting a strong .261/.311/.507 (.818 OPS) with 10 home runs in their four games. They cashed in when guys were on base, especially when the big boppers such as Yordan Alvarez (six RBI) and Jose Abreu (eight RBI) strolled to the plate. Meanwhile, the Twins had exactly one (1) hit with runners in scoring position in the final two losses of the series.
So whether it’s a veteran catcher making a game plan and setting adjustments in place against a hungry, young and inexperienced lineup, or big veteran hitters that execute with runners on base, the Astros showed exactly what it means to be a powerhouse team for the better part of the last decade.
The great Tom Kelly led Minnesota’s last World Championship team, and he famously said, “We’re all in the same boat. Everybody has to grab an oar.” The 2023 Twins seemed to play with an “all hands on deck” mentality, where they empty the bench and shoot off nearly every bullet they have in the bullpen. Those two mantras are quite similar with a major distinction.
“All hands on deck” can’t work unless somebody grabs an oar and steers the ship, and that didn’t happen for the Twins in this series. It’s a skill that comes from experience, some testing on the battlefield. Now it’s up to the young core of this team to process the loss and build it into their identity for future years. With that growth, maybe they can grab an oar and start emanating the same energy of the team that is headed to the ALCS this year for the seventh straight year.
