Many Minnesota Twins fans returning to check in on their resurgent team may have been treated to their first look at Cleveland Guardians closer Cade Smith. The AL saves leader and 2026 All-Star pitched a perfect 8th inning on Wednesday night. On Thursday afternoon, he retired the Twins in order to collect his 27th save:
Smith’s 8th-inning appearance in Wednesday’s incredibly exciting back-and-forth tilt appeared to ice Minnesota’s momentum until the final frame. Alan Roden, in his season debut, made good on the chance his teammates handed him and drove a ball off the high wall in Target Field’s right-center power alley. The Twins walked the Guardians off the field and won the surprisingly crucial regular-season series.
Derek Shelton and Stephen Vogt combined to use 37 players on Wednesday. Both managed as they’d suddenly found their teams in a play-in game. With the way things are going in the AL Central, it very well may be.
Regardless of its placement on the July calendar, this three-game series with Cleveland felt like a winner-take-all. If they’d played Wednesday’s game in late September — better yet, as game 162 — it would have been an all-timer, a divisional classic up there with the most memorable of matchups with the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers.
I suspect we’ve not seen the end of this type of game in 2026. While it’s still too early to count the Tigers out, and while the trade deadline brings its unique stops to a season’s rhythm, the Twins, Guardians, and White Sox look to be headed for a stretch-run dogfight for the AL Central title and — in the American League scrum — any Wild Card spot vacated by a falling team.
MIDSUMMER CLASSIC
The elation of winning a regular-season series in New York carried Minnesota’s sentiment in the days following the 4th of July weekend, but last Monday’s standings pointed to another matter. 3 games behind the Guardians in the Central, a sweep would draw them even, set both records to .500 (at 47-47), and renew the chase for top of the hill. At the top sit the hold-it-together White Sox, 47-45 with two games in hand.
That did not happen. The Twins had to settle for a series win, and the hopes that the upstart Miami Marlins can keep Cleveland on the ropes (4-6 in their last 10) while they try to put the hapless Los Angeles Angels to the sword (or on the wrestling mat?).
As baseball approaches its annual hiatus, three games remain for the Twins to come out of the break fresh, even, and ready to compete for the division, albeit with considerably less influence.
Mike Trout is also back, so the excitement of the past week continues into the All-Star break.
SO YOU’RE SAYING THERE’S A CHANCE
The value of a series win over Cleveland is clear on balance, but Thursday’s loss is exactly what charged this most recent Guardians series with classic energy. Competitive series reinforce the eternal-seeming slugfest that is every baseball season. The best teams lose, and they lose a lot. Most teams make the postseason with around 70 losses on their record. And the Twins have lost a lot of games far more damning than at the hands of Gavin Williams and his darting fastball.
It also sets the stage for the Twins, Guardians, and White Sox to make the second half of 2026 a rather exciting battle for two postseason spots. The three teams will play a combined 19 games against each other. And if the Tigers — winners in 8 of their last 10 — continue their climb out of their own pit of disappointment, then the AL Central will not only be the most competitive division in all of baseball; it’ll also be the most exciting.
The Twins have taken both series against Cleveland in 2026, and they won’t have too much time to congratulate themselves. They will head to Progressive Field for four games in their second series after All-Star week, which will help address the competitive balance between the two. The Twins may well have Byron Buxton back in center field, but the Guardians will not commit to a timetable for Jose Ramirez‘s return.
Both teams are caught in the middle of what is sure to be a clogged, high-yield trade market. The White Sox, if they can hold their division lead through July, will certainly count themselves among the buyers.
The Twins and Guardians have little time to decide if challenging the Southsiders in 2026 is the right move, particularly with revolutionary changes headed for baseball in 2027 and beyond. Things may be a little more pressing for the Guardians, who head to Chicago a few days after the trade deadline, but the division will be won or lost in September, when each team will play a three-game series against the others in the final weeks of the regular season.
If this past week was any indicator, watching them will be a whole lot of fun.
