Twins advance in first since ’02: ‘Not done yet’
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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
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.”
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Kristen Shilton
Toronto Maple Leafs forward Max Domi was fined $5,000 — the maximum amount allowed by the league’s collective bargaining agreement — for boarding Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov as time expired in Game 4 of their second-round Eastern Conference playoff series Sunday.
Toronto was trailing 2-0 when the final buzzer sounded, and Domi hit Barkov from behind, sending him headfirst into the boards. Domi was given a minor penalty for boarding at the time while several other scrums broke out before officials moved players off the ice.
Florida’s victory evened the best-of-seven series at 2-all. Game 5 is set for Wednesday in Toronto.
Toronto coach Craig Berube didn’t comment on the Domi hit directly Monday, but he did say he thought Dmitry Kulikov‘s hit on Mitch Marner “was way worse”
On that play, the Panthers defenseman caught Marner up high with an elbow, leaving the Leafs forward momentarily dazed. No penalty was called on Kulikov.
It wasn’t the first elbowing incident to draw attention in the series.
In Game 1, Panthers forward Sam Bennett sent an elbow to the head of Leafs netminder Anthony Stolarz shortly before Stolarz left the game. He was later hospitalized for further evaluation and hasn’t been able to resume skating since. There is currently no timeline for his return.
The physical intensity of the series might continue to rise now that it’s down to being a best-of-three. Based on how Game 4 played out, the Leafs are prepared to push back when they host Florida on Wednesday.
“We expected [the physicality], and I think we’re fine with it,” Berube said. “We’re handling it. We’re physical. I thought we were the more physical team [in Game 4].”
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Greg Wyshynski
DALLAS — Stars coach Pete DeBoer expects injured star defenseman Miro Heiskanen to play in their series against the Winnipeg Jets.
“I’m still sticking by what I projected: that we would see him in the second round,” DeBoer said Monday during an optional Dallas practice.
The Stars lead their series with the Jets 2-1, with Game 4 scheduled for Tuesday night.
Heiskanen remains day-to-day, with him not having played since Jan. 28, when his left knee was injured in a collision with Vegas Golden Knights forward Mark Stone. Heiskanen had knee surgery and has been working his way back to the lineup since Winnipeg’s opening-round series against the Colorado Avalanche. Heiskanen had 25 points (5 goals, 20 assists) in 50 games this season, averaging 25:10 in ice time.
Monday was a scheduled off day for Heiskanen. DeBoer said he’ll be “back at it tomorrow.” The coach said that any decision on Heiskanen’s status will be made together by the coach, the player and the team’s medical staff.
Last round, DeBoer said everything was “on the table” to ease Heiskanen back into the lineup, including playing seven defensemen. The coach said he’s not looking for the 25-year-old defenseman to log his usual minutes right away, having ranked fifth in the NHL in average ice time during the regular season.
“I don’t think there are specific restrictions, but we’re not going to put ‘im out on the ice for 30 minutes in his first game back in three months,” DeBoer said. “We’ll have to be smart about that.”
Dallas forward Jason Robertson has seen firsthand what it’s like to go from watching the playoffs to competing in them. He returned to the Stars’ lineup after being injured in an April 16 game, making his postseason debut in Game 1 at Winnipeg.
“You’re coming back from injury, so whatever you had is obviously going to bother you. So that’s the No. 1 thing. And then getting up to game speed in the playoffs is a different animal,” he said. “There’s no hiding out there. Every moment’s heightened, every missed assignment, any forecheck. Anytime you get beat up the ice, everything just gets heightened. So you just try to be super simple out there until you get your legs back and get in game shape. That could take a little bit.”
The Stars have weathered the loss of Heiskanen thanks to the depth of their defense corps. Thomas Harley has filled in on the power play, collecting four points in the postseason. Veteran Cody Ceci has handled an increase of over two minutes per game in ice time. Players such as Lian Bichsel and Alexander Petrovic have played effectively, DeBoer said.
“I think it’s been exceptional what our group’s done,” the coach said.
Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel acknowledged that Dallas, already leading in the series, will get an instant emotional boost when Heiskanen returns.
“An elite, elite player obviously,” he said. “We can’t worry about somebody that’s not here. If all of a sudden we show up and he’s out there in warmups, then yeah, we certainly have to recognize it.”
With the possibility there that Heiskanen could return as early as Game 4, Arniel would be fine if the Stars continued to take a cautious approach with their star defenseman.
“Hopefully, he takes a little bit more time to make sure he’s getting back on it,” the Jets coach said with a grin.
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