"We have a special group": Twins celebrate Wild Card series win, with ALDS on deck
MINNEAPOLIS — The last time the Minnesota Twins won a playoff series, Ron Gardenhire was their rookie manager, Brad Radke was their ace, and David Ortiz was still on the team.
That was in 2002. So Wednesday's celebration matched the occasion.
"It feels great," said catcher Christian Vázquez. "We have a special group. And it's fun, it's fun to win, man."
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Fun-loving and win-creating. That's Royce Lewis.
"I think the momentum is just this team gelling together, having a great time," said Lewis, who hit two home runs in game 1. "And just playing the game that we've played our whole lives since we were little kids."
Back to that 2002 team. There are some similarities to this one. Randolph, Minnesota's Caleb Thielbar — one of three locals on the team — remembers.
"The bullpen was nasty back then, the rotation was nasty," said Thielbar. "That was a fun time. It's hard to believe it's been this long since then."
The entire pitching staff only allowed one run in this two-game sweep.
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"It means a ton," said Griffin Jax, who entered identical situations in both Wild Card games — in the eighth inning, facing Vladimir Guerrero Jr. "We've built this team I think on the pitching staff first, and I think we've shown that all year. Anytime we can get a couple runs, our pitching staff's gonna shut it down. So I think we're able to prove that this series."
"Pablo was amazing yesterday," said would-have-been Game 3 starter Joe Ryan. "The whole bullpen was amazing, Sonny [Gray] today, and just keeping it electric as always."
