Tag: Minnesota Twins

Best Minnesota Twins AL Central championship and playoff gear

Celebrate the Minnesota Twins’ AL Central title with our list of gear including t-shirts, hoodies, hats and more.

It might not have been smoothest path, but the end of the road is finally taking shape for the Minnesota Twins.

And good news: it’s not a dead end, it’s an AL Central title.

For the first time since 2020, and the first time since 2019 in a full-length season, Minnesota has won the division and earned a trip to the postseason. The Twin Cities can brace for a return to October baseball.

Led at the plate by Max Kepler and Carlos Correa, Minnesota sports a roster that’s flying under-the-radar. However, their pitching staff with Sonny Gray and Pablo Lopez is not one to be taken lightly.

If the rest of the league is sleeping on the Twins, they’ll pay in October.

Twins fans should and undoubtedly will support their scrappy team throughout the postseason and can start that train right now with help from Fanatics.

Celebrate and back your Twins by grabbing the latest Minnesota Twins 2023 AL Central title and postseason gear below:

Minnesota Twins closer Jhoan Duran has a new entrance as epic as his fastball

When Target Field is engulfed in flames, it’s Jhoan Duran time.

First there was the New York Mets, Edwin Diaz and Narcos. Then came the Baltimore Orioles with Felix Bautista and Omar’s whistle from The Wire.

Now the Minnesota Twins and Jhoan Duran are getting in on the intimidating fun of welcoming their closer to the mound with a goosebump-inducing entrance.

But considering this is Duran we’re talking about — one of the hardest-throwing pitchers the sport has ever seen — the Twins had to find a way to incorporate his flamethrower status. They did not disappoint.

Now, whenever Minnesota calls on its closer, Target Field turns into an inferno worthy of the pitcher’s arsenal.

The Twins entered Saturday with a 74-67 record and a 6.5-game lead in the American League Central. Which means baring a disastrous collapse, we’ll have a chance to see Duran’s entrance during the playoffs. And what a moment that will be.

Joey Gallo explained why he attempted a nonsensical bunt with two outs in the 11th inning

The bunt traveled 114 feet.

The Minnesota Twins closed out their three-game sweep of the White Sox on Sunday in an extra-innings thriller. But had the game gone the other way, Joey Gallo probably wouldn’t have heard the end of it.

Batting in the 11th inning with two outs and runners on first and third, Gallo attempted to drag a bunt on the first pitch and catch the White Sox defense off guard. But instead, the Twins slugger’s bunt traveled 114 feet for an easy pop out to first base.

From a strategic standpoint, the bunt made almost no sense. Gallo has one of baseball’s highest K rates and is hitting .179 on the season. But when he does manage to put the ball in play, he hits it hard. So, why would he do this?

According to Gallo — who entered the game in the 10th as a pinch runner — his vision from dealing with conjunctivitis (pinkeye) wasn’t quite where it needed to be yet.

“The fans weren’t too happy about that one. Now they understand why I was doing it,” Gallo said via AP.

Manager Rocco Baldelli also commended Gallo and Willi Castro for contributing to the game on Sunday despite both dealing with pinkeye.

Still, Gallo probably should have tried to get that bunt down the third-base line given how teams play him to pull (even in the current days of the shift rules). You can’t blame fans for being confused about the bunt without the context of Gallo’s pinkeye and vision issues. After all, the bunt was bad.

Max Kepler slickly recovered from tripping over his own bat to run out a double

What a recovery!

Max Kepler took what could have been a blooper reel highlight for the ages and turned it into proof that he’s so athletic.

And what the Minnesota Twins’ broadcast said in the clip below is true — both his parents were ballet dancers. So you can see where he gets it from.

In the fourth inning of an eventual Twins loss to the Seattle Mariners, Kepler hit a ball hard and began running to first. But his dropped bat found its way to his moving legs and BOOM, down he went.

Check out that recovery though! Truly a work of art:

MORE: 

Top 10 Notre Dame baseball players according to ChatGPT

How many of these players do you recognize?

So Notre Dame will not make the College World Series for a second straight season. In fact, it didn’t make the NCAA Tournament at all. So what are Irish fans left to do? Look into the past, of course.

Not long ago, we took the liberty of asking ChatGPT, the AI information bot that supposedly is threatening to put all of us writers out of work, its opinion on Notre Dame athletic history. Specifically, we asked it to rank what it believed were the top 10 Notre Dame football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball players. Now, we’re bringing it back to seek its opinion about Irish baseball players.

Keep in mind that ChatGPT gives this disclaimer:

“As an AI, I don’t have access to real-time information or the ability to provide subjective opinions. However, I can tell you about some notable baseball players who have had successful careers at the University of Notre Dame. Keep in mind that this list is not exhaustive and does not rank them in any particular order.”

There’s also this:

“Please note that this is not an exhaustive or ranked list, and there have been many other talented baseball players who have represented the University of Notre Dame.”

So with all of that said, let’s see who ChatGPT came up with. Please note that some of these have been edited to remove inaccurate or outdated information:

The Twins’ plan to intentionally walk Max Muncy backfired in the worst way

These kinds of strategies are usually executed A LOT better than this.

In a nailbiter extra innings showdown Monday night, it looked like the Minnesota Twins would continue pushing the Los Angeles Dodgers.

After already trading shot for shot in an 8-8 barnburner, the Twins were interested in extending this matchup by intentionally walking Max Muncy. Such a gambit loaded the bases but ultimately put Minnesota in a potential position to send this battle to the 13th inning with two outs.

Unfortunately, Minnesota pitcher Jorge Lopez couldn’t fulfill the second half of his bargain on the very next batter. Rather than get a harmless ball into play, he accidentally walked Trayce Thompson, sending the automatic game-winning 9-8 run by Chris Taylor over the plate.

Truly, it was the worst of outcomes after intentionally walking someone.

Look. An intentional walk to try and get the bases loaded is risky in itself. If you’re going to do it, my advice would be not to walk the next batter. For a May regular season game, this is a blunder Lopez and the Twins won’t live down.

Mics picked up a salty Yankees fan heckling Joey Gallo after a home run in Minnesota

Yankees fans can really hold a grudge.

For better or for worse, Joey Gallo has been consistent throughout his MLB career. He’ll struggle to hit above .200, and he’ll strike out a ton. But he’s also one of the better power hitters in baseball.

Yet, Gallo’s game was a terrible fit for New York, and he knew it. He admitted last year that his struggles with the Yankees weighed on him. And though it’s early in the season, Gallo is enjoying a fresh start with the Minnesota Twins where he’s hitting for a decent average (by his standards) and has six home runs.

But that doesn’t mean that Yankees fans are over his struggles in the Bronx. They’re even heckling him in Minnesota.

During Monday’s game against the Yankees, Gallo led off the fourth inning with a deep home run to right-center field. As he was walking through the dugout, microphones picked up a Yankees fan shouting at Gallo.

“Hey Gallo, why couldn’t you do that in New York? You bum,” the heckling fan shouted.  Again, this was at Target Field. Yankees fans are relentless. I’m sure sports talk radio in New York sounded a lot like that after the Twins’ 6-1 win as well.

Fans also had thoughts on that hot-mic moment.

The Royals tried to get creative with a shift against Joey Gallo and still messed it up

The creativity backfired.

Major League Baseball has introduced plenty of new rules for the 2023 season, and the shift is indeed a part of the game that MLB wants to see less often. With the new rules, the shift isn’t completely banned — just restricted. And teams have found a way to work around the restrictions.

It just didn’t exactly work out for the Kansas City Royals on the first attempt.

Joey Gallo — now with the Minnesota Twins — is one of those hitters who saw the extremist of shifts deployed against him in the pre-New Rules era. He’s a true pull hitter who doesn’t hit for average or bunt, so you’d see entire infields stacked towards the right side. Even with the new rules, the Red Sox used a loophole against Gallo in spring training.

On Thursday, the Royals took a similar approach, moving right fielder M.J. Melendez in to play the “rover” position in shallow right field. But Melendez plays outfield (and catcher) for a reason — he’s not used to fielding ground balls and throwing to first.

This new take on the Gallo Shift worked in theory because, well, Gallo hit the ball right at Melendez. The Royals right fielder just couldn’t make the play, and Gallo reached on the error. In previous seasons, you’d see the third baseman take that “rover” spot and easily make the play. So while the shift is still around to some degree, it might be less effective when you’re asking outfielders to make infielder-type plays.

But is that shift on Gallo even necessary? Sure, he’s a heavy pull hitter. But he also has a career .199 average and a huge strikeout rate. Teams should be able to handle him without reconfiguring an entire outfield.

Gallo probably knows it’s coming by now, though.

Jorel Ortega debuts in spring training with Twins

Former Vol Jorel Ortega debuts in spring training with the Twins.

Former Vol Jorel Ortega debuted with the Twins during spring training.

Ortega went 0-for-2 versus Tampa Bay on Feb. 25. He went 0-for-1 versus the Red Sox on Feb. 27.

Ortega was selected in the sixth round (No. 174 overall) of the 2022 MLB draft by Minnesota.

He played for the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels and FCL Twins in 2022 after being drafted. The Mighty Mussels are a Single-A affiliate of Minnesota located in Fort Myers, Florida.

Ortega appeared in 66 games during the 2022 season at Tennessee. The former Vol recorded 18 home runs, 61 RBIs, 57 runs, 76 hits, 20 doubles, four triples, 25 walks and three stolen bases in 2022.

Tennessee won the Southeastern Conference East division for the second consecutive season, the league regular season and tournament championships in 2022.

Carlos Correa shared his reaction to re-signing with the Twins after a wild free agency

It’s finally done.

The Carlos Correa free agency saga has finally reached its conclusion.

The two-time All-Star shortstop officially re-signed with the Twins after initially opting out of his contract, which led to one of the wilder free agency periods we’ve ever seen for a player. His new deal — a six-year, $200-million contract — will keep him in Minnesota until at least 2028. It comes with four-year vesting options that can extend the contract.

But really, the drama of the free agency concerned the condition of his ankle, which led to separate 13-year and 12-year deals with the Giants and Mets collapsing. Once Correa passed his Twins physical, he took to Instagram to share his thoughts on the whole free agency.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CnR_oRtOuM4/

He wrote:

Wow what a journey it’s been. A lot of emotions involved throughout the whole process but always believed that at the end of the day God will put me in the right place.

I’m so happy and excited to be back home with my extended family, the Minnesota Twins. From the players, staff and all the way to the front office I was welcomed and embraced as one of their own since day one. Now I’m back to finish what we started.

Let’s get to work.

You can tell he’s happy to be done with free agency … and physicals. So many physicals.

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