Twins Aiming To Be .500 After Kansas City, Washington
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The Twins are traveling. They start a six-game road trip Tuesday night in Kansas City before heading to Washington.
And that 10-game losing streak suddenly seems like a long time ago. The Twins have now won seven of their last nine games, sit just four games under .500, and four-and-a-half games out of first.
And they finally feel good about the direction they're going -- nothing like a 10-0 shutout to erase the pain of that 10-game losing streak.
"It shows how we're continuing to build," said Scott Diamond, Sunady's winning pitcher. "Momentum is on our side right now. So the locker room is pretty happy."
Target Field sat empty Monday, but after the recent success the Twins are suddenly full of optimism. The mood in the clubhouse sure feels different than it did just 10 days ago.
"It's turned completely, to be honest with you," second baseman Brian Dozier said. "Because, obviously, when you win some games, everybody's a lot happier... But just the vibe in the clubhouse and everything (is better). Because we know we have a good team."
"That (losing streak) was a tough one to go through," manager Ron Gardenhire said. "And to the credit of the guys out there, they believed in themselves. They've been pushing, even through the bad stretch where they went through playing not very good baseball, they were still rooting for each other."
To be clear, they've recently won against a pair of bottom-feeding teams. But because of it the Twins are no longer one themselves.
And now they have another one up next in Kansas City. Then a .500 club in Washington.
Washington raises the following possibility: The Twins could be a .500 club by the time they get back to Minnesota.
"I think both those teams are scuffling a bit right now, and the way we're playing, we have confidence in ourselves," Diamond said. "Definitely a possibility that we can come back .500."
"It's awesome," rookie Chris Herrmann said of the vibe right now. "I mean, everybody loves to win. Everybody likes to compete. And right now, we are winning and we are competing."
To be .500 when they get back home, the Twins would have to go 5-1 on this six-game road trip. They went 4-1 on this last homestand, their first winning homestand since the first series of the season.
