When the Twins made the playoffs earlier this week champagne and emotions flowed in the clubhouse. A young team that had played under .500 baseball earlier in the season achieved a remarkable turn around to claim one of eight playoff spots in major league baseball.
The Twins are a team with many performers that don’t have playoff experience. Included are pitchers Matt Garza and Boof Bonser, catcher Joe Mauer, first baseman Justin Morneau, shortstop Jason Bartlett, third baseman Nick Punto and outfielder Jason Kubel. Players are young, too, such as Garza, 22, Mauer, 23, and Bonser, 24.
Sometimes a young and inexperienced group can lose its focus and edge after earning a playoff opportunity. Consciously or unconsciously the mindset is this: It’s good enough to make the playoffs, particularly when no one expected the team to advance.
A visitor asked Twins manager Ron Gardenhire if he thought his Twins might be such a team. “They are going to go out and give you everything they have (in the playoffs),” he answered. “That’s what they have done all year. It won’t change in the playoffs. They are going to play as hard as they can.”
If the Twins fail in the playoffs it won’t be because the players “are afraid” or don’t know how to compete, Gardenhire said. “We have been through a lot of tough baseball games,” he said. “Every game has been a playoff game for it seems like a month when you are trying to catch up (in the AL Central race to finish first). If it doesn’t work out for us, if we were to get beat … it’s just the other team is a little better than us…. They (the Twins players) are so excited. They know we can win. They have proved we can win so we will see what happens.”