After just One Game, The Minnesota Twins’ Strengths are Clear

The Minnesota Twins opened their season against the White Sox with a 10-5 victory in Chicago, and we know they’re built for the long haul.

The Minnesota Twins’ Season Opener was pushed back for so long, we were beginning to wonder if we would get to see the Bomba Squad in action in 2020. The team finally got into action Friday night, and it was everything we missed about baseball.

The Twins immediately got off hot with Max Kepler leading off the game with the first bomba of the year on the first pitch of the year:

In a game that was expected to be a pitchers duel, it wasn’t. Both Jose Berrios and Lucas Giolito are aces that were expected to compete for the American League Cy Young this year, but both looked awful, giving up five runs over less than five innings.

The most important takeaway from this game is the Twins’ strengths: the lineup and the bullpen. This was always going to be the case, as the lineup is littered with All-Stars and good hitters while the bullpen has at least eight guys that can gets outs whenever you need them.

The hitters are going to get theirs. In 2019, they broke the record for homers, and in the first game of 2020 racked up 11 hits and 10 runs against a very good starter and a pretty good bullpen. Tonight they didn’t just get theirs against the White Sox. They demolished them.

The bullpen stepped up again too. Trevor May came into a 5-5 tie game and locked down the Sox. The four relievers (May included) only gave up two hits over five innings, striking out 7 while walking just two. And they didn’t even have to use Taylor Rogers or Sergio Romo. That’s how you take over a ball game.

Despite Berrios’ bad outing, the lineup and bullpen were enough to carry the team. If the playoffs have shown anything recently, a good lineup and tough bullpen are recipes for success, and the Twins have both. This just might be our year.