You can be forgiven if you don’t remember what exactly happened on Sept. 6, 2010. The Twins defeated the Royals by a 5-4 margin at Target Field. Jeff Manship got the win, Matt Capps the save and the Royals — under the direction of a man in his first year at the helm of the team named Ned Yost — fell to 57-80, 23.5 games out of first place.

Give up?

On that day, the Minnesota Twins won their 81st game of that season. It’s not really remarkable because the Twins won 13 more games by the end of the season and ended up playing in the first and only playoff games Target Field has ever hosted. But little did anyone know that it’d be another five-plus years before the Twins would win game No. 81 in any season after that. That feat was accomplished Monday night for this year’s team, as the Twins defeated Corey Kluber for the second time in less than a week, and basically left the Tribe’s playoff chances on life support.

In an odd quirk, Manship factored (somewhat) in both games, as he warmed up for the Indians in Monday night’s game. He’s got a 0.97 ERA in 30 appearances working mostly low-leverage middle inning relief.

So I thought … how about a look at what has changed since the Twins last won at least 81 games? First, let’s look at the lineup from back on that day in 2010:

1. Denard Span CF

2. Orlando Hudson 2B

3. Joe Mauer C

4. Jason Kubel RF

5. Michael Cuddyer 1B

6. Jim Thome DH

7. Delmon Young LF

8. J.J. Hardy SS

9. Matt Tolbert 3B

Starting Pitcher: Kevin Slowey

Other players who saw action that day include Jason Repko, who spelled Kubel in the outfield, as well as pitchers Randy Flores, Matt Guerrier, Jesse Crain and of course, Manship and Capps. Kubel and Thome both homered in the game, and future Twin Dusty Hughes threw the last 3.1 innings in relief of starter Sean O’Sullivan for the Royals in the losing effort.

Man, things have changed.

So what else has happened in that time frame, both in the baseball world and otherwise? Consider:

Justin Morneau

It can be easy to forget he was on that 2010 team before suffering the concussion that quite frankly has derailed his career since. He was never again the same with the Twins and again battled those issues this year with the Rockies. Morneau has luckily been able to come back and play 17 games in September this year with the Rockies — and hit .377/.450/.509 besides — but he most certainly faces a murky future with a $9 million mutual option looming as well as his mid-30s. It wouldn’t be stunning to see the Rockies go in another direction, unfortunately.

Mauer

In a twist of cruel irony, Morneau’s direct replacement at first base has been someone who has battled an all-too-familiar issue. And Mauer has gone from a superstar catcher worth every penny to a first baseman who’s merely a shadow of his former self at the plate, drawing the ire of people from all across the board who might suggest he’s soft to the fact that he was never all that good to begin with. Mauer won’t have the benefit of moving to Coors Field to get his bat back, and entering his age-33 season next year, it’s worth wondering if that’ll ever happen. The odds are clearly not in favor.

Phil Hughes

The Twins signed Phil Hughes from the Yankees over the winter prior to the 2014 season. What’s notable about this? Hughes started and won Game 3 of the American League Division Series in 2010 at Yankee Stadium, bouncing the Twins from their most recent playoff run. The opposing starter in that game? Free-agent-to-be lefty Brian Duensing.

AL Central

Every team in the AL Central has finished over .500 since the Twins last did. The White Sox were 88-74 in 2010 and 85-77 in 2012, the Tigers were at least .500 in every season but this one, the Indians were over .500 the last two seasons and everyone remembers the story of the Royals a season ago. Or perhaps even more apt, how dominant they’ve been this year.

Terry Ryan

The Twins former GM returned after things went sour during the Bill Smith tenure. Ryan returned after a four-season hiatus which saw Torii Hunter walk as well as the Twins dealing the likes of Johan Santana (after just four months on the job for Smith), Matt Garza (less that two months in for Smith), Carlos Gomez and, in a cruel twist of fate, Mr. Hardy as well. It’s not fair that these moves are often the hallmarks of Smith’s tenure — he also signed Max Kepler and Miguel Sano, and traded for Hardy in the first place — but it’s certainly what is remembered most.

Skipper

The Twins also dismissed manager Ron Gardenhire after four 90-loss seasons, replacing him with Hall of Famer and existing bench coach Paul Molitor after an exhaustive search led to interviews with the likes of (at least reportedly) Joe McEwing, DeMarlo Hale, Sandy Alomar Jr., Gene Glynn, Doug Mientkiewicz, Torey Lovullo and others. Gardenhire was the second-most tenured manager at the time of his dismissal — Angels manager Mike Scioscia stands alone — but the worst four-year stretch in franchise history was too much for the Twins brass to ignore, even with a year remaining on a two-year extension. For as bad as the last four years were under Gardenhire’s direction, he still finished his career at the helm of the Twins with a 1,068-1,039 record — 29 games over .500. The .222 playoff winning percentage still looms large in the minds of Twins fans, however.

Hunter

Oh yeah, he left and came back. So did Guerrier, Kubel, Jason Bartlett, Yohan Pino and … well, no, that’s about it.

Even the Minnesota Vikings…

…made the playoffs since the Twins last finished over .500, and did so with Christian Ponder at the helm. Christian Ponder!

Four Teams…

…have represented the American League in the World Series in that time frame, including the Rangers (twice), Tigers, Red Sox and the Royals. Oddly enough, just two National League teams — the Cardinals and Giants — have played in the Fall Classic.

USA

The Twins last won 81 games more than a full year before we remembered the 10-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. And we’re already moving onto the 15-year anniversary next year. Time flies, folks. Oh, and by the way Bin Laden was killed in 2011.

USA, Part II

Two Olympics have been held — London (Summer) 2012 and Sochi (Winter) 2014 — since the Twins last won 81 games. The United States was first in the medal count in London and fourth in Sochi.

USA, Part III

Obama won reelection. It wasn’t particularly close.

Twitter

Twitter has blown up since the Twins were last particularly good. There were fewer than 50 million active users when the Twins won game No. 81 in 2010; now, there are an estimated 316 million users, a more than six-fold increase. Even the Pope is on Twitter. Actually, he’s got a few accounts.

Miners

The Chilean miners were rescued over a month after the Twins won game No. 81 in 2010, after 69 days following the cave-in of a 121-year-old mine. Now? They’re going to be the subject of a feature film called “The 33” starring Antonio Banderas which will be released in the United States on Nov. 13, 2015.

The End of the Mayan Calendar

Apparently that ended on Dec. 21, 2012. The world didn’t. So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Countless other world events took place, like the Boston Marathon Bombings, Pope Benedict resigning, Nelson Mandela dying and even Ebola outbreaks. All told, fans had to wait 1850 days between seeing the Twins win 81 games in a season. Was the wait worth it? I sure hope so.