One Season-Defining Moment from Each Month of 2021

[Nick Nelson]

The Minnesota Twins 2021 season is now in the books, and most of us will be more than happy to leave it there. 

With that said, as a postmortem, I'd like to document six milestones that will define this immensely disappointing campaign when we look back at it. These are the lasting memorable moments from a forgettable year.

April: That Loss in Oakland (4/21)

In Twins lore, this was a game that will forever live in infamy. In fact, it probably needs a nickname for eternal reference. Bayside Blunderfest? Catastrophe in the Coliseum? The Oaktown Meltdown? 

Whatever you want to call it, this was the clear low point in a gut-punch of a first month for the Twins. I don't say so lightly, because there was no shortage of brutal blows from which to choose, but this game was the cream of the crap. 

It wasn't just the dire implications of that 13-12 result itself, sealing a sweep for the A's and marking Minnesota's ninth loss in 10 games. No, what made this one an L for the ages – to the extent you knew exactly which game I was talking about when you read "that loss in Oakland" – was the almost comically painful way in which it all unfolded.

I won't torture you with a full recap, but the gist is this: With the team playing short-handed due to a COVID outbreak, Kenta Maeda digs a deep hole by allowing seven runs (an early sign something is amiss for the reigning Cy Young runner-up); the offense mounts a big rally; Byron Buxton attempts to will the team to victory single-handed with a huge catch and home run; and then ... Alex Colomé happens.

As these Twins stumbled out of the gates and fell flat on their faces, Colomé was a deserving figurehead for the failure. The front office's big-ticket bullpen pickup was an incomprehensible disaster, repeatedly giving away games that were in hand. On this special occasion, he did so twice in a two-inning span!

Minnesota led 9-8 heading into the bottom of the ninth when Colomé entered. He gave up a run. The game went to extras. Buxton launched a dramatic two-run homer in the 10th. Then Colomé promptly walked the bases loaded in the bottom half, and watched the infield defense implode behind him as the A's rallied to score three runs on back-to-back errors and walk it off. *chef's kiss*

May: Twins Drop 12th Out of 15 Games (5/20)

Damaging to our collective psyches as it may have been, the above game was not fatal to the team's hopes of contending. While a 6-11 start wasn't ideal, the Twins were padded by a strong first week. This was just a good team going through an ugly April funk ... right?

Nah. Turns out they were just bad. From May 8th through May 20th they went 3-12, turning in lifeless outing after lifeless outing as their season crumbled into nothingness, a mere seven weeks after getting started. Prior to this stretch the Twins were modestly climbing toward .500; by the end they were 14-28, and 11 ½ games out of first place. 

The last of the dozen losses during this 16-day stretch – a 7-1 doubleheader matinee against the Angels – was not especially noteworthy, save for how typical it was. Lewis Thorpe made a spot start and got lit up. The bullpen was bad. The offense did nothing. It was obvious from early on the Twins were going nowhere in this one, which is a suitable summarization of their season as a whole.

June: Buxton Breaks His Hand (6/21)

As things devolved in the early weeks, there was one redeeming storyline for Twins fans. Buxton was playing out of his mind. In April he became the first Twins player to earn Player of the Month honors in more than a decade. Unlocking his long-simmering potential at last, the center fielder was a must-watch attraction on a team that was otherwise hard to stomach.

In early May, a hip injury shut Buxton down, leading to more than a month on the Injured List. He returned in mid-June, fighting through obvious pain and physical limitation, but was nonetheless productive for three games.

Then, a freaking fastball hit his hand and fractured it. The team's fate was already more or less sealed by this point, but seeing their most likable player suffer another unthinkable setback was almost too much to take. I'll never forget Rocco Baldelli's somber postgame press conference, which conveyed empathy for his snakebit center fielder, as well as a general sense of dazed bewilderment at the state of his club's shattered season.

This was going to be the year Buxton pulled it all together. Instead, it'll go down as yet another fleeting glimmer of greatness. And perhaps his final hurrah in a Twins uniform.

July: Berríos Dealt on Deadline Day (7/30)

We've already seen that final hurrah from José Berríos, who was drafted the same year as Buxton and rose to similarly impressive heights. The blockbuster deal that sent Berríos to Toronto for two top prospects was among the most significant deadline trades in franchise history, and a bellwether moment.

Trading Berríos affirmed a full-on changing of the guard, following the less surprising Nelson Cruz trade a week earlier. Factor in coinciding reports of fruitless extension negotiations with Buxton, and this year's deadline openly signaled an oncoming identity shift for the Twins.

This changing identity was evident in the final two months, during which we'd see these Twins play some of their very best ball.

August: Ober Blanks Boston at Fenway (8/25)

No Berríos. No Cruz. No Maeda. No Taylor Rogers. And yet the Twins were a .500 team after the trade deadline. That's not anything to write home about but, all things considered, it's kind of eyebrow-raising. How'd they do it? 

Bailey Ober played a big part (figuratively and literally) in the quality results, and the long-term implications of his sudden ascent from organization filler to rotation fixture are difficult to overstate. 

The month of August saw Ober pitch to a 2.30 ERA and 27-to-3 K/BB ratio in 27 ⅓ innings. The Twins went 4-1 in his five starts. While veteran pitchers around him got injured, got traded, and got blown up, Ober remained steady, with his newfound velocity boost and 6-foot-9 frame proving a sustainable formula.

His most memorable outing in an excellent month came in Boston on the 25th. One year prior, no one would've realistically expected Ober to be pitching in the big leagues, so the rookie must've been feeling some nerves as he took the mound against a powerhouse at legendary Fenway Park for his 15th MLB start. 

You would've never known it from the way he pitched. Ober tossed a leisurely five shutout innings, striking out seven and walking one. 

At this moment he's the presumed Opening Day starter in 2022.

September: Polanco Tallies 4 Extra-Base Hits (9/6)

While Ober's emergence as a rotation staple was the most consequential unexpected development of the 2021 season, Jorge Polanco's rejuvenated slugging prowess may be a close second.

For better or worse, the Twins are contractually tied to Polanco through at least 2023, and that was tilting in the "or worse" direction when his punchless 2020 production spilled over to April. But as he became more comfortable on his twice-surgically-repaired ankle, and began to find his stride once again, Polanco's long-absent power came rushing back. Suddenly, the switch-slugging All-Star from early 2019 was back and better than ever. 

And this was no flash in the pan. Polanco consistently kept pounding baseballs for the rest of the season – reflected by the fact that his most memorable highlight arrived in September.

On this day in Cleveland, Polanco tallied a season-high four of his 70 extra-base hits, doubling three times and homering in a 5-2 win. During the previous series in Tampa, he launched two home runs and two doubles. Five days later against the Royals, he'd go deep twice. 

Polanco relentlessly slugged and produced all the way through to the end, playing at an MVP level while the team around him acquiesced to sub-mediocrity. It's reminiscent, in some ways, of Brian Dozier in 2016.

One year later, Dozier was the veteran star and leader on a team that shocked everyone, improving by 26 wins and reaching the postseason. A precedent that is perhaps worth carrying forward.

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[USAFChief]

October: in a rather weird twist, Twins and Vikings seasons end on the same day.

[ashbury]

The rubric of one game for each month imposes some difficulty, but if the focus is on season-defining moments, for me the April category has to at least consider the April Fools Day game where Josh Donaldson hits a double in his very first plate appearance and then has to come out due to a leg injury.  "Season Over," we joked.  Yeah, kinda was.  Could have said, "Season Defined."

[BH67]

19 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

October: in a rather weird twist, Twins and Vikings seasons end on the same day.

Hey!  The Purple are only three plays away from 4-0!

[roger]

Tough season, fortunately, some of us were unable to watch almost all of the games.  Hopefully, next year the Twins will return to contenders and baseball will have figured out a way for so many of their fans to see it.

The real problem as I see it, Nick, wasn't a specific day each month.  Rather, it was a month that stunk and when it is April makes for a long, long season.  The good news is that with us all now looking back, there are too many very good players on this team to not put them in position where working towards a winning 2022 is not only possible but the best option.  And that begins by signing/extending several of their current players, ie, Buxton, Duffey, and Rogers. 

Go Twins!

[mikelink45]

Painful, but you ended like the Twins with some positives.  You might add some preseason months when we signed Happ and Shoemaker.  

[yeahyabetcha]

2 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Painful, but you ended like the Twins with some positives.  You might add some preseason months when we signed Happ and Shoemaker.  

Do you think Happ helped or hurt the Cardinals chance to make the playoffs?

[LastOnePicked]

No, the key September moment was the 6-5 loss to the Yankees on the 13th. Perfectly encapsulated that no matter how surprisingly bad 2021 was, some things never change. And, fittingly, our dismal play against the Yankees is just the buffer they needed to win a WC playoff spot. 

[mikelink45]

On 10/5/2021 at 11:59 AM, yeahyabetcha said:

Do you think Happ helped or hurt the Cardinals chance to make the playoffs?

Somehow the Cardinals were able to extract what they needed from him and yes - he helped them.  Maybe Shoemaker was right, the veterans do not take well our pitching instructions.  

[theBOMisthebomb]

Happy that this train wreck on top of a car crash of a season is over and done with. I felt a bit of sadness on Sunday that there is no more Twins baseball for 2021... yet, no more pain. Sweet release. 

[Nine of twelve]

I'll disagree as strongly as possible with the April choice. The season-defining moment, the season-killing moment, was when COVID-19 made its way to the roster. That threw the roster into chaos and it threw the schedule into chaos. It's never been specifically reported, but I'm sure team unity and morale were knocked down big-time. If I were a vaccinated team member I would have been angry, enraged, furious, livid at any and every member of the organization, uniformed and not uniformed, who refused to be vaccinated at the earliest possible juncture because that is certainly what enabled the virus to take hold.

[bighat]

There were many awful moments, but "That Loss in Oakland" was honestly the death knell. Buxton seemingly slammed the door in the 10th with an extra innings HR - a moment that would galvanize most teams - but through sheer dysfunction, the Twins still somehow still blew that game. I don't think any realistic Twins fan OR player thought the Twins stood a chance the rest of the season when the A's crossed the plate with the winning run.

And somehow, it only got worse from there!

[Nick Nelson]

3 hours ago, Nine of twelve said:

I'll disagree as strongly as possible with the April choice. The season-defining moment, the season-killing moment, was when COVID-19 made its way to the roster. That threw the roster into chaos and it threw the schedule into chaos. It's never been specifically reported, but I'm sure team unity and morale were knocked down big-time. If I were a vaccinated team member I would have been angry, enraged, furious, livid at any and every member of the organization, uniformed and not uniformed, who refused to be vaccinated at the earliest possible juncture because that is certainly what enabled the virus to take hold.

The series in Oakland came right after the COVID outbreak and they were short-handed specifically because of it (Travis Blankenhorn got called up and made his infamous error). So I felt like my choice sort of encapsulated that development.

[Dantes929]

Leads are blown throughout the season.   Its baseball but sometimes its more than just a loss.   Same thing happened a few years ago with Perkins.   Team has a good stretch early in the year in terms of getting the lead and handing it over to the bullpen and the bullpen just gives it up.   Offense starts thinking they have to do more to get bigger leads.   Defense starts to play tight.     Everyone starts to press because they know they should be close to first place and are instead 6 games back.   They might have overcome the Oakland loss if it hadn't been for the 7 close losses out of 16 games that came before it.    Hard to overcome blown leads that come in bunches early in the season.    

[Nine of twelve]

8 hours ago, Nick Nelson said:

The series in Oakland came right after the COVID outbreak and they were short-handed specifically because of it (Travis Blankenhorn got called up and made his infamous error). So I felt like my choice sort of encapsulated that development.

I suppose, but even though the Oakland game probably the worst loss of the season, it was just part of the fallout from the defining moment, not the defining moment itself.

[Whitey333]

Pretty convenient to blame April on covid 19.  Not to deny it but all teams dealt with covid and to blame a rotten months performance solely on covid is ludicrous!  It's also interesting that while a lot of us fans were bemoaning the teams play in April and May we were told to be patient and wait, it's a long season and it's early.  We are still waiting!

[deanlambrecht]

My only quibble is April.  I think Colome blowing the save in game 1 sums up the entire month very well.