Try as they might, worry as they may, Twins fans over the weekend had little choice but to be pretty satisfied with the weekend series victory over Cleveland.
The most hardened or determined to be unhappy could cling to a missed opportunity to finish a soul-crushing sweep Sunday, but even in their steadfastness they would have proved mostly this: This business of having the best team in the division is scary stuff to some.
That's what the Twins are — not by a massive margin, but by a comfortable one over Cleveland. The weekend series was more important to the Indians than the Twins, and Minnesota still prevailed.
Baseball Reference has the Twins pegged for about 100 wins and Cleveland for about 87. The percent chance the Twins win the division, per the site, is in the high 90s.
It's safer as a fan to root for an underdog because victory is sweeter and defeat is more easily written off. The more unfamiliar (around here) front-runner role can feel stressful.
Get used to it. Try to get comfortable with it. Embrace it if possible. This team is for real, the playoffs are almost certainly going to happen and October is going to be intense.
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Kudos to Cleveland pitcher Trevor Bauer, by the way, for a self-deprecating tweet about Max Kepler's dominance over him. Bauer posted a video of the five consecutive home runs Kepler hit against him — two of them Saturday — followed by the strikeout that stopped the streak.