The Twins want us to forget about 2011, and they're trying to convince themselves to do the same.
But they would strangely do well to remember a little bit of that ill-fated year. See, we would venture to guess that most teams that finish within spitting distance of 100 losses are fairly consistently lousy throughout the year. Or, if they do go on a little run, it's a 7-2 stretch here, a 5-1 run there.
But right in the middle of that lousy season -- from Game 55 through Game 97 -- the Twins were 29-14. That remains the most puzzling and startling thing about the whole messy affair. At the end of that run, they were just five games back of first place on July 20.
In all other games, Minnesota was 34-85 -- 17-37 before the stretch, 17-48 after it. So they were either rolling or atrocious. What a weird year.
