RandBall: If the Twins don’t catch the Guardians, remember Tuesday night

A truth that has emerged over years of observation is this: The concept of momentum carries a lot more weight with those who watch and write about sports compared to those who actually play the games.

Remembering that has proved valuable at times when tempted to overstate the importance of one game or one moment. The players themselves, particularly the pros who are the best in the world at their sports, often remain steadfast in their individual and/or collective believe that any failure is temporary and disconnected from imminent success.

So I won’t tread too much on momentum as a core pillar of a present evaluation of the AL Central race. But there is also no denying both the practical implications of what transpired Tuesday and the manner in which key games involving the Twins and Guardians unfolded, as discussed on Wednesday’s Daily Delivery podcast.

Checking in on Twins vs. Padres and Guardians vs. Yankees late into the night, it appeared as though the Twins had a very good chance of cutting Cleveland’s lead to 1½ games.

Around the same time that the Twins took the second of their two-run leads against San Diego, this one courtesy of a Christian Vazquez eighth inning pinch hit, Cleveland was in an extra innings bind. The Yankees had the winning run on third base with one out, needing just a flare, a well-placed chopper or a medium fly ball to win the game.

And then in the span of a few minutes, the Twins’ lead had vanished while Cleveland had escaped the 11th and started piling up runs in the 12th. Final scores: San Diego 7, Minnesota 5 ... Cleveland 9, New York 5.

Instead of 1½ games, the division lead swelled to 3½ games (with Kansas City joining the Twins with an identical record, too).

The race can still tighten again, of course, because momentum is overrated. The Twins and Guardians play four times in Cleveland in mid-September, and as long as they Twins stay close until then they have a chance.

What isn’t overrated? Cleveland’s bullpen. Guardians relievers held the Yankees down through the crucial late innings and extras, and their bullpen ERA sits at 2.65 — more than a half-run better than any other team in baseball and 1.3 runs better than the middle-of-the-pack Twins, who have had two bullpen meltdowns among their last three losses.

If the Twins don’t catch Cleveland, remember Tuesday night not so much for the momentum but for the results and what they reminded us about a key difference between the teams.

Here are four more things to know today: