Perkins' rare stumble showcases his worth

The Twins won a one-run, nine-inning game at Target Field on Saturday, and Glen Perkins didn't throw the last pitch. It was like watching someone unwrap a victory cigar and not be able to find a light.

Perkins had a rare bad outing Friday night and felt weary Saturday morning, so Twins manager Paul Molitor chose not to use him. One off night and one day off leaves Perkins with merely a majors-leading 18 saves, a 1.96 ERA, 21 strikeouts and three walks in 23 innings.

Let's take a moment to stop being shocked by the 2015 Twins and celebrate the least-surprising aspect of their success: their All-Star closer.

Perkins is so normal, it's easy to forget he's unique.

He is the average-looking Minnesota guy who might be your suburban neighbor. He celebrates day-game victories at home by drinking beer he made himself, packing the kids onto the pontoon boat and heading toward the middle of the lake.

He is also an All-Star who has twice given the Twins a hometown discount, is happy to enter in the eighth inning with runners on base and applies a keen understanding of advanced metrics to each at-bat.

Perkins is 18-for-18 in save opportunities this season, even though he has inherited as many runners in these two months (five) as he had in the past two seasons, and he is proving he wasn't crazy when he said his intent in remaining in Minnesota was not merely commuting convenience.

Since the popularization of the save, most closers prefer to enter the game in the ninth inning with the bases empty. Wednesday night, Perkins earned his second four-out save of the season.

"However they want to use me is fine," Perkins said. "When we have a chance to win a game, let's win the game."

The most important hot streak of Perkins' career coincided with the arrival of bullpen coach Eddie Guardado. Guardado, like Perkins, was a top starting pitching prospect in the Twins' organization who failed in that role, became a situational lefthander and eventually won the closer's job.

Guardado, though, wants no credit for Perkins' dominance.

"He reminds me of me, in that he goes right after people, he's never afraid," Guardado said. "But we don't talk about pitching much. Mechanically, he knows what he's doing, I'm not going to mess with that. He already has the right mentality. So we just talk about life and our kids."

The only thing exceptional about this team is its ability to preserve leads. The bullpen gets the credit for that, and the bullpen would not be a team strength if not for Perkins.

"When you have that anchor, everyone else can settle into their roles," Guardado said.

Perkins has studied the metrics. He isn't sure he and his teammates are pitching better.

"We're playing really good defense, which is why we're pitching well," he said. "I've spent some time thinking about why we're winning, and it's hard to explain. Any time a team wins more than it was supposed to, there are some unusual factors involved. We're hitting with runners in scoring position. We're clustering hits. And while the metrics don't say we're playing great defense, we're playing so much better than we have in the last few years that just raising the floor has made a big difference."

Perkins' continued excellence is the only part of the Twins' season that hasn't been surprising.