Completely soaked by the spraying champagne and flowing beer, Mitch Garver was nevertheless reflective as the Twins celebrated Wednesday night. He had witnessed one of these scrums before. He felt part of this one.

"I tasted this in 2017," when the Twins won a one-game wild-card berth, "but I was just a very very small part of that," Garver said. "This is a completely different feeling. I'm a big leaguer, and I'm on the best team in the Central. It's unbelievable."

Actually, it's not, Marwin Gonzalez said. He signed with the Twins two weeks after spring training opened, and he said he realized before the calendar turned to March that he had made a smart decision. "When I saw how much talent this team has, I knew it was a team that would win," he said. "We've got players who can win in a lot of different ways, so it's not a surprise that we're here. It would be a surprise if we weren't."

PHIL MILLER