The Twins' early success is starting to get national attention.
The club has won six of its last seven games and sits in first place in the American League Central Division two months into the season.
The Twins swept Baltimore earlier this week and Orioles manager Buck Showalter said, "They're not going away."
Here is roundup of other national buzz surrounding the Twins' hot start:
From The Ringer
After knocking around the underbelly of the Orioles' pitching staff on Monday, the Twins are back alone in first place in the AL Central. That position isn't new for the Twins in 2017, but it is an anomaly for this decade of Minnesota teams: Already this year, they have ended a day of play in first place 19 times; from 2011 through 2016, they did so on just 13 days combined. …
It's in the third phase of the game, defense, that the 2017 Twins exhibit signs of a remarkable turnaround. Last year, the Twins supplemented a bad pitching staff with a porous defense, which ranked 28th or 29th in MLB by all three major advanced defensive metrics. This year, the staff is just as poor, but it's supported by a defense that leads the majors with 27 defensive runs saved — no other team exceeds 17 — and ranks second in fielding runs above average and third in ultimate zone rating. The effect on the Twins' bottom line is stark: Last year they allowed 5.49 runs per game, just six-thousandths of a decimal point out of last place, but this year they're allowing 4.58 per game, directly in line with the league average.
The Twins' transformation from MLB's worst team to a division leader — albeit one that's unlikely to maintain its current pace — is attributable mainly to that defensive leap.
