While the Twins’ excellent regular season ended in disappointment in the postseason, fans should still have something to cheer for when the World Series starts next week.
That’s because the Washington Nationals booked their place in the Fall Classic on Tuesday night, clinching the NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals.
We’ve picked out five reasons why Twins fans should consider rooting for Washington when the World Series gets underway.
1. Several former Twins are playing for them
The current Nationals team has no fewer than four ex-Twins on the roster, among them a former fan favorite in Brian Dozier, who has put in a decent year for the Nats, if not reaching the heights of his last couple years in Minnesota.
Elsewhere there is former catcher Kurt Suzuki, and Fernando Rodney, who was the Twins’ closer last season before he was traded to Oakland.
Rounding out the former Twins, albeit in a somewhat tenuous manner, is Anibal Sanchez, who was with the Twins for barely a month during spring training last year, before he was moved out to make space for Lance Lynn.
Sanchez pitched a no-hitter for 7 2/3 innings in the second game of the NLCS against the Cardinals.
2. The old Washington Senators/Twins link
If you know your baseball history, you’ll know that the Minnesota Twins was founded in 1961 out of the Washington Senators team, which played between 1901 and 1960.
While today’s Nationals team was created out of the Montreal Expos, which relocated to D.C. in 2004, there nonetheless remains a solid link between Washington and Minnesota in baseball history.
3. They ensured the Twins weren’t the only playoffs blowout
If getting swept by the Yankees in the ALDS wasn’t a gut-punch enough, it was even more of a blow for Twins fans given that every other playoff series in the divisional round went the full 5 games.
Albeit a pyrrhic victory, it’s nonetheless a little soothing to know that the Twins weren’t the only team to get swept this postseason, thanks to the Nationals’ 4-0 routing of the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS.
4. They’re not the Yankees
So as of writing this, the Yankees are 2-1 down to the Astros in the ALCS and so are facing an uphill battle to make the World Series.
But given their history of winning and pissing off an entire nation outside of the Tri-State area, you wouldn’t put it past them to overturn the deficit.
Call us petty, but there’s no way we want the team that rolled the Twins over to get their hands on the Commissioner’s Trophy.
And if the Astros win? Eh, they’ve won the World Series before, let someone else have a turn.
5. They’re a Wild Card team
They’re not the first Wild Card team in recent memory to reach the World Series – the Giants won it via the WC as recently as 2014.
But while it’s not all that uncommon, you can’t deny that the Nats will go into the series against the Astros or Yankees as the underdogs, and who doesn’t love rooting for the underdog?
