The masculine urge to be so back.

First Pitch: 6:15 pm CDT

TV: KMSP, FOX / ~ / Radio: TIBN, WCCO 830, The Wolf 102.9 FM

Apparently, April showers bring May flowers.

After I wrote exactly ONE optimistic preview so far this year (before the second game of the season), the Twins made life difficult by digging an immediate hole for themselves and playing like hot ass in a can all week leading up to the Saturday games.

But this time, the story is a little different.

Seven games under .500 last weekend, the Twins said, “you know what? try this on for size,” and have since rattled off six straight wins, including salvaging a series victory at Fenway Park, sweeping the Baltimore Orioles, and winning a national night game opener against the San Francisco Giants.

Now, despite little ground made up within the division — and I’m of the opinion that you should only really be focused on your own record until at least July — the Twins are very suddenly sitting with a 19-20 record, and are just one more good ballgame away from pulling to the .500 mark for the first time this season.

Is this actually a winning team? It sure hasn’t looked like one since the end of March, but with the pitching corps locked in and the injured offense on the mend, there’s more reason to be excited about the Twins now than there has been at just about any point so far this season. It sure feels like that elusive regressing to the mean is already underway.

Joe Ryan makes his return to the rotation after a brief illness this week, and it’s just in time, because he’ll be squaring off against Logan Webb on the side of San Francisco. Having already won a Chris Paddack start this weekend, Minnesota has a little bit of breathing room in not needing to beat Webb to still have a chance to win the series. However, sources are telling me that they are going to try to win anyway. Imagine that!

Webb, of course, is a reigning first-time All-Star (despite a second-place Cy Young finish in 2023) who’s already rocked up 1.2 bWAR with a league-leading 1.87 FIP and low home run numbers in eight starts so far, thanks in large part to a sinker that might be the best in the league.

Christian Vazquez finds himself the only non-starter in a lineup built from a roster that suddenly has a very clear A-Squad / Bench Bats dichotomy.

The Twins go for seven in a row tonight, on another beautiful evening at Target Field.

GO TWINS GO!