Surprising Minnesota Twins Battling for A.L. Central Lead

We’re heading into the last weekend of May and the race for the top in the American League Central Division is a tight one. The Detroit Tigers (28-21) are a game and a half behind the Kansas City Royals (28-18). It was expected to be a close race between these two, as it was last year. But this season, there’s another team in the mix. The Minnesota Twins, who finished last in 2014 at 70-92, are in a tie for first with Kansas City going into games of May 29th.

The Twins have won five in a row and eight of 10. They just completed a three game sweep of the Boston Red Sox in Minneapolis, the first time they’ve done that since 2006.

The Twins are not an upstart team of young players who will fade as the teams around the league figure out how to pitch to them, or the dog days of summer catch up to them. The Twins have a lot of veterans leading the way, like Tori Hunter (40 years old in July), Joe Mauer (32), closer Glen Perkins (32), Mets castoff Mike Pelfrey (31), and Phil Hughes (29 next month but already in his ninth big league season).

Though the Twins have had some rough seasons the last four years (three 5th place finished and a 4th), before that they competed quite well as a small market team, winning six division titles between 2002 and 2010. It looks like they’ve returned to that level and should make the A.L. Central race more interesting.