'We've got to win some, too': Twins feeding off Minnesota playoff fever

MINNEAPOLIS -- While Minnesota’s winter sports teams -- the NBA’s Timberwolves and the NHL’s Wild -- are generating excitement with their performance in their respective league's playoffs, it might be easy to overlook the Twins.

But after Saturday’s 5-1 victory over the Angels at Target Field, the Twins are 4-1 on their homestand and have won consecutive series for the first time since last August. And regardless of which team is riding the hottest streak, a rising tide lifts all boats -- even a boat that’s been scrambling to plug leaks for much of the past month.

“With all this playoff winning going around, we’ve got to win some, too,” said Twins starter Simeon Woods Richardson. “Bring that energy back over to us, let it rub off on us a little bit.”

Nearly 20,000 fans packed Target Center and the Xcel Energy Center for the Timberwolves’ and Wild’s first playoff games the past two nights, and Woods Richardson is hoping some of that enthusiasm will spill over to Target Field, where Saturday’s announced attendance of 23,905 was the biggest since the crowd of 36,783 on Opening Day against the Astros on April 3.

“You see fans like that -- you see the energy, you see the passion, you see the crowd -- you just can’t [help but] wish to have that over here, too,” Woods Richardson said. “Every day, we just try to play for those [fans] to get back over here, because we have a great team -- we’re nasty, we’re energetic, we’re fun -- and it’s always good to have support and backup behind you.”

Performances like the one Woods Richardson put together on Saturday will certainly help draw more fans to the ballpark. The second-year right-hander gave up one run off four hits while tallying a season-high seven strikeouts and zero walks over 5 1/3 innings.

The four-seam fastball was a particularly effective pitch for Woods Richardson. He generated 10 whiffs using the pitch, which accounted for six of his seven strikeouts -- five of them swinging and the other on a called third strike.

“He had some really good life on that pitch today,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “You could see it in the swings, you could see it in the takes, you could see it in just the way they reacted to all of his other pitches, too. There were a couple of times where they were maybe looking for it and he threw some offspeed pitches and got some swings and misses. But he did a lot of damage on that heater, and he just kept going at them.”

Woods Richardson had an inkling that he was going to have success with the four-seamer, even though he’s had games in which it hasn’t been his best pitch.

“I think it’s just trust in it. Sometimes, mechanically, we’ll get to a place where I can’t effectively use it,” he said. “Today was a really good day. I felt confident in the bullpen, I felt confident in pregame, during the week, just feeling mechanics out -- so yeah, it was kind of just a testament to that.”

Woods Richardson's next turn in the rotation will come on Thursday against the AL Central-rival Guardians. It’ll be a new set of hitters to solve, but he said he’ll remain the same pitcher regardless.

“Not much changes. I just have to go with the game plan and execute, because they’re still Major League hitters," Woods Richardson said. "They’re still big league guys. They still have the best players in the world across from you, so you still have to execute. It’s still 60 feet, six inches [to the plate], and you’ve still got to go about your game plan.”