The Twins grinded their way back to competence.

 It's pretty easy to be negative about the Twins. Quite easy to be pessimistic. Really, really, really easy. Too easy. For years. Decades. A generation. Too easy to be pessimistic. There is something about this team that leads me to be less so, though.

The last couple of years, the unreasonable optimism I had came from their incredibly poor luck. Year over year, their "clutch" rating looked unsustainable, but somehow the Twins managed to sustain their inability to hit in important situations. This year, that hasn't been the reason for the slow start. They've just been legitimately bad. Don't worry, I'm getting to my reason for a little optimism.

The Twins have started to string together wins, so I think this optimism was indeed warranted, but it looked especially dark in Atlanta. Games were blown, pitching was poor, but they remained in contention through even the games that they were losing. How? 

They were hustling. Runs weren't coming off of the batted ball, but they were coming through advancing runners, heads up baserunning, stolen bases and a general attitude of hard work. Byron Buxton has been the best version of himself this season, stealing bases and scoring runs pretty much whenever he gets on base. As the teams emotional leader, it spread to young players like Luke Keaschall and veterans like Harrison Bader.

It was bound to click eventually. The Twins came back to Minnesota after grinding out their previous home series with the Mets and having a calamitous set in Atlanta to a series opener with the White Sox. They didn't hit great against White Sox pitcher Davis Martin, but smart baserunning and just one home run from Trevor Larnach put them in front. It was a running catch from Buxton that ultimately kept the game in the Twins' hands. Hustle. 

The only game the Twins have lost since was a rain shortened game against the White Sox, just as the Twins were starting to get into the Chicago bullpen. The offense has come alive, buoyed by a persistent effort, even in the face of poor performance. Maybe there will be more stumbles along the way, but and certainly some more cold spells, but at the very least, the Twins are putting up a fight.