Alex Potter of the Duluth Huskies fired a pitch against the LaCrosse Loggers. Photo by John Gilbert.

Without question, this is the weirdest season the Minnesota Twins have ever had in their long Major League Baseball history.

And yet, here they are in first place in the American League where even a modest winning streak has boosted them above .500 and ahead of the Cleveland Guardians and the sputtering Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals. The White Sox and Royals are young and hopeful, but also among the least challenging teams in all of MLB, while Detroit has shown signs of climbing above that woeful status.

The Twins have gotten the strong starting pitching they have traded for, and their bullpen is showing signs of not automatically blowing tight games for the starters. But they’ve done it despite hitting that has been atrocious. Only since the All-Star break has it appeared that the Twins lineup might be able to manufacture some runs when necessary, but even that is greatly dependent on the opposition. The better teams seem to stifle the Twins, who then feast on the lowly teams to stay at or just above .500. The Twins came out of the break at Oakland, where the A’s are the only team in the American League rivaling Chicago and Kansas City for ineptitude, and the Twins celebrated sweeping the A’s, although they were difficult battles before winning 5-4, 10-7 and 5-4.

Then they went north to Seattle, where the Mariners were struggling after showing signs of contending. The Twins lost 7-6, won 10-3 and 6-3 to regain that dominant look, but in mid-swagger they were blanked 5-0 in the series finale for a split of the series. Manager Rocco Baldelli made a couple of the worst decisions of the season in that game. The Twins hitting finally started to look decent, mainly because Carlos Correa and Max Kepler — two veterans who had been counted on to lead the offense — finally got their heads and their swings in focus.

I was listening to a guy who does some sports radio in Duluth and he is definitely not a Twins fan, berating the team for its inconsistency, and a focal point of his rant was to say, “Why is Kepler even on this team?” After the rant, a promo for the Twins broadcast came on, using the trite rebroadcast of a couple highlights from the season, and the first one was, “back it goes, deep it goes, and it’s gone — that’s the third home run for Kepler in the last three games!”

Humorous.

At any rate, Baldelli made what might have seemed rational to give a couple of his key players a day off, so he took Correa and Kepler out of the lineup. The result? Being shut out 5-0.

Analytics can be misleading, if they indicate it’s OK to take the only two key batters out of what has been such a fragile lineup. The Twins came home and faced the White Sox, and won 9-4, 3-2, and 5-4, to run their post-All-Star record to 8-2 — best in the Majors, we’re told.

My wife, Joan, and I were stopping to do a little shopping while the Twins were trailing the White Sox 3-0 in the 10th game of this post-all-star stretch, and it was the seventh inning. I said to Joan, “The Twins division is so weak, that these bottom teams can be predicted to fall apart and give the game to the Twins, even when they seem in control.”

We returned to the car and it was still 3-0 in the last of the ninth, when, sure enough, the White Sox gave the Twins three runs in a spirited rally to tie the game 3-3. The Twins had to rally again in the 10th, and finally won it 5-4 in the 12th. The clear benefit of having the strong right arms of, in order, Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan, Sonny Gray, Bailey Ober and Kenta Maeda to stroll out to the mound and give the Twins a strong basis, game after game, have been pivotal in the Twins stature.

As for the offense, Correa is up to .232, a batting average that reminds me of the country song, “Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me.” But it’s a surge Correa has shown that involves key hits and key times. Kepler is up to .221, a similar improvement for a promising hitter who was mired below .200 for most of the season.

Luckily, Correa is proven as one of baseball’s best shortstops with a rocket arm, and Kepler has proven to be among the very best defensive right fielders in the Majors. Their hitting gives some aid to rookie Eddie Julien who has taken over second base despite an erratic arm from the shortest throwing position in the infield. Saving the Twins, along with the rookie Julien, has been Alex Kiriloff, an outfielder who has developed rapidly into a solid first baseman, with the possible exception of his knack for throwing short tosses to covering pitchers that sail over their heads to allow runners to reach base.

But Kiriloff has brought up his average, hitting .282 with 59 hits alongside his 60 strikeouts. Remember, he got his 59 hits in 209 at-bats, compared to Buxton getting 57 hits in 292 times up. Consider that going into the season, the batting order with Correa, Kepler, Jorge Polanco and Byron Buxton looked indeed formidable.

But Polanco has had some ailments that has limited him to 120 at-bats and apparently has cost him his second base spot. He will come back and play third, we’re told, and he can do it, but he is a brilliant second baseman.

uxton remains the most tragic figure. Kept out of playing center field, he has only been used as designated hitter — or make that, designated non-hitter. Through 292 at-bats, Buxton is hitting only .195, and after finally cracking the code of an 0-for-25 slump with two home runs in the first White Sox game, he sagged back, and we can only hope he gets it going. Buxton has 57 hits total, compared to 106 strikeouts.

Joey Gallo has 105 strikeouts, then the whiff parade dips down to Mike Taylor, who has 93 and Correa at 87. Among those who have become solid after not being counted on are Donovan Solano, hitting .265 with 65 hits and 65 strikeouts; Willi Castro, who is hitting .246 with 55 hits and 65 strikeouts in limited duty but is a good outfielder and an exceptional base-stealer; Kyle Farmer, hitting .252 with 51 hits and 58 strikeouts; and catchers Ryan Jeffers (.272 with 41 hits and 52 whiffs) and Christian Vazquez (.215 with 43 hits and 51 strikeouts) in alternating duty behind the plate; and rookie homesteader Matt Wallner of Forest Lake, hitting .308 with 12 hits and 10 strikeouts.

It was Jeffers who delivered the single to drive in the tying run in that three-run rally in the last of the ninth against the White Sox, and he came back up to single home the walk-off game-winner in the 12th. The bullpen, led by closer Johan Duran and his 104-mph fastballs, is greatly improved, too, although they still have the tendency to turn a Maeda gem into a tie and no-decision, game after game. But Baldelli is at least letting the starters go six or seven innings, taking the load off the relievers. The stretch run has a chance to be impressive for the Twins, though, with the Mariners and  then the Royals coming to Minneapolis to end July.

All the ingredients are there for the Twins to keep pitching and defending and to continue to improve their hitting, and they could put some more distance between themselves and the Guardians, who seem reluctant to stay above .500 and could fall behind to buffer any moments of faltering by Minnesota. Not that we’ll assume anything. August brings looming battles against the St. Louis Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Milwaukee Brewers and Texas Rangers, with only a couple doses of the improving Tigers for respite before a few showdown games against the Guardians end August and continue in September.

Huskies make a run

The Duluth Huskies are making a strong bid to challenge for the second-half pennant in their Northwoods League division, and they borrowed the same formula from the Twins, apparently.

They smacked the Minnesota Mud Puppies to end their last homestead, then they really got healthy at Minot against the Minot Hot Tots, blasting seven home runs in a 19-14 shootout, led by Michael Hallquist, who tied a team record with his 10th home run in the first inning and then set the record at 11 with another homer in the fourth. Hallquist followed Ethan Cole with a first-inning home run, and Tyler Leroy added a third homer in the five-tun first. Raymond Velazquez homered in the third, and he and Hallquist both ended up with two homers, while Cold also hit two out of the park during his 5-for-5 night that featured five runs scored and four RBIs in the Saturday night special.

The next night, Sunday, the Huskies beat Minot 9-7 for their fourth straight win, with six runs in the first inning, when Velazquez hit a grand slam. Max Coupe and Hallquist both homered in the second inning, giving Hallquist his 12th of the season, which leads the league. The Huskies led 9-1 after two innings, but the bullpen tried to make a game of it, yielding six runs in the last two innings. This longest road trip of the season has gone well for the surging Huskies, who, like the Twins, are getting solid starting pitching with sometimes shaky relief work.