Nelson Cruz All But Guarantees Victory and Return of “a Few Guys” Tonight vs Cleveland

I woke up this morning with a bad taste in my mouth, after watching the terrible performance the Minnesota Twins put on last night. Well, part of it was my terrible morning breath, but there was more to that acidic sleeping aftertaste today. It was the moldy “L” we swallowed before bed.

The team the Twins fielded last night was a disfigured shadow of the one we’ve been watching all summer. I think this tweet from Aaron Gleeman pretty much covers how unhealthy the roster is right now:

They're short a catcher, but you can now make an entire lineup of injured (or at least not healthy) Twins hitters.

RF Max Kepler
SS Jorge Polanco
DH Nelson Cruz
3B Miguel Sano
2B Marwin Gonzalez
1B C.J. Cron
LF Jake Cave
C Ehire Adrianza (I dunno, why not)
CF Byron Buxton

— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) September 13, 2019

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Kyle Gibson didn’t help matters. He claims to be feeling better and that’s great, but I’m pretty sure his performance last night gave me ulcerative colitis. He’s BY FAR the most frustrating Twins pitcher to watch struggle. When he loses confidence, he starts nibbling and he’s bad at it. He gets behind in counts, walks batters onto bases, and then is forced to throw strikes down the middle of the plate, where they then start flying all over the baseball field and over the fenced boundary in the outfield.

But all of this is just backstory because this isn’t a Twins hate blog. It was supposed to be. Nelson Cruz, however, changed my mood in one paragraph after I pulled up the Star Tribune this morning. For anyone (everyone) who is down on this Twins team, after that series with the Nats… Nelson Cruz has a message for us (and some injury updates apparently…)

“We find we are by the wall and we push back. Tomorrow will be a good example. We all believe in each other and this is what we are here for. Anyone you ask, we want to be in this situation. We want to be in this important game. We are going to get a few guys back tomorrow, so that’s a good thing for us.”

via GIPHY

Wow. This quote is impressive in 80 different ways but I just need to touch on its genius from a few different angles.

1. It’s AS CLOSE AS YOU CAN GET to a guarantee, without me being able to write a blog about a Nelson Cruz guarantee. Because, it’s not quite a guarantee… it’s GENIUS.
2. This is what a leader does. This is the type of presence you need in the locker room to be a great team. EVERYONE is waking up down this morning. Teammates, fans, coaches… but then you read this and you can’t help but believe him. He’s Nelson-Fucking-Cruz and he is so ABSOLUTELY sure about it.
3. And just to make sure you believe him when he talks, he also throws in some insider logic as to why, or at least in-part, they will be better vs Cleveland. Apparently, the Twins will get healthier today too. Now, that’s a different type of “Cruz Bomb”.

And to touch #3 a little bit longer (lol), Nelson doesn’t just say we’re gettin one guy back. No, “a few guys back”…. What a fucking badass. Clearly, the Twins know some guys are coming back and it’s no secret to the players but Nelson Cruz doesn’t care about modesty or keeping a competitive advantage on the situation. Nah, according to him, none of that is going to matter.

I’ve gone from 6 to midnight, after reading this quote and then writing about it. I’ve never used that metaphor in a better situation than right now. I would have punched you in the face if you’d have told me when I woke up at 3:47 this morning, that I was going to be writing a positive blog about the Twins by 7 AM… but here I am.

Thanks, Nelson Cruz.

Twins by a million:

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan