Minnesota Twins win their first playoff series since they beat the Moneyball Oakland A’s in 2002

For the first time since 2002, the Minnesota Twins have won a playoff series.

They defeated the Toronto Blue Jays by a score of 2-0 in Game 2 of their Wild Card series on Wednesday and swept the best-of-three-game series in two games.

The Twins ended the longest playoff losing streak across all major North American sports on Tuesday when they shut the Blue Jays down with a 3-1 win on Wednesday. They had lost 18 consecutive playoff games dating back to a win over the New York Yankees in Game 1 of the 2004 ALDS.

Their playoff series loss streak dated back even longer. The last time the Twins beat an opponent in a playoff series was in 2002 when they edged out the Oakland Athletics in the ALDS. That A’s team was the one featured in the movie Moneyball.

The Twins wound up losing in five games in the American League Championship Series to the Anaheim Angels, who went on to win the World Series. This year’s version of the Twins will head to the Division Series and will go up against the Houston Astros, the winners of the American League West.

For the Blue Jays, this is yet another season that ended with a sweep in the Wild Card round. They were swept by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2020 and the Seattle Mariners in 2022. They’ve now lost seven playoff games in a row dating back to the 2016 ALCS against Cleveland.