One of sports' most enduring, inexplicable and painful losing streaks has finally come to an end. The Minnesota Twins earned a 3-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 1 of the American League Wild Card Round on Tuesday. Prior to the upset win, the franchise had not won a single game in the MLB playoffs since 2004 versus the New York Yankees.

Minnesota, who had the dishonor of holding the longest postseason losing streak in North American professional sports going into Tuesday, per The Athletic, can now move forward without this shame looming above them. Although the 2023 Twins are largely a different group from even the 2020 postseason squad, they were not guaranteed immunity from this dark cloud of October despair.

Why? Simply because it transcended time, circumstance and personnel. In a game that might be more influenced by external factors than any other major sport, Minnesota could not manage one win in 18 attempts. The New York Yankees were the usual culprit, besting the Twins in 16-straight playoff games.

While the team has yet to climb that Mount Everest, it changed their monumental run of misfortune in epic fashion. Rookie Royce Lewis, who returned from a strained hamstring that sidelined him since Sept. 20, belted two home runs off Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman to account for all of Minnesota's offense. Offseason acquisition All-Star Pablo Lopez held the lead and pitched nearly six innings of one-run ball.

Lopez and Jhoan Duran (two strikeouts, no hits, one walk) became the first Twins pitchers to record a win and save, respectively, in the MLB playoffs since Johan Santana and Joe Nathan almost 19 years ago. The fact that the streak ended in Target Field in front of the desperate fans who suffered through all the futility just makes the moment so much more euphoric.

Minnesota now looks to snap its nine consecutive postseason series losing streak when Sonny Gray takes the mound Wednesday.