MINNEAPOLIS — One quirk of this season’s new, more balanced schedule is that the Twins are already finished playing the Yankees and it’s not even the end of April. They split a four-game series in New York two weekends ago, and the Twins just took two out of three from the Yankees at Target Field. (Thankfully, as ugly as Wednesday’s game was, it counts as only one loss.)

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And that’s it. They won’t play again until 2024. In the regular season, at least.

Normally, it’s not newsworthy when one contending team goes 4-3 in a season series against another contending team, but there hasn’t been anything normal about Twins-Yankees matchups for a very long time.

Consider this astounding fact: With a 4-3 record, the Twins have posted their first winning regular season against the Yankees since way back in 2001, when Tom Kelly was still their manager. They went 4-2 versus the Yankees that year, and the pitchers recording those four victories were Brad Radke, Eric Milton, Joe Mays and Eddie Guardado.

It’s been a while.

“I don’t even know how to put that in words,” Byron Buxton said when told about that history following Tuesday’s season series-clinching win. “Twenty-two years. Twenty-two years? I was 6. That’s the last time we won? This one felt extra good after hearing that then. … It feels a lot like that monkey is off the back for sure now.”

Watch as Byron Buxton’s mind is blown when he learns that 2001 was the last time the #MNTwins won a season series against the Yankees:

— Do-Hyoung Park (@dohyoungpark) April 26, 2023

Last time the Twins had a winning record against the Yankees in any season, I was a high school senior who had never written a single word about baseball for an audience. I’m now 40 years old and have been a professional baseball writer for more than half of my life. Essentially my entire baseball-writing career has been spent watching Twins teams with losing records against the Yankees.

So while a 4-3 record isn’t worth celebrating, it’s definitely worth celebrating.

Or so I thought. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli, who was still two years from starting his MLB playing career in 2001, didn’t really see it that way.

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“I’m not going to add any more significance to these wins,” Baldelli said after Tuesday’s victory. “I’m just glad about the way we’re playing baseball right now.”

I gave Baldelli a chance to sleep on it, and then asked him before Wednesday’s game if playing all seven Yankees matchups in April was a good thing in that it provided an early season test for the Twins — which they passed — while also letting them turn their attention elsewhere for the next five months.

“I’d love to help you with some drama in the quote here, but I can’t,” Baldelli joked, seeing through my transparent attempt to turn him into an angst-filled Twins fan with decades of Yankees-related trauma. “Yes, we’ll be done with the Yankees in April. It’ll be all done. No one will have to discuss it anymore. Well, hopefully we’re discussing it later on in the year, but that’ll be the end of it.”

Fair enough, especially considering how Wednesday’s series finale played out a few hours later, with Kenta Maeda getting knocked around in a 12-6 loss that wasn’t even that close. But still, 2001 is a really long time ago.

Buck Bomber. #MNTwins

— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) April 26, 2023

In the 22 years since the Twins posted a winning record against the Yankees, they went a combined 38-98 for a .279 winning percentage, equivalent to 117 losses in a full 162-game season. And that doesn’t even include a 2-16 record versus the Yankees in the playoffs during that time, which is truly the stuff of soul-crushing nightmares.

Of course, a winning record against the Yankees in the regular season doesn’t guarantee things will be any different against the Yankees, or another team, in the postseason. There can’t be a fact more astounding than the Twins losing 18 consecutive playoff games, 13 of them versus the Yankees.

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And one of the many frustrating and maddening aspects of the Twins’ historic playoff losing streak is that nothing can be done about it until October.

Year after year, regardless of how many smart offseason moves the Twins make from November through March, and no matter how well they play in the regular season from April to September, nothing is capable of snapping the interminable playoff losing streak except winning playoff games in October.

“Talk to me when they win a playoff game” is such an effective buzzkill for all things Twins because it literally isn’t doable for 11 months out of every year. It would be like a parent responding “talk to me when you graduate college” each time their child shows them a sixth-grade spelling bee trophy or an aced junior-high math test. Effective buzzkill? Absolutely. Productive? Not even a little bit.

No team has ever won a playoff game without first making the playoffs, which is why offseason moves and regular-season wins are important steps toward the bigger-picture goal that’s loomed over everything the Twins have done for two decades. No, the Twins can’t snap their playoff losing streak in April, but playing well in April can help them reach their ultimate goal. And it sure beats the alternative.

Great play by Jorge Polanco to rob Aaron Judge of a hit up the middle.

Jorge López was very excited about it.

— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) April 26, 2023

If you can’t find a reason to celebrate the Twins posting a winning record against the Yankees for the first time in 22 years, it’s possible you’re into buzzkills more than baseball. At the very least, splitting a series at the house of horrors called Yankee Stadium and winning a series against their eternal tormentors at Target Field provides evidence that 2023 could be different. After all, it already is.

None of which guarantees anything come May or July or September, let alone in October, but to have a chance to win playoff games the Twins must first win enough regular-season games to get there, and to give fans genuine hope of the streak ending requires beating playoff-caliber foes. With a 6-4 record versus the Yankees and the reigning champion Astros, they have some proof of concept.

Playing at a 91-win pace through the 25-game mark at 14-11, the Twins lead the division despite plenty of ups and downs. And the other AL Central teams each have losing records and negative run differentials, as the Guardians, White Sox, Tigers and Royals have combined to go 34-64 while being outscored by 158 runs. If you thought the division was there for the taking last season, now it’s sitting out on the curb with a “FREE: TAKE ME!” sign attached.

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“Talk to me when they win a playoff game” can still buzzkill all of that and then some, of course. Nothing that happens this April has any ability to change what the Twins haven’t done in October for the past two decades. But winning games and playing good baseball against quality competition should never be taken for granted, especially after back-to-back losing seasons. It’s meant to be enjoyed.

Eventually, the Twins are going to snap their historic playoff losing streak, and in whichever season that takes place, it’s easy to envision it starting like this one.

(Photo of Joey Gallo: Nick Wosika / USA Today)