BOSTON — In the bottom of the first inning on Wednesday night, Minnesota Twins Manager Rocco Baldelli noticed something strange in center field. Reaching down to collect a hit was Max Kepler, who was supposed to be in right field.

“We don’t really survey the field and go over the lineup card to make sure everybody’s where they’re supposed to be,” Baldelli said later, but Kepler and Jake Cave had switched positions by mistake, without the bench noticing. The next inning, Baldelli put them in their intended spots.

The mix-up had no bearing on the game, but it was an amusing reminder that even things that should be a given — like where to play in the first inning — sometimes don’t go as planned in baseball. In a season that has been defined by the dominance of the Yankees and the Houston Astros in the American League, the Twins have an alternate script in mind for the playoffs.

At 87-53 after a thrilling win over the Red Sox on Thursday night, the Twins have already won two more games than they did in 1987, when they captured the first of their two World Series titles. Their winning percentage entering this weekend’s series with the Cleveland Indians was .621 , a figure topped by just three teams in franchise history: two pennant winners as the Washington Senators, and a 1965 Twins team that also reached the World Series.