The Guardians beat the Twins 11-4 Monday afternoon to drop Minnesota seven games back in the AL Central and eight games back in the wild card race, effectively ending the Twins shot at a playoff spot. It’s a tough ending to an otherwise nice year for the Twinkies. They ruled the division from April 24th to August 9th, their largest lead 5 1/2 games (they did spend one day in second place in that stretch). Starting on July 26, the Twins are 21-30, while the Guardians put together a 32-20 run. That Cleveland run included a 7-1 stretch in September against Minnesota.
What happened to the Twins? The team hit .253/.324/.419 through July 25th, .236/.303/.377 through Sunday. The starting pitchers went 30-25 with a 3.90 ERA in the first 96 games, with a low walk rate. Since then, they are 11-18 with a 4.44 ERA with a higher home run rate. There’s plenty of blame to go around, but the team lost three players in the second half on offense that made a big difference. They missed OBP from Max Kepler and Jorge Polanco, and power from Byron Buxton.
Still this is an improvement over 2021 and gives the Twins something to build from.
It’s an improvement, no doubt about it. But still, they’re going to finish around .500 in a weak division. They have a lot of work to do if they really want to contend for a championship.