The American League Central lead that the Minnesota Twins had carried for the majority of the year has all but evaporated. Now, they’re in serious danger of missing the playoffs entirely.
Following the Twins’ 5-3 loss in Houston to the Astros Wednesday night, the Twins are now four games back of the Cleveland Guardians.
The Guardians are 14-2 over their last 16, and now find themselves in pole position for their first division title in four years, with just six weeks remaining in the 2022 season.
The Twins have now lost their last five games. Their losing skid started Saturday, after honoring Ron Gardenhire’s entrance into the Twins’ Hall of Fame with a pregame ceremony. They dropped three of four over the weekend to a noncontending 53-65 Texas Rangers team. The Twins are 8-12 since the trade deadline, and placed all-star outfielder Byron Buxton on the Injured List Tuesday.
With tonight’s loss, the Twins fall to 62-60, and are in serious danger of entirely freefalling out of the American League playoff picture. The Guardians show no signs of letting up, and an American League wild card is going to be difficult to obtain. The Twins are four games out of the American League’s third and final wild card spot, with the Baltimore Orioles in front of them, 2.5 games back.
If the season ended today, the Houston Astros (80-45) would receive homefield advantage through the American League playoffs and a first round bye.
The New York Yankees (76-48) would also receive a bye from the wild card round of the playoffs.
The Guardians (66-56) would host the third wild card team, the Seattle Mariners (55-49), in a best-of-three series in Cleveland.
The top wild card team, the Tampa Bay Rays (68-55) would host the Toronto Blue Jays (67-55) at Tropicana in a best-of-three series.
The Orioles (64-59, 2.5 games back), Twins (62-60, 4 games back), Chicago White Sox (63-61, four games back) and Boston Red Sox (60-64, seven games back) would all miss the postseason, as would the Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers and Oakland A’s, none of whom are within striking distance of a playoff spot.
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