With 40 games to go, Twins' playoff chances have crumbled
A fifth straight loss Wednesday night has the Twins just two games over .500 (62-60) and four games behind the red-hot Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central. With 40 games to go, the Twins' odds of advancing to the playoffs has crumbled to 22.6%.
According to FanGraphs, Minnesota has a 14.9% chance to win the division and just a 7.7% chance to grab one of the three wild card spots. Entering play Thursday, the Twins are in a fight with the Rays, Mariners, Blue Jays, Orioles and White Sox for the three wild cards.
But while the Twins don't play the Rays, Jays, Mariners or Orioles again this season, they do play the Guardians and White Sox a combined 17 times before the end of September. The key is obvious: Beat the Guardians and White Sox.
But just as important is not falling further behind when they're not playing their division rivals. The Twins play the Astros one more time Thursday night and then return to Minneapolis for a six-game homestand against the Giants and Red Sox.
It'll be imperative for the Twins to dominate those home games, especially considering Cleveland has to head to Seattle for four against the Mariners. It's far and away the best opportunity the Twins have to climb a little close to Cleveland.
Remember, the Twins went all-in at the trade deadline by acquiring Jorge Lopez and Michael Fulmer to bolster the bullpen, and they got Tyler Mahle to upgrade the starting rotation. Mahle, and perhaps Byron Buxton, Trevor Larnach and others will return from injuries in early September.
But Minnesota cannot wait for them to put the pedal to the metal.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.