Disappointing Twins season ends after getting swept by Orioles

The focus now turns toward fixing the team's issues in the offseason.

Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Bailey Ober (17) delivers a pitch against the Baltimore Orioles during the first inning at Target Field in Minneapolis on Sept. 29, 2024. / Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

It was a disappointing end to a disappointing season for the Minnesota Twins. 

The Twins fell 6-2 to the Baltimore Orioles Sunday afternoon at Target Field in Minneapolis in their final game of the season. The Orioles completed the sweep of the Twins, who saw their slim playoff hopes officially come to an end with a loss in the series opener on Friday night. 

The focus now turns to what happens next season. Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey and manager Rocco Baldelli will be back, but questions remain on the roster and elsewhere on the coaching staff and in the front office. Changes will seemingly have to be made after a historic collapse that saw a team firmly in a wild-card spot at the beginning of the month miss out entirely. 

Sunday’s game was reminiscent of so many of the Twins’ games down the stretch of the season. Despite taking a 2-0 lead on solo homers from Carlos Santana — his team-leading 23rd — in the second inning and DaShawn Keirsey Jr. — the first of his career — in the third inning, the Twins (82-80) quickly gave up that lead in the fifth when James McCann hit a 381-foot, three-run homer. 

The Orioles (91-71) added a pair of insurance runs on Jordan Westburg’s two-run single in the seventh inning off Scott Blewett that made it a 5-2 advantage. Heston Kjerstad hit a 414-foot solo homer off Randy Dobnak in the eighth inning for another Orioles run. 

Bailey Ober got the start in the final game of the three and went five innings, giving up five hits overall and three runs on McCann’s homer. Ober fanned four and finishes 12-9 on the season. 

Orioles starter Albert Suarez finishes 9-7 after allowing just two runs and fanning four across six.

Now the Twins will have to turn their attention toward the offseason, where they'll have plenty to address. It's officially time for reflection after a catastrophic late-season collapse that leaves them on the outside of the playoffs looking in. There certainly won't be a shortage of things that need fixing.