The Minnesota Twins‘ recent collapse has been monumental.
A few weeks ago, they were fighting with the Cleveland Guardians and the Chicago White Sox for the AL Central division.
Fast forward to Thursday, and they lost yet another game to a lousy Kansas City Royals team and are now 9.5 games out of first place.
Wow.
After their 4-1 loss to the Royals on Thursday afternoon, the Twins fell to 73-77, and the playoffs are now a pipe dream.
“Yes, the scoreboard totals are correct. Yes, the #MNTwins just got swept in Kansas City. Yes, the Twins just finished what began as a potentially critical road trip with a 1-7 record. Yes, they’re 73-77. Yes, they’ve won four road games since the start of August,” Dan Hayes of The Athletic tweeted.
Yes, the scoreboard totals are correct.
Yes, the #MNTwins just got swept in Kansas City.
Yes, the Twins just finished what began as a potentially critical road trip with a 1-7 record.
Yes, they're 73-77.
Yes, they've won four road games since the start of August.— DanHayesMLB (@DanHayesMLB) September 22, 2022
It’s Time To Think About 2023
Getting swept by the Royals has to be a season-low for the Twins, but again: it can always be worse.
We don’t have a way of knowing if the Twins already hit rock bottom or if they will keep going to the field and disappointing their fans some more.
Minnesota is in a good position to compete next year, with a strong core of young, controllable players and some money to spend.
Fans, however, are frustrated because they could theoretically fight for a playoff spot in 2022: they shared first place with the Guardians at one point a few weeks ago.
They were 92 days in first place.
Yet, they are 9.5 games behind now.
The Twins’ 1-7 road trip record effectively killed any playoff hopes they could have.
Now, it’s time to think about next year.
In MLB, no team can think about October by winning just four road games in nearly two months.
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