The spoiler tour officially ended Sunday after the Twins lost their 100th game of the season to the Seattle Mariners, 4-3.
Molitor on 100th loss: "It doesn’t sit well. I’ve never experienced it. It's going to stare at you all winter long, I know that."
— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) September 25, 2016
And like a lot of losses this season, this one fell into a fairly predictable pattern of not enough pitching (Hector Santiago surrendered three home runs), not enough defense (the team committed three more errors), and while they outhit the Mariners on Sunday (9 to 6), they also struck out 11 times as a team.
Dozier to fans:"We're all in this together to get things turned around and bring a winning team, a winning baseball team, back to Minnesota"
— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) September 25, 2016
It’s also the first time the Twins have lost 100 games since 1982. That year they finished 60-102. The Twins can tie that record if they win four of their final six games over the Kansas City Royals and Chicago White Sox. If not, 2016 will go down as the worst season in Twins history.
One-hundred loss seasons for the Twins and Washington Senators. The Senators became the Twins in 1961.
2016: 56-100 (as of Sunday)
1982: 60-102
1955: 53-101
1949: 50-104
1909: 42-110
1907: 49-102
1904: 38-113
Jose Berrios gets the ball on Tuesday.
Extra innings…
-Sunday’s three errors now gives the Twins 125 on the season.
-Brian Dozier’s hitting streak ended at 24 games.
-Sunday’s game was the last at Target Field for 2016. Paid attendance was 22,092.
-The Twins will finish 2016 with losing records against every team in the American League, except for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (4-2), the Texas Rangers (5-2) and the Seattle Mariners (4-2).
-Hector Santiago on Sunday fell to 12-10 with an ERA of 4.87 since coming to the Twins in August in exchange for Ricky Nolasco.
-Max Kepler hit his 17th home run on Sunday.