The Twins fell two games back of the final wild card spot in the American League on Tuesday after they lost to the lowly Miami Marlins, a team on the verge of losing 100 games.
No matter. The Fish scored four runs in the second inning, the Twins countered with a run in the third, but that was all the run-scoring either team would produce en route to a 4-1 Miami win.
The Twins are 81-76 with five games left in the regular season. If they are going to play October baseball, they not only have to win — like win five straight — they also have to pray that they get help from the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals. That seems unlikely.
The Tigers are one of the hottest teams in the game. Tarik Skubal is an 18-game winner after he beat the Tampa Bay Rays 2-1 on Tuesday and the Royals snapped their seven-game losing streak with a 1-0 win over the Washington Nationals. Motown is 8-2 in their last 10 games.
The Twins try again tomorrow. Simeon Woods Richardson gets the ball.
Extra innings…
-Bailey Ober fell to 12-8 with a 3.94 after Tuesday’s loss. He allowed four runs on eight hits, including a home run, across five innings with two walks and seven strikeouts on 89 pitches.
-Ober’s effort wasn’t bad, but he got no help from the offense. The Twins had two extra-base hits and were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base.
-Reliever Cole Irvin is pretty underwhelming, isn’t he? He entered the game in the ninth and pitched a scoreless inning, but he also walked two batters and only nine of his 19 pitches landed for strikes.
-The Twins have been terrible against the National League this season. They are 17-27.
-The Twins’ playoff chances have plummeted in recent weeks, according to Baseball-Reference.com. They now have a 39.9 percent chance to make the playoffs, down more than 50 percent over the past 30 days.
That sounds about right.