It’s the dog days of August, and the Minnesota Twins are wearing Milk Bone underwear. An 8-6 loss to the National League Wild-Card contending Atlanta Braves on Tuesday was the Twins’ third setback out of their past four games at home. It also represented Minnesota’s seventh loss in the last nine games.
Not exactly that the pace that the Minnesota Twins want to be setting as the pennant race begins heating up. Minnesota currently sits in third place in the American League Central, having been passed by the upstart Kansas City Royals.
The Twins enter Wednesday’s series finale against the Braves three games back of the AL Central-leading Cleveland Guardians and two games behind the Royals. Kansas City holds the AL’s No. 2 Wild Card spot, with Minnesota hanging on to the third and final Wild Card slot with a four-game cushion on the Boston Red Sox.
Minnesota Twins Passed Up by Kansas City Royals
Kansas City, which finished dead last in the AL Central last season with the second-worst record in all of MLB at 56-106, are proving that the team’s sudden contending status in 2024 is not smoke and mirrors. The Royals narrowly missed sweeping the division-leading Guardians in Cleveland after the hosts rallied to top Kansas City in the finale of their three-game series.
The Royals signed a number of impact free agents last offseason, and are buoyed by AL Most Valuable Player candidate Bobby Witt Jr. The team is on pace to finish more than 40 games better than its 2023 final record.
Conversely, the 2023 AL Central champion Minnesota Twins, are finding themselves in the middle of the division pack in spite of winning at nearly the same clip as last season. An offseason salary purge and nagging injuries to such key players such as Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton have hampered the Twins in a quest to improve on last season’s finish.
Manager Says Minnesota Twins ‘Still in a Great Position’
The Minnesota Twins remain 12 games over .500 with a 72-60 record entering Wednesday. The team has remained competitive in most of its losses, with several defeats coming down to bad luck and/or defensive miscues.
To this end, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli is far from sounding the alarm concerning his squad’s recent slump. He told reporters after Tuesday’s 10-inning loss to Atlanta:
“I actually think, despite the feeling right now, that we’re not winning games and it feels crappy when you play like that, we’re still in a great position. We still have a very good group of players that we just need to start well together and I think we’ll be in a good place. But we’ve got to do that and actually make it happen. Not just talk about it.”
The Minnesota Twins close out their current nine-game homestand with three games against the Toronto Blue Jays beginning Friday night. Toronto ranks as one of the most disappointing teams of the 2024 MLB season. After making the postseason in three of the past four years, the Blue Jays have sunk to the bottom of the AL East standings with a 65-69 record entering Wednesday.
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