MINNEAPOLIS — Nothing is official, but the Twins’ postseason chances all but evaporated Thursday night. And they have nobody to blame but themselves. Following an afternoon in which Minnesota’s nearest competitors both increased their advantage in the wild-card race, the Twins rallied from another early deficit only to lose in painstaking fashion, repeatedly fumbling throughout an 8-6, 13-inning loss to the Miami Marlins at Target Field.
Advertisement Despite overcoming a four-run deficit, the Twins stranded 11 of 15 base runners from the seventh inning on, losing a critical series to the 100-loss Marlins. The Twins finished 2-for-19 with runners in scoring position in a defeat that dropped them three games behind Kansas City and Detroit in the American League wild-card race with three to play. To reach the playoffs, the Twins must sweep the Baltimore Orioles while needing either the Atlanta Braves or Chicago White Sox to sweep the Royals or Tigers.
FanGraphs gives the Twins a 3 percent chance of reaching the playoffs. “It sucks,” catcher Ryan Jeffers said. “We had every opportunity put in front of us to win that baseball game.
Our season is on the line and we weren’t able to execute to get that run across. It’s a really, really sh—y feeling.” Thursday’s effort was a microcosm of a late-season meltdown in which the Twins blew a 10 1/2-game lead to the Tigers; they couldn’t put away the Marlins.
Needing only a run to win it in the ninth, Trevor Larnach .
