TWINS in sharp descent, World Juniors continue on… Don’t look now friends, but our Minnesota Twins have fallen from first place, and it isn’t a given at this time that they will be able to get back into it. They just finished up with a quick five-game west coast swing where they put up an unremarkable 1-4 record. They dropped two games right out of the chute against the LA Dodgers and then went 1-2 in a three-game series against the LA Angels. With the Cleveland Guardians and Chicago White Sox breathing down their neck for the last couple of months, they have finally dropped the AL Central Division lead to CLE and are currently tied with the ChiSox. Tonight CLE sits in first with a 61-53 record, the Twins find themselves with a 58-55 record, and the ChiSox are at 59-56, leaving both clubs at 2.5 games out of the lead. And since the Central is the weakest division in the AL, if not in all of MLB, it seems likely that no team from it will qualify for a Wild Card playoff spot. If you don’t win the division, your season will be over. Three teams will get Wild Card spots; the Twins and ChiSox are currently sitting in the 5th and 6th positions. Without a drastic upward move in the quality of their play, neither team will move up enough to qualify. Since May, the Twins went 12-15 in June, followed by a 10-12 July and have gone 5-7 thus far in August. That is a 27-34 summer so far, and that’s why the team no longer leads the division. Does the remainder of the season’s schedule help or hinder the Twin’s divisional title hopes? Here’s what it looks like; KC/3 games, TEX/4 games, @HOU/3 games, SF/3games, BOS/3 games, @CWS/3 games, @NYY/4 games, CLE/3 games, KC/3 games, @CLE/4 games, @ KC/3 games, LAA/3 games, CWS/3 games, @DET/3 games and finally @ CWS/3 games. Friends, I know that totals only 161 games, one short of a 162-game season. To the best of my knowledge, I believe there was a game postponed in Seattle earlier in the season that wasn’t made up and probably won’t be unless that game has playoff implications. From the Twin’s standpoint, it probably won’t be. On the Seattle side of things, they are in a WC spot right now, and I’d be surprised if they got pushed out of it. And on the downside, in examining the remaining schedule, outside of the Royals and Tigers, the Twins have struggled with every other team on the rest of their schedule. It doesn’t bode well for their chances to get in. Neither Cleveland’s nor the ChiSox remaining schedules look as daunting as the Twins does. And both clubs have been slowly improving over the summer, not declining like the Twins. I wish this weren’t so, but in looking at the data available, I’m not too fond of the Twin’s chances. I hope my assessment is incorrect. I’m just being honest here.
