Minneapolis, Mn – It\u2019s time to find out of what these 2024 Minnesota Twins are really made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are two ways this thing can go from here, and the Twins have seen both endings. In 2022, they went 11-22 from Sept. 1 onward to skid out of postseason contention. In \u201823, they went 18-10 in that final stretch to assert their claim to the AL Central title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With Tuesday night\u2019s 8-6 loss to the Braves in 10 innings<\/a> at Target Field, the Twins took their seventh loss in nine games, with the malaise magnified by the four losses in which they took big late gut punches. This most recent one included, thanks to the frenzied late-innings comeback that sent the game to extras in the first place before the let-down of the 10th inning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For really the first time, a group governed by its fixation on the big picture acknowledged the urgency as marathon turns to sprint, from the postgame meeting manager Rocco Baldelli called after Monday\u2019s loss to less consequential things like his scratching out the little note reminding players to \u201cBe Humble\u201d at the press conference podium and rewriting it to \u201cBe Hungry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, how will Minnesota respond?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cListen, we can do it,\u201d Baldelli said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen it, I\u2019ve seen this group do it. I\u2019ve seen us do it without all of our best players on the field, our top guys. \u2026 We\u2019ve won tons of games this year and played great, not with our entire group out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd so we have to do it again. We have to dig down deep and muster it up, and do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not that a turnaround seems altogether far away, as borne out by the manner of four of those losses now — two huge bullpen implosions that turned victory into defeat on the last road trip, an Edouard Julien defensive misplay<\/a> that completely flipped Sunday\u2019s ninth inning, and Tuesday\u2019s loss, in which a pent-up Minnesota offense had no shortage of opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, the Twins can point to misfortunes, like Ryan Jeffers\u2019 liner up the middle seemingly destined to be a run-scoring hit that turned into a carom off the pitcher and a popout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But they\u2019re not without fault, like when Max Kepler pulled up at third instead of heeding the green light to score on a double, or Julien\u2019s aforementioned error. A team that played remarkably clean for much of the season is letting that slip away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs the season comes toward the end, there\u2019s a lot more pressure on everything that happens,\u201d Jeffers said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s just simply not executing or a little sloppy baseball here or there \u2026 it\u2019s really hard when these games are as valuable as they are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This isn\u2019t the Twins\u2019 final form, of course. Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton and Brooks Lee are still down with injury and on various timeframes to return — and all are expected to do so. But every club is dealing with injuries; just ask the guys in the other dugout, who are missing Spencer Strider, Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr., Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Twins\u2019 bullpen is on fumes, but will almost certainly soon gain Louie Varland as a back-end reinforcement. There\u2019s perhaps less of an immediate way to address that, but it\u2019s the group they\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere’s a lot of things you can point fingers at,\u201d Jeffers said. \u201cBut at the end of the day, we believe in this team and we know we’ve got to play better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n