{"id":287001,"date":"2024-09-19T09:11:40","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T14:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=287001"},"modified":"2024-09-19T09:12:25","modified_gmt":"2024-09-19T14:12:25","slug":"twins-wild-card-margin-tightens-to-half-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=287001","title":{"rendered":"Twins’ Wild Card Margin Tightens To Half-Game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cleveland – Carlos Correa<\/a>\u00a0made an early appearance and brought a sneak peek of his towering\u00a0October legacy<\/a>\u00a0to September on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It still wasn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Correa stepped up to the occasion of a game that might as well have had playoff-like importance and tension for these Twins by driving in all four Minnesota runs, including a clutch, go-ahead, two-run single in the 10th inning — but the depleted bullpen ran out of gas, with Ronny Henriquez and Michael Tonkin allowing three runs in a 5-4, walk-off loss<\/a> to the Guardians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The loss trimmed the Twins\u2019 lead over the Tigers for the\u00a0AL\u2019s final Wild Card berth<\/a>\u00a0down to a half-game, thanks to\u00a0Detroit finishing a sweep<\/a>\u00a0of Kansas City on Wednesday night. Another Twins loss on Thursday would formally eliminate them from contention for the AL Central title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe’ve just got to put it behind us,\u201d said Bailey Ober, who struck out a career-high 12 batters in seven innings. \u201cI know it’s happened a few times now, but we can’t dwell on what’s going on. We have to move on and get ready and play like tomorrow is our last day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But they\u2019ve had to do an awful lot of talking about rinsing and coming back better tomorrow after a string of these bad losses, spanning from the noncompetitive blowouts to the bullpen heartbreaks — and they\u2019re quickly running out of tomorrows to figure things out before the red-hot Tigers fully close the gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe other team fights as well, and they’ve got a lot of great players over there,\u201d Correa said. \u201cThey’re going to do everything they can to also come back and you’ve just got to go out there and forget about this loss. Brand new tomorrow. Try to win tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the talking about tomorrow serves a team well in a 162-game marathon, but this is now a 10-game sprint, where today is all that matters on any given day. That has translated to some glimpses of promise, of momentum, after some of those previous tough losses — but they just haven\u2019t fully seizshed it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Correa did everything he could in a three-hit game, driving in a first-inning run with an RBI fielder’s choice, legging out an infield single on his plantar fasciitis-pained right foot for another run in the fifth, then even knocking what could have been a game-winning two-run single with the bases loaded in the 10th inning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Twins simply had no leverage arms left to hold the lead, even after Ober\u2019s seven-inning start, with Louie Varland used for the eighth, Jhoan Duran used for the ninth, and both Griffin Jax and Cole Sands unavailable due to heavy recent usage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pushed into action out of necessity, Henriquez entered for the 10th inning and allowed an RBI single to Kyle Manzardo, walked Andr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez and gave up the game-tying knock to Will Brennan. Tonkin relieved and Brayan Rocchio chopped a grounder over the head of first baseman Carlos Santana to walk off for the win and give the Twins another dose of heartbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe get to the end of the game and we\u2019re going to be down on some days and not have everybody available in the \u2018pen and guys were going to [be] put in different spots,\u201d manager Rocco Baldelli said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got Ronny out there. We just weren\u2019t able to hold it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Correa and Byron Buxton have shown every bit of why the Twins pushed them back without rehab assignments to join the team for the stretch run, as they\u2019ve very much done their part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even outside Correa\u2019s three-hit game that extended his hitting streak to 16 games, matching a career-high and the longest by a Twin this season, he had reached base in four of his seven plate appearances since coming off the IL entering Wednesday following his two-month absence for the plantar fasciitis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel like I’m in a good spot,\u201d Correa said. \u201cTomorrow, I’ve got a DH day and we go from there with the athletic trainers and with the buildup and everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buxton has also looked great, having hit safely in all four games he has played since his return from a monthlong absence due to hip soreness, including a homer, double and two walks, while seemingly running well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But with Brock Stewart lost for the season and Justin Topa and Chris Paddack still not ready, this is where the bullpen is at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the Twins\u2019 stars still push the team to October? It\u2019s looking like that\u2019s what it will take.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cleveland – Carlos Correa\u00a0made an early appearance and brought a sneak peek of his towering\u00a0October legacy\u00a0to September on Wednesday night. It still wasn\u2019t enough. Correa stepped up to the occasion of a game that might as well have had playoff-like importance and tension for these Twins by driving in all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":287002,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-287001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=287001"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":287005,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287001\/revisions\/287005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/287002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=287001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=287001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=287001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}