to just 3.1%<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cWe know we’re still in it,\u201d Byron Buxton said. \u201cJust got to keep focusing on what we can control and do what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They had their chances — and plenty of them — to buck those odds, both of their own making and gifted to them by a shaky Marlins defense. Brooks Lee found a big hit in the eighth inning with a two-run double that ultimately sent the game to extras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Twins finished 2-for-19 with runners in scoring position, unable to score even the automatic runner, which would have given them the win in the 11th or the 12th, loading the bases in the former and popping into a bunt double play in the latter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the bullpen tested to its limits, Scott Blewett and Justin Topa — the very end of the group — coughed up three runs in the 13th, and that was that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou keep thinking you\u2019re going to scratch one across,\u201d Jeffers said. \u201cThe pitchers kept keeping us in every single inning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They said all along that it would come down to execution — and it very much did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A playable ground ball snuck under the glove of Willi Castro at third for an RBI single during Miami\u2019s three-run fifth, Jeffers simply dropped a throw home on a run-scoring play later that inning, and a mostly healthy lineup couldn’t find the hits that mattered against a 100-loss team with their season on the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Marlins also struggled to execute, but they did in a pivotal moment on Castro\u2019s deep fly ball to center in the 10th, on which Derek Hill made a tumbling grab at the warning track. That limited the Twins to just one run on the sac fly instead of the two-run double that would have won the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI’m like, \u2018That’s what we needed,\u2019\u201d Buxton said. \u201c[Then] he made the catch and it was like, \u2018What else do we need to do?\u2019 That kind of was a sucker punch, because we thought we had it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Manager Rocco Baldelli refused to give up on the season, noting only that he wasn\u2019t willing to concede defeat until the math catches up to them. All that would take at this point is another Twins loss, or at least one Royals win and at least one Tigers win, in the next three days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are not eliminated right now, at this point,\u201d Baldelli said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t have the mindset that we are out of this. I don\u2019t care who\u2019s available in the \u2018pen tomorrow. I don\u2019t care how we played today. My intention is to win out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in the home clubhouse after Wednesday\u2019s victory, the speakers had gently played Pearl Jam\u2019s \u201cAlive\u201d on repeat, with Eddie Vedder continually reminding the team that, \u201cOh, I\u2019m still alive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following Thursday\u2019s loss, those same speakers were dead silent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MINNEAPOLIS – Much like how the Twins\u2019 extended collapse out of the postseason picture has seemingly happened in slow motion, what might very well have been the final act of that relentless slide down the standings was a prolonged affair. All the holding on for dear life done by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":275333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-287271","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\/287271","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=287271"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":287294,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287271\/revisions\/287294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/275333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=287271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=287271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=287271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}