Ironic End to Season?
Written by Andrew Kneeland   
Wednesday, 30 September 2009 21:08

Let me be clear: the Twins aren't quite finished yet. Detroit's magic number is two games, and there are four games left on the regular season schedule. With the right combination of solid play and good luck, they could still win this thing. Possible? Yes. Likely? No.

On August 7th Minnesota was 5.5 games behind the division-leading Tigers. Although they were in third place in the division, there were still over 50 games remaining on the schedule and a comeback was still very possible.

Carl Pavano was added through waivers for the hopeful playoff push. Pavano previously had great starts against the Tigers and the Twins thought his successful track record may come in handy should Minnesota find itself in a division-deciding series late in the season.

Guess what? The Twins did pull closer to the Tigers and found themselves just two games back with a four-game series coming up.  Luckily, Pavano was slated to pitch the third game, and his Tiger-taming would certainly come in handy!

I don't need to tell you how that worked out. Pavano gave up seven runs on seven hits during 4.2 innings. Easily his worst outing while with Minnesota, this will also be his last start.

The pitch that ended the Twins' season came from the pitcher who was brought on to save it.

If I had to put odds on the Twins' chances to reach the postseason right now, I'd give them about a 10 percent chance. Not likely, and the Twins are forced to become scoreboard watchers, but that doesn't mean the final weekend won't be exciting.

Even if the season officially ended with that high fastball, there is still myriad of positive aspects to the season. Be sure to hang around Twins Target no matter how this season ends up; we'll have tons of great content as we head into the winter season, reviewing both the good and not-so-good parts of the year, as well as previewing the always-exciting Hot Stove League.

That said, a loss tomorrow afternoon guarantees the division title to Detroit. The least the Twins can do is make the Tigers work hard for the AL Central!



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Comments (3)Add Comment
...
written by MikeM, September 30, 2009
Kubel and/or Ulger blew it in the first inning. A ball hit off to the center field fence goes for a single! The Twins should have had 4 or 5 runs that inning with any normal base running.
Minnesota Twins
written by Jack Steal, September 30, 2009
I like your new blog and hope you are right!!
Thanks!
written by andrewkneeland, September 30, 2009
Mike, you're completely right on the poor baserunning. On a fly ball that deep at least another additional run should have scored. And thank you for not blaming Morales' double-play ball... he's not at fault for hitting the ball hard. Unfortunately it was right to Polanco, but there's nothing Morales could have done about that.

Thanks, Jack.

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Andrew Kneeland can be reached by emailing: akneeland [at] bleacherreport [dot] com.
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