Orioles 7, Twins 2: Dead on, During, and After Arrival

The Twins had one last fleeting hope at the postseason thanks to the Atlanta Braves taking a game from the Kansas City Royals earlier this year, but the bats once again showed no interest in this season going on any longer than it already has.

In front of a sparse crowd on a beautiful September night, Pablo Lopez had a strong start in his final outing of 2024 with some trouble early and late and brilliance in between. A second inning two-run bomb by Ryan O’Hearn got the Baltimore Orioles on the board first, but Pablo only allowed one other through five innings. Up 2-0, the Orioles finally managed to build a threat in the sixth, loading the bases with one out. Pablo managed to get Ramon Urias swinging before Caleb Thielbar came in to get Gunnar Henderson and keep the Twins’ playoff hopes alive.

Things went south from there. With the bullpen completely spent thanks to last night’s incompetent 13-inning loss, the Twins had to turn to lefty Kody Funderburk in the eighth inning in his first Big League action in two and a half months. The O’s started the inning with four straight singles to push the score to 4-0. A sac fly, RBI groundout, and one more RBI single later and the lead became 7-0, an insurmountable deficit for this offense.

The Twins rallied late, but only managed two hits and four baserunners prior to the ninth inning. A Carlos Correa walk, Byron Buxton double, and Carlos Santana single brought in the Twins two runs, but there was simply nothing happening offensively all game as they were shut down by former Twins prospect Cade Povich and his 5.59 ERA.

With the Twins officially eliminated, manager Rocco Baldelli shared his thoughts on the season in his postgame remarks. There are plenty of reasons to not expect Rocco back next year, but his thoughts here show why he still has a lot of respect from Twins players, front office personnel, and around the league.

We’ll have various season wrap-up pieces on the site soon, but let me share with you some final thoughts. There’s plenty of blame to go around, starting with ownership and ending with Louie Varland specifically, but man is it fun to be in the race. Even a September collapse is vastly more fun to watch than anything the Twins did from 2011-2016. Even though I know how astronomically unlikely it is, I hope the Pohlads can see how much Twins fans care about this franchise and start to do the same.

There’s plenty of time to speculate on free agents, trade acquisitions, and coaching hires (and trust me, I’ve already started working on it). For now, let’s appreciate Byron Buxton’s most complete season of his career, Carlos Correa’s career-best offensive season, Pablo Lopez’s weekly brilliance, Griffin Jax embarrassing grown men with his sweeper, and Jhoan Duran pumping 104 MPH fastballs.

Thanks to all of you for joining us on the site and in the game threads this season, even as the wins and our hope started dwindling. I mention this every year, but the writers at Twinkie Town do this because we value that interaction and getting together in our fun, rational corner of the internet. Until you get James or I started on one of our anti-billionaire rants, then all respect is thrown out of the window.

I hope you’ll join us for these last two games. Even with the Twins officially out of the race, there’s always something new to see at the ballpark. Who knows, maybe we’ll even see Jair Camargo finally catch a game.

STUDS

Anyone who has watched the Twins consistently for the past six weeks

DUDS

No duds! WE win, even if the Twins don’t

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Just kidding, Royce, I wasn’t going to let you get away with another stinker.

0-4, 1 K, general offensive incompetence