Execution issues have Twins' postseason hopes on the brink

MINNEAPOLIS -- Much like how the Twins’ 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 Twins’ bullpen was for naught, because, as has been the case throughout this month-long slide, the offense just couldn’t execute when it mattered.

While the Twins are mathematically still alive following their 8-6 marathon loss to the Marlins in 13 innings, it’s all but over, with their margin for error having entirely run out. They are now tied with the Mariners, three games back of Kansas City and Detroit, for the AL’s final Wild Card spot with three games to go.

“It sucks,” catcher Ryan Jeffers said. “We had every opportunity put in front of us to win that baseball game. Our season is on the line and we weren’t able to execute to get that run across. It’s a really, really [crappy] feeling.”

The Twins’ only remaining path is to sweep the Orioles to finish the season and hope for a sweep of the Royals (by the Braves), or a sweep of the Tigers (by the 120-loss White Sox). Barring that, their stunning collapse out of what appeared to be a sure playoff spot -- with postseason odds once as high as 95.8% on Sept. 2, per FanGraphs -- will be complete.

Following Thursday’s result, those odds plummeted to just 3.1%.

“We know we're still in it,” Byron Buxton said. “Just got to keep focusing on what we can control and do what we do.”

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.

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.

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.

“You keep thinking you’re going to scratch one across,” Jeffers said. “The pitchers kept keeping us in every single inning.”

They said all along that it would come down to execution -- and it very much did.

A playable ground ball snuck under the glove of Willi Castro at third for an RBI single during Miami’s 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.

The Marlins also struggled to execute, but they did in a pivotal moment on Castro’s 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.

“I'm like, ‘That's what we needed,’” Buxton said. “[Then] he made the catch and it was like, ‘What else do we need to do?’ That kind of was a sucker punch, because we thought we had it.”

Manager Rocco Baldelli refused to give up on the season, noting only that he wasn’t 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.

“We are not eliminated right now, at this point,” Baldelli said. “And I don’t have the mindset that we are out of this. I don’t care who’s available in the ‘pen tomorrow. I don’t care how we played today. My intention is to win out.”

But in the home clubhouse after Wednesday’s victory, the speakers had gently played Pearl Jam’s “Alive” on repeat, with Eddie Vedder continually reminding the team that, “Oh, I’m still alive.”

Following Thursday’s loss, those same speakers were dead silent.