Twins lose grip on AL Central lead after loss in LA

LOS ANGELES -- The Twins have hoped to be playing into October, and Wednesday’s raucous affair at Dodger Stadium might have presented as good a preview of such an environment as they’ve seen all season. The ear-splitting roars as Dodgers hitters deposited baseballs over the fence were rivaled only by the thunderous boos raining down upon Los Angeles postseason heel Carlos Correa.

Still, it’s been some time since October was so distant for these Twins -- according to the standings, anyway.

Minnesota had held at least a share of first place in the American League Central for all but one day since April 24. But after Wednesday’s 8-5 loss at Dodger Stadium sealed a two-game sweep at the hands of the Dodgers, the Twins fell into second for the first time since June 22, one game behind the Guardians, and also one game behind the Orioles and Rays in the race for the third Wild Card slot.

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"I think thinking too much about the postseason or anything going on later this month, next month and especially October, that's a lot of thinking, and we have a lot of doing that we need to do and get done,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “So again, there's nothing really else on our minds besides this Friday, getting back out there and winning a ballgame.”

Considering the talent throughout the Dodgers’ roster, the Twins were going to need perfect baseball, or something close, to stave off the 77-win juggernaut in the opposing dugout. They were far from that, including three errors and a missed play at the center-field warning track by Gilberto Celestino that led to a pinch-hit, three-run blast by Joey Gallo in the seventh inning, which proved decisive.

The Dodgers out-executed the Twins when it mattered, and that’s what an elite team does.

In the fifth inning, while holding a lead due to Jorge Polanco’s three-run homer, Minnesota loaded the bases against reliever Alex Vesia, and the 3-2 pitch to Celestino was a fastball right down the middle, lined to center field for an out. In the bottom of the frame, Dodgers catcher Will Smith got a fastball in almost the same location and mashed it for a game-tying double.

In the sixth, newly acquired reliever Michael Fulmer got to two outs before shaking off an 0-2 slider and changing to a curveball, which he hung. Chris Taylor crushed it over the fence in left-center for a go-ahead home run.

“They're a talented group; we're a talented group as well,” Baldelli said. “We've been on some good runs. Earlier this year, we really got locked in and played some good baseball. We're looking to get on that kind of run again. I don't want to let the emotion of a series where we didn't play as well as we needed overwhelm us in any way.”

That’s been an issue for the Twins in their recent playoff runs, too, with messy baseball in the Bronx contributing to their sweep at the hands of the Yankees in the 2019 ALDS and a pivotal Polanco error against the Astros in the 2020 Wild Card Series leading to that sweep, too. In another raucous environment, the Twins again saw lapses in execution.

It’s been a while since the Twins played their best baseball this year anywhere. They’re 6-9 since the All-Star break, 14-17 since July 1, and 27-32 since June 1. They’ve had spurts of good baseball here and there, but they haven’t won more than two games in a row since late June.

Ten straight games against sub-.500 teams await, and the Twins have a combined 17 games in September against the Guardians and White Sox to determine their divisional fate. They’ve matched up decently against those teams -- but, as this series showed, there’s still an execution gap between them and the elites.

They hope they’ll eventually need to worry about that again. But they have to cast that aside -- out of necessity -- because they’re now the chasers, and no longer the chased.

“It’s not time to get ourselves down [after] losing to the best team in the league right now when we just played [Toronto], and it was a great series,” Correa said. “We’ve just got to keep our focus on the teams that are in our league and we’re going to face in order for us to get to that ultimate goal, and when we cross paths with them again, then we’re going to make adjustments.”