AL Central race shaping up to be tense for Twins

LOS ANGELES -- A pair of division leaders walked into Chavez Ravine on Tuesday night. One looked much more the part -- and the other walked away having lost sole possession of first place for the first time in a month and a half.

Even with a homer from Byron Buxton and Opening Day starter Joe Ryan on the mound, the Twins weren’t competitive in their series opener against the best team in baseball, falling victim to the methodical Dodgers machine in a 10-3 loss that moved Minnesota back into a tie with Cleveland for first place in the American League Central for the first time since June 24.

With only 1 1/2 games now separating the Twins and Guardians from the third-place White Sox, the divisional race is still anyone’s game with nearly two months remaining in the regular season -- especially with nine matchups still remaining between Minnesota and Chicago, and eight between Minnesota and Cleveland.

"I will put stock into what the standings look like on the last day of the season,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “That's when I'm going to do it.”

The Twins are now 1-9 against other divisional leaders, including Tuesday’s loss, in which Ryan allowed six runs (five earned) in five innings, his second-highest total of the season, while Julio Urías held the Twins to five hits in seven strong frames.

But worrying about matching up with the Dodgers, or even the Astros and Yankees, is for another time. The Twins first have to take care of business within their own division.

“We have to find the groove again,” Baldelli said. “We need to find the feeling where we're putting complete games together again, and a few in a row.”

Let’s see how the battle could stack up down the stretch.

Trade Deadline additions

Twins: RHP Tyler Mahle, RHP Jorge López, RHP Michael Fulmer, C Sandy León
Guardians: None
White Sox: LHP Jake Diekman

The Twins undoubtedly did the most to help their cause down the stretch with their flurry of activity at the Trade Deadline, adding two relievers, a starter and a backup catcher to address their most glaring needs. Meanwhile, the Guardians made no Major League additions to one of the youngest rosters in baseball, while the White Sox swapped catcher Reese McGuire to the Red Sox for Diekman in their only move.

The White Sox were as healthy as they’d been all season before they lost Tim Anderson on Tuesday to a surgical procedure on his left middle finger, with the shortstop expected to miss six weeks. The Guardians are also quite healthy.

The Twins are expecting reinforcements from the injured list in September, including possible returns from Bailey Ober (right groin strain), Josh Winder (right shoulder impingement), Kenta Maeda (Tommy John surgery), Ryan Jeffers (broken right thumb), Trevor Larnach (core muscle strain) and Randy Dobnak (pulley tendon injuries to his right hand).

Remaining games against each other

Twins: 8 vs. CLE, 9 vs. CWS
Guardians: 6 vs. CWS, 8 vs. MIN
White Sox: 6 vs. CLE, 9 vs. MIN

The Twins can do the most to control their own destiny down the stretch, with a combined 17 games remaining against their opponents in the final two months, as compared to 14 for the Guardians and 15 for the White Sox.

In fact, September will be far more significant for the Twins than for the other two clubs, as the Guardians and White Sox get three of their games out of the way in August, while the Twins play all 17 of those matchups in September.

Remaining games against above-.500 teams

Twins: 25
Guardians: 32
White Sox: 28

The Twins (30-34) and White Sox (23-32) are both sub-.500 against winning teams (as of Tuesday’s standings), while the Guardians have fared better (28-24). But the Twins have the fewest of those matchups remaining -- and with 17 of those games coming against Cleveland and Chicago, they’ll only have eight games against other winning teams in the final two months -- further increasing the importance of the upcoming divisional matchups.

“We're going to play some good teams from here on out,” Baldelli said. “We have some games on the schedule coming up where there's not going to be any just showing up, play a pretty good game and win. No. You're going to have to play an excellent game and you're going to have to play well-rounded baseball to beat these kinds of teams.”