MINNEAPOLIS -- On Sept. 4, the Twins held a share of first place in the American League Central. Friday night, they fell out of the division race altogether.

It’s been a stunning fall from the top for the club that held at least a share of first place in the division for all but one day from April 24 to Aug. 8, with the Twins maintaining through the struggles of the late summer that once their key players came back healthy and they played to their potential, they’d be ready for a real push to the playoffs.

They never did find that, and a 4-2 loss to the Angels on Friday at Target Field, coupled with a Cleveland victory in Texas, formally secured a conclusion that’s appeared sure for some time now: The 2022 Twins will not be winning the division, as they’re now 11 games back in the AL Central with 11 remaining to play, and the Guardians own the head-to-head tiebreaker.

“You’re always playing for the division until you’re not,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “So it’s not news that I enjoy hearing, obviously. We’re not playing our best baseball at this point. And you can certainly feel things when you’re playing other teams. They’ve been on a roll -- they’ve been playing really well, the Guardians. They’ve earned the right.”

The Twins aren’t officially out of the playoff race altogether, but that’s just a formality at this point, barring a crazy run to the finish and historic collapses from the teams ahead of them in the Wild Card race. Minnesota sits 9 1/2 games behind Seattle, the current owner of the third and final Wild Card berth, and the Twins seem to have resigned themselves to their fate, having spent Friday afternoon officially ruling out Byron Buxton and Tyler Mahle for the rest of the year.

It doesn’t seem that this version of the Twins would have had that sort of run in them, anyway, as they have now dropped five in a row, eight of their past nine, and 17 of their past 23. A little over a week ago, they controlled their destiny as they headed to Cleveland for a five-game series with a four-game deficit. Now, it’s functionally over.

"It's an easy explanation: We didn't play good enough,” Carlos Correa said.

In some ways, this was the expected outcome entering the season. The White Sox were seen as the prohibitive favorites to win the division, with the Twins needing to rebound from a last-place finish in the division in ‘21 and having considerable question marks in both their starting rotation and bullpen entering the year.

Expectations shifted when the Twins came out strong, racing to the top of the division by the end of April with a season-long, seven-game winning streak, while the White Sox floundered due to injury issues and underperformance. But injuries and lack of consistency took their toll on a talented yet fragile Twins roster, too, as the club also struggled to synchronize its timely hitting with consistency from the pitching staff.

And even after the Twins spent the Trade Deadline adding more aggressively than the rest of the division combined by bringing in Jorge López, Michael Fulmer, Mahle and Sandy León, the 18 players they currently have on the injured list -- including the equivalent of an entire starting rotation and nearly a full starting lineup -- speak for themselves.

In the months to come, they’ll have to lick their wounds, think about the roster moves to come after the likely departure of Correa to an opt-out and wonder what -- if anything -- could have been done to mitigate the injury woes among their trade acquisitions and their roster as a whole.

But even after another tough night, on which they were battered by rain and frigid September winds in Minnesota, no less, there’s still season left to be played -- and they’ll have to see it through while reckoning with these emotions.

"It's tough because we got a lot of wins and had a lot of months in first place, and losing like that, it makes it hurt because we've got an amazing team,” Luis Arraez said. “Especially, we have good trades for guys, the pitchers. It's hard because I come here to win a lot of games. For my mind, it's to come here and try to help my team win. I'm sad, but we need to keep continuing to play hard and do what we do out there and try to give something to the fans.”