The Twins don’t have the luxury of easing into this final stretch. After Wednesday’s 7-4 loss in West Sacramento wrapped up a 1-5 western road trip, the next 15 games suddenly feel like the season’s hinge point.
Minnesota has spent plenty of time this year looking buried, only to claw back into the conversation. Now the margin is gone.
If the surge that carried them into playoff contention in July doesn’t return quickly, the last two weeks could become empty calendar space.
That’s not the mood inside the clubhouse, at least not according to Luke Keaschall. He said Wednesday, “I think everybody is going to show up to the yard next game ready to go and not thinking, 'We just lost and have to make up all these games,'” Keaschall told reporters in West Sacramento on Wednesday.
“Now I think it's important to be like, 'We've got a ballgame today and you've got to win that game.' I don't think anybody is coming in here bummed out because we got swept and then lost a series.
The vibes in the clubhouse before the game aren't bad.”
That mindset is a start. It won’t be enough by itself. The Twins need several things to click at once if they’re going to keep pace over the next two weeks.
First, the bullpen has to stop wobbling. Minnesota finally has enough capable arms to expect quality work late in games, but that group has not been as sharp as it needs to be.
Andrew Morris has seen his effectiveness drop as he works through his first Major League season and first year as a reliever. Jeff Hoffman, who was among the AL’s best relievers for much of the season, hasn’t matched that level since arriving.
Yoendrys Gomez has had a couple of recent hiccups as well. The talent is there.
The results need to follow.
The same goes for the bats in key spots. From Opening Day through the end of July, the Twins were one of the best teams in baseball with runners in scoring position, posting a major-league-best .806 OPS and a .280/.363/.443 line.
Since then, they’ve slipped to ordinary, hitting .247 with a .716 OPS entering Wednesday. That kind of swing changes games.
And as the source notes, there’s no way to control the order in which hits arrive. What matters now is that they start landing when the moment demands it.
“We need to continue to add on,” Shelton said. “It seems like during this road trip, we did not have the ability to add on.”
Byron Buxton is another piece that has to settle in. The Twins are his team, but he hasn’t been close to his usual level at the plate since coming back from his first injured list stint, while dealing with a lingering right hip issue.
He was pulled from Tuesday night’s game, and his status for the weekend is still unclear. Minnesota needs one of two outcomes: either good news on the injury front and a return to form from Buxton, who flashed it with a three-hit game Monday, or someone else has to take over in center field.
If Buxton needs another trip to the injured list, Walker Jenkins could be next in line. The top prospect has been tearing it up at Triple-A. And if he gets the call, the Twins will need production from him the way they’ve gotten it from Kaelen Culpepper since his own promotion earlier this month.
Then there’s the rotation, which may have to hold the line without Joe Ryan. A return within the next two weeks looks unlikely as he works back from a glute strain.
At minimum, he’ll need one Minor League rehab start, and after throwing only one simulated inning in his live batting practice on Wednesday, two rehab outings seem more realistic. That leaves the rest of the starters carrying the load.
That’s a problem right now. Twins starters own a 5.10 ERA in August, fifth-worst in baseball, after back-to-back outings in which the starter looked solid but the final numbers didn’t come out that way.
With the schedule tightening and the standings no longer offering much room, Minnesota needs cleaner innings, better late-game pitching, and enough offense to cash in when chances come. The next 15 games will tell the story.
In Other News...
Walker Jenkins Decision Will Show Twins Fans What Really Changed
Walker Jenkins is doing everything he can to make the conversation impossible to ignore. The Twins top prospect has been strong in Triple-A, but the club has kept him there while juggling a roster that has already seen prospect Kaelen Culpepper promoted and a handful of pitching additions come in at the trade deadline. Minnesota is still playing from behind in the playoff race, which leaves every roster move under a microscope as the team tries to weigh development against the urgency of the standings.
The eventual decision on Jenkins will say a lot about how much the Twins have changed. In a season where the front office has already shown it can mix patience with short-term upgrades, the handling of a player like Jenkins sits right at the center of that tension. Whether the club leans more toward development or the push for wins now, the choice figures to reflect just how carefully Minnesota is balancing the future against the postseason chase. [Read more 🡒]
Twins Fans Already Have One Big Concern About Walker Jenkins
Walker Jenkins is on the verge of making his way to the Twins, with the club planning to bring up the highly regarded prospect for Fridays game once it clears the necessary roster space. For a fan base that has followed his rise closely, it is the kind of long-awaited development that comes with the usual buzz around a top 20 talent, especially one whose five-tool profile has made him one of the more intriguing young players in the organization.
Still, the excitement has come with a familiar undercurrent of caution. Jenkins has missed time because of injuries, and for all the optimism about what he can become, the biggest question has never really been about the tools. It is about whether he can stay on the field long enough to turn that promise into something the Twins can count on. [Read more 🡒]
Twins Playoff Push Suddenly Has A Center Field Problem
Luke Keaschall has been a useful bat for the Twins, but his defensive profile has shaped how Minnesota uses him. Most of his work has come in a corner outfield spot or at designated hitter, and that limitation became more important when Byron Buxton was injured and the club needed somebody to cover center field. Rather than rush in Walker Jenkins or Emmanuel Rodriguez during the road trip, the Twins kept Keaschall out there and asked him to handle the position through a stretch that only magnified the uncertainty.
The gamble has already shown up in a costly way, with a defensive misplay helping turn a game against the Athletics into a reminder of how thin the margin is in a playoff race. Minnesota still has options on the roster and in the pipeline, but the present setup leaves the club trying to survive in center field while waiting to see whether the next move is a promotion, a shuffle, or simply more of the same. [Read more 🡒]