AL Wild Card standings after Twins win series over Angels and gain ground on Royals
Minnesota gained some important ground in the AL Wild Card standings on Wednesday night.
After a brutal stretch over the last few weeks, things might finally be starting to turn around for the Minnesota Twins. The Rally Sausage has returned, the team is getting Byron Buxton back in the lineup, and games are finally being won.
It's a small sample size but the way Minnesota's offense woke up in back-to-back wins over the Los Angeles Angels is wildly encouraging. The Twins scored 16 runs over the last two games, which comes on the heels of the team getting outscored 17-4.
Three of those games were losses to the Kansas City Royals, a team the Twins now trail in both the AL Central race and the Wild Card picture. Minnesota owns the season series over Kansas City but needs to catch them for any of that to matter, something the team took a step toward doing after its series against the Angels.
Updated AL Wild Card standings after Twins gain ground on Royals
One thing that has been working for the Twins, even when nothing else seemed to, was luck. While Minnesota lost 16 of its last 31 games, the Guardians have remained average since the All-Star Break and the Royals encountered a losing streak of their own before sweeping the Twins.
That luck was at play again this week, as the Twins series against the Angels was juxtaposed against the Royals going to the Bronx for a series against the Yankees. New York gave Minnesota a nice assist, winning two of three from Kansas City and helping the Twins close the gap on the Royals.
Despite the frustrations and struggles, the Twins head into a weekend series against the Reds just 1.5 games out of the No. 5 seed.
Team | Record | GB |
|---|---|---|
Baltimore Orioles | 83-64 | +4.5 |
Kansas City Royals | 80-67 | +1.5 |
Minnesota Twins | 78-68 | -- |
Detroit Tigers | 75-71 | 3.0 |
Boston Red Sox | 74-72 | 4.0 |
Seattle Mariners | 73-72 | 4.5 |
Baltimore and New York will likely take their slugfest for the AL East right down to the wire, as it seems the two teams flipflop spots in the standing every night. After a series victory over Los Angeles, the Twins can now eye a first-round bye again although a lot of work needs to be done.
Minnesota trails Cleveland by 6 games in the AL Central, and the Guardians are tied with the Yankees for the best record in the American League. The Twins have a critical four game series with Cleveland that starts on Monday and could completely flip the entire playoff picture on its head.
It could also sink the Twins so far back that they end up on the outside looking in.
After Cleveland, Minnesota has a series with Boston that could put the Red Sox away for good. That will come after the Red Sox get a series with the Yankees in which they hope to do to New York what Minnesota wants to do to Cleveland.
The playoff race is tightening up in a big way as the final weeks of the season arrive, and for all the frustration Twins fans have felt the team is right in the thick of things.
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