AL Wild Card standings: Twins officially fall out of the playoff picture

What has long felt like an inevitability became a sad reality on Sunday afternoon in Boston. After getting swept in a doubleheader by the Red Sox, the Minnesota Twins have officially fallen out of the playoff picture.

This comes after one of the worst months by any team in baseball. Minnesota had an abysmal 10-20 record over the last 30 games coming into this weekend's series, which means the Twins only have themselves to blame for what has happened. As the Twins sunk into their slump, which featured bad offense and even worse pitching, the Detroit Tigers were surging up the standings.

All of that has culminated in Detroit finally passing Minnesota and putting the Twins' playoff hopes on life support. The Tigers aren't stopping with just knocking off the Twins, as they have their sights set on passing Kansas City and potentially catching the Orioles for the top Wild Card spot before it's al said and done.

None of that really matters to Twins fans, though, who are reeling after the inevitable fall out of the playoff picture has finally happened.

AL Wild Card Standings after Twins lose doubleheader to Red Sox

The Twins have been teetering on the brink for a week, even if this meltdown has been happening since August 18th. That's when Minnesota's slide truly began, which is puncuated by the fact that the team was just a few games out of first place in the AL Central at the time.

Since then the Twins have face planted about has hard as a team can, and burned through all the credit they had built up over what was a pretty strong summer. At one point it looked liked everything was going to come together, as Carlos Correa was on an all-time heater, Jose Miranda was ripping off a historic hitting streak, and Joe Ryan was emerging as a potential Cy Young candidate.

All three of those guys hit the IL within a month of what seems to be their peak, with Ryan's season ended in August and Correa missing two months with an injury that probably should have ended his as well. That, plus a stretch of simply bad baseball, sunk the Twins to where they are now which is a team on the outside of the postseason picture looking in.

There's nothing to suggest that will change anytime soon.

Minnesota has just six games left on the schedule and no longer control its destiny. Detroit is playing like a team that deserves a Wild Card spot the Twins so clearly didn't. It's a frustrating way for the season to end, assuming things stay this way, but it shouldn't be surprising.

Twins fans saw this outcome as far back as December when ownership refused to spend on the roster and opted to reduce payroll instead. That's probably going to continue, as the Pohlad's will learn all the wrong lessons from the Tigers surging after selling at the trade deadline, which is perhaps the worst part about this flame out.

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