In the 12th inning of must-win game against a 100-loss team, the Minnesota Twins bunted into a double play that was so spectacuarly bad that it might have finally broken Cory Provus.
The Twins play-by-play announcer has been the voice of reason throughout the entire season, one that has gone from bad to worse to apocolyptic over the last month. Minnesota was knocking Cleveland's door and in a position to take over first place in the AL Central in early-August, but might have watched their playoff chances go up in smoke on Thursday night.
More specifically, they watched Ryan Jeffers hit a popup bunt that turned into a double play that pretty much encapsulates the Twins' season.
Twins announcer loses his mind after Ryan Jeffers bunted into a double play in 8-6 loss to Marlins
Jeffers came to the plate in the 12th inning with two runners on and no outs. It was the second time in extra innings he had come to the plate with RISP, and it would be the second time it ended in absolutely brutal fashion.
The first time, Jeffers was up with the bases loaded in the bottom of the tenth inning. He took a bad swing that resulted in a flyout behind home plate; Minnesota would go on to score just a single run.
What happened the second time he came to bat in extra innings was somehow even worse. Jeffers attempted to bunt the first pitch he saw but ended up popping it up to first baseman Jonah Bride, who saw that Santana was more than halfway to third base and threw him out at second.
Provus, like every Twins fan watching, couldn't believe what had just happened.
this team is so aggravating, you cannot get doubled on a popup bunt pic.twitter.com/fkaTtM3pmI
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) September 27, 2024
An inning latter the Marlins scored three runs and the Twins lost a game it couldn't afford to -- and never should have been in danger of in the first place. What the loss did, although not mathematically, was end any hope Minnesota had of making the playoffs. Nothing about a team that loses a series to the second-worst team in baseball belongs in October, but the Twins played themselves out of being taken seriously long before Thursday night.
It's an absolutely stunning collapse, one that will likely cost jobs this winter and force the Twins to re-evaluate everything. Nothing went right down the stretch of the season, but if you're looking for a way to sum it up to anyone who wasn't paying attention just show them this play and walk out of the room.
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