How quickly did the Detroit Tigers catch up with the Minnesota Twins in the wildcard race?
Consider this: Entering play on August 11, the Twins were up 65-51 and had an 11-game lead over the Tigers, who led 55-63. Since then, the Tigers are the MLB’s best at 23-10, while the Twins are 14-20.
The result? Detroit enters Tuesday’s game trailing the Twins by just 1.5 games. But that 1.5-game deficit is more like 2.5 because the Twins have the tiebreaker, which could be a godsend considering the Twins have lost 19 of their last 28 games.
“Once you have the stink on you, it’s really hard to get rid of it. The Twins have the stink on them,” said Evan Petzold in the podcast “Days of Roar” of the Detroit Free Press.
Detroit got going on August 11 and has a team ERA of 2.57 since then, the best in the MLB. The Tigers’ starters have a 3.25 ERA since August 11, while the Detroit bullpen has a combined ERA of 2.11, the best in the major leagues.
The Twins bullpen’s ERA has been 4.83 (24th) since August 11. However, Minnesota’s problems did not begin on August 11, but with a loss to the Rangers on August 18. Since then, the Twins bullpen has the second-worst earned run average at 5.47, and the starting pitchers are 22nd with an ERA of 4.55.
Having Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa back in the lineup should help in the final twelve games, but the pitching needs to improve. Pablo Lopez and Bailey Ober have been excellent, but the trio of rookies also in the rotation aren’t giving Minnesota many innings and the result is an extremely overloaded bullpen.
David Festa has lasted six innings in just one of his 11 starts. Zebby Matthews hasn’t gone past five innings in any of his six starts. Simeon Woods Richardson hasn’t lasted six innings in eight of his last nine starts and hasn’t gone past five innings in four straight games.
The Twins claimed left-hander Cole Irvin off waivers from the Orioles on Monday, and he is expected to pitch out of the bullpen. Right-hander Jorge Alcala was sent to Triple-A St. Paul to make room for Irvin on the roster, so Irvin will at least give the Twins another long reliever to rely on if one of the starters can’t perform well.
