A slow-moving collapse that began in mid-August finally reached its bitter conclusion on Friday night in front of a hometown crowd that was not shy about voicing its displeasure. The Twins, who at one point this month had playoff odds north of 95%, saw that number dwindle day by disappointing day until Friday, when the clock finally ran out on their chances to salvage their season. The 7-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles officially eliminated the Twins from the wild-card race. They will wrap up their season on Sunday afternoon rather than in the playoffs as they had hoped and expected for much of the season. “It was clearly beyond a disappointing way to end a run and what was — and appeared to be — a promising season that we had going,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “So that will be something — I mentioned it to the guys just now — this will bother me forever.” The Twins overcame a 7-13 start to the season, bonded together around a rally sausage — a piece of encased meat that seemed to bring a bit of luck with it when it showed up in the dugout — to revive their season with a 12-game winning streak and then spent much of the summer playing like one of the best teams in baseball. The postseason seemed inevitable. Until it wasn’t. “We were riding the high for so long. Everything was going well. Things were fun,” said starting pitcher Pablo López, who gave up two runs in 5 2/3 innings on Friday. “Things were clicking and then nothing was clicking. Nothing was clicking from the pitching side, from the hitting side.” The Twins started to crumble in August, the beginning of a downward spiral that, at times, felt more difficult to watch by the day. Injuries depleted their rotation and took out some of their top position players — Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton among them — for long periods of time. The bullpen gave away late leads in games that looked like sure wins more than a few times. And the offense was inconsistent, ranking near the bottom of the majors in many offensive categories over the last six weeks of the season. That same offense went missing for much of Friday night, collecting just two hits in the first eight innings of the game that sealed their fate. The Twins scored two runs in the ninth inning, which was far too little and much too late after the Orioles had broken away in a four-run eighth. The Twins watched their playoffs hopes disappear in the final month of the 2022 season, as well, due to an injury-depleted roster. But this time seemed even more crushing because the Twins had every opportunity to right the ship and simply couldn’t. The Detroit Tigers, who sold off at the trade deadline and at one point had 0.2% odds of making the playoffs, took advantage, finally surging past the Twins last Sunday. The Twins came into the 2024 season with high expectations after snapping their 19-year postseason winless streak a year ago. A year later, somehow, improbably, they’re a fourth-place team, and will be sitting at home in October, spending the winter dissecting how and where things went wrong. “I will use it to motivate myself in a lot of different ways going forward because I never want to experience that again,” Baldelli said. “I hadn’t experienced anything like that in my baseball years and I don’t intend to experience it again. I really want everyone else to take a part of that, too, moving forward, because hopefully it’s that kind of stuff that makes you better at what you do.” Related Articles Minnesota Twins | Five reasons the Twins are on the outside of the playoff picture Minnesota Twins | Twins’ playoff chances on life support after 13-inning loss to Marlins Minnesota Twins | Wild card race shows off much improved American League Central Minnesota Twins | Twins keep slim playoff hopes alive with win over Marlins Minnesota Twins | With 100th game, Twins’ Byron Buxton reaches goal milestone