The struggling Twins fail again and fall to a draw with the Tigers. There is no way to sugarcoat this

CLEVELAND – A little over a month ago, the Minnesota Twins were in great position to not only make the playoffs, but also compete for the division title.

After their latest crushing loss on Thursday, a 3-2 win over the Cleveland Guardians in 10 innings, the Twins have canceled plans to have their rookies dress in strange costumes for the team's charter flight to Boston.

The group's decision to postpone their already planned rookie celebrations aptly summed up the mood in the locker room after the Twins tied the Detroit Tigers for the final spot in the American League wild-card race with nine games to go.

Just moments earlier, the Twins had hoped to tie the hard-fought series when Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton singled with the bases loaded and the score tied. But then they had to deal with another “what if” moment after coming up empty-handed. Moments later, Caleb Thielbar's fastball was caught too far off the plate on a full count and Andrés Giménez hit a game-winning rocket to right, a single that allowed Cleveland to storm the field and celebrate its place in the playoffs.

Andrés Giménez and the Guardians celebrate after securing their ticket to the playoffs. (Ken Blaze / Imagn Images)

Instead of celebrating a victory of their own, the Twins suffered a depressing one-point loss to the Guardians for the third time in four days.

“It just sucks, honestly,” Matt Wallner said. “More than just how tough it was. Obviously you want to come out on top. I think we could have won four games here, honestly. We just didn't get it done.”

The Twins couldn't do any better than the 10th inning. After Cleveland's bullpen struck out 14 batters in a row starting in the fifth inning, the Twins finally had a chance when Eli Morgan scored on Wallner's first pitch of the 10th inning.

Willi Castro then hit a bunt for Wallner, putting runner Kyle Farmer in scoring position, and Manny Margot got a walk to load the bases for Correa.

Correa hit the exact same spot the night before, briefly giving the Twins a lead with a single to center before Cleveland caught up and won 5-4. But this time, Correa was thrown out on the second pitch he saw. Morgan then escaped unscathed when Byron Buxton flew out to right center and the Twins faced defeat again.

“It can be unbearable at times,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It's a great opportunity to win the game. I want to be in that spot. … When we have those opportunities, we have to take advantage of them.”

While the Twins were unable to pull off the big win for much of the series, Cleveland was there in the decisive moments.

Thielbar struck out Josh Naylor to start the 10th inning and then intentionally walked Lane Thomas. After getting Gimènez a full count, Thielbar was forced to come inside with a fastball. And so the 10 1/2-game lead over Detroit evaporated on August 17.

Now the Twins are heading to Boston with their jerseys packed. Meanwhile, Detroit begins a three-game series in Baltimore on Friday. The Twins have the tiebreaker over the Tigers.

“We have to win baseball games,” catcher Ryan Jeffers said of the three games at Fenway Park. “It's as simple as that. We've said the same thing about those games and we haven't been able to do it. We have to turn to Boston and just try to win those games. That's all we can do right now. … It doesn't matter how we win. … But we have to be able to score the extra run, finish the inning, whatever it takes.”

The lack of runs was the Twins' biggest problem throughout the Cleveland series, especially on a day when the club needed a resounding response after Wednesday's late loss.

After Detroit nearly caught them following a sweep of Kansas City, the Twins entered Thursday with their best lineup, but Cleveland rookie Joey Cantillo used a three-pitch mix to keep the Twins at bay in the early going.

Cantillo handled a one-out walk by Correa in the first inning and a leadoff single by Royce Lewis in the second inning with ease. Cantillo also improved his defense in the third inning, immediately making up for a Brayan Rocchio error with a double play ball.

The Twins finally broke through in the fifth inning, taking advantage of Farmer's leadoff double. After Cantillo walked Castro with one out, Margot hit a two-run double to give the Twins a 2-1 lead. The second runner scored on a fielding error by Thomas.

But the Twins failed to gain more breathing room and were once again brought down by the Guardians' bullpen. Nick Sandlin brought in Cantillo with one out in the fifth inning and walked Correa before striking out Buxton and Carlos Santana to end the inning.

Sandlin, Tim Herrin, Andrew Walters, Hunter Gaddis and Emmanuel Clase put an end to that by collectively taking out 14 consecutive Twins games, eight of them by strikeouts.

“By many measures, they have the best bullpen in the history of baseball this year,” Baldelli said. “That doesn't mean we can't go out and score some runs and win a game. … They've done that in most of the games they've pitched in this year. But you have to really work hard.”

Despite once again pitching with underperformance, Simeon Woods Richardson improved and delivered his best start in a month for the Twins.

Although the average velocity of his fastball and changeup was again about 2 miles per hour below his season average, Woods Richardson was able to successfully navigate traffic and get successful swings-and-misses.

The rookie's day didn't start well, as Cleveland's Kyle Manzardo hit an early changeup after just two batters and hit a solo home run. But Woods Richardson couldn't be stopped and sent José Ramírez and Josh Naylor to the bench at the end of the first inning.

He managed two singles in the second inning, an inning-ending double play in the third inning and a double in the fourth inning. He struck out two batters in the second and fourth innings and finished his day with a strikeout of Angel Martínez in the fifth inning after allowing a leadoff walk to two batters earlier.

Woods Richardson had six strikeouts and allowed one run and five hits in 4 2/3 innings.

The Twins' bullpen then did its part to keep the team in a winning position. Cole Irvin followed Woods Richardson and somehow only allowed the tying run despite four weakly hit singles.

Cole Sands, Louie Varland and Griffin Jax each pitched scoreless innings to tie the game at 2-2, but once again the Twins left the field thinking about what they hadn't accomplished.

“They showed why they're the better team,” Jeffers said. “They were better this year because they were able to finish those games that we couldn't, and they did it from both sides. Not just pitching, but they made the extra run when they needed it. All of that. … We have to do more to win baseball games.”

(Top photo of Carlos Correa: Nick Cammett / Associated Press)