MINNEAPOLIS — There isn’t one reason a team goes under. It took ineptitude throughout the organization for the Minnesota Twins to fall from a 92.4 percent chance of making the playoffs on Aug. 17 to elimination on Friday with a 7-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles at Target Field.

Baltimore starting pitcher Cade Povich, who was drafted by the Twins and acquired in a trade for Jorge López in August 2022, shut down his former team long enough to send it to its 25th loss in 37 games.

Had the Twins won, they would have remained in contention for a playoff spot after Atlanta topped Kansas City 3-0. Instead, the Twins will end the season with two meaningless games. Here are five reasons why the Twins will be at home in October, while Cleveland, Kansas City and Detroit earned postseason berths.

Flawed pitching plan for the start

Rookie Zebby Matthews posted a 5.71 ERA in eight starts. (Denis Poroy/USA Today via Imagn images)

As if replacing Sonny Gray and Kenta Maeda’s 288 1/3 innings (in 2023) in free agency wasn’t daunting enough, it seemed even riskier that two of the team’s potential replacements were pitchers recently dealing with injuries had, Anthony DeSclafani and Chris Paddack. Paddack was just coming off his second Tommy John surgery and injuries had limited DeSclafani to 118 2/3 innings the past two seasons. DeSclafani would never throw a pitch for the Twins, while Paddack lasted 88 1/3 innings before a second trip to the injured list ended his season. Another starter, Louie Varland, struggled and was removed from the rotation in late April. A lack of reliable options left the Twins dependent on rookies Simeon Woods Richardson and David Festa. A third rookie, Zebby Matthews, joined the rotation after Joe Ryan suffered a season-ending injury.

Injuries to key players

Every team has to deal with injuries. The Twins’ problems just happened to involve their best players. Royce Lewis missed 70 games with a right quad strain suffered on opening day, then re-entered the injured list in July with a right adductor strain that cost him another 16 games. Despite missing 14 games due to a knee infection in May and 28 games due to a hip infection in August and September, Byron Buxton appeared in 100 games for only the second time in his career. The ripple effects of Ryan’s departure after an August 7 start in Chicago with a grade 2 teres major strain were felt the rest of the season as the Twins were forced to rely on three rookie starting pitchers, all of whom delivered career-high innings hit. total in September and struggled to pitch deep in games. A lack of innings in the rotation led to the bullpen working harder to cover more innings. But the biggest injury was the loss of All-Star Carlos Correa, who returned in mid-September after sitting out 53 games with right plantar fasciitis. The absence of Correa’s bat, steady defense and leadership cannot be minimized. Injuries to Max Kepler and Alex Kirilloff also cost the Twins key left bats.

The crime dies a slow death

Carlos Correa was limited to just eleven games in the second half. The Twins missed his bat. (Brian Fluharty/Imagn Images)

At one point midway through the season, the Twins ranked fifth in the Majors in runs scored. Lewis, Correa, Buxton, Jose Miranda, Matt Wallner and Brooks Lee all loved the board. But that offense disappeared when the Twins needed it most. The front office’s plan relied on the Twins beating their opponents, something the group proved capable of doing for most of the summer. But around the same time as Ryan’s injury, the offense stalled. Even after the returns of Correa and Buxton, the Twins continued to struggle, producing 3.7 runs per game during a critical 37-game stretch.

Bullpen failures

Touted as a potential top-two bullpen in the American League, the Twins entered Friday ranked 18th out of 30 teams in the MLB with a 1.82 win probability. Cleveland led the majors at 3:32 p.m. Injuries limited Brock Stewart and Justin Topa, who the Twins thought would be key contributors, to a total of 37 games. Jhoan Duran missed the first month of the season with an oblique injury and never really looked good. Working at reduced speed, Duran suffered massive regression and struggled in unsafe situations. Left-hander Caleb Thielbar also fell off. Jorge Alcala fell apart in the second half. Meanwhile, none of the Twins’ offseason additions — a group that includes Topa, Jay Jackson, Josh Staumont and Steven Okert — have made meaningful contributions. To make matters worse, Trevor Richards, the team’s lone trade-deadline acquisition, walked eleven batters and threw seven wild pitches in thirteen innings before being designated for assignment.

Cleveland’s dominance

A team can only be hit in the gut so many times before it hits the mat and can’t get back up. Cleveland repeatedly wailed the Twins, dominating the season series 10-3. Three of the Guardians’ 10 wins came via walkoffs. Five of those were one-point wins and three were games decided by two points. Essentially, Cleveland has been putting the Twins through the wringer all season.

(Top photo of Rocco Baldelli ejecting Trevor Richards from a game: Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images)