Twins mathematically eliminated from playoffs after 10-inning loss to Diamondbacks

Bobby Nightengale, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Sep 13, 2025

Published in Baseball

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MINNEAPOLIS — Long before their 5-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in 10 innings, the Twins were resigned to their fate as a team that would miss out on the playoffs.

On Saturday night, it became official. The Twins were mathematically eliminated from the postseason, the fourth time they haven't qualify for the American League playoff field in the past five years.

The Twins raised the proverbial white flag with their massive trade deadline fire sale, shipping away 10 players from their roster at the end of July, and they will spend the upcoming offseason attempting to diagnose what went wrong while undertaking a roster rebuild.

After the Twins won a playoff series in 2023, their first in two decades, they spent the next two years in win-now mode despite ownership cutting payroll. The results were embarrassing. They had an epic collapse in the final six weeks of last season, and they never recovered.

The Diamondbacks, a team that lost in the World Series in 2023, missed the playoffs because of a tiebreaker last year and remain on the fringes of the wild-card race this year.

Arizona’s long-shot playoff odds remained afloat Saturday after a three-run 10th inning against Twins reliever Cole Sands. The Twins opted to intentionally walk Corbin Carroll with two outs, and it backfired. Gabriel Moreno, who hit a a three-run homer off Sands on Friday, drove in a run through an infield single, and two batters later, Blaze Alexander hit a two-run double off the right-field wall.

The Twins tied the score at 2-2 in the eighth inning. They loaded the bases with one out after Austin Martin hit a leadoff double, Luke Keaschall drew a walk and Royce Lewis reached on an infield single.

Kody Clemens, Friday’s hero after his three-homer performance, lined a two-strike splitter from Diamondbacks reliever Taylor Rashi to right field for a two-run single, tying the score. The announced crowd of 21,227 roared with approval.

Rashi didn’t give up another run. When Jhonny Pereda was in a two-strike count with two outs, Lewis ran down the third-base line and thought he drew a balk. Plate umpire Edwin Moscoso negated it because he said time was called.

After Pereda hit a popup to end the inning, frustrated he wasn’t granted a timeout in the batter’s box when he asked for it afterward, manager Rocco Baldelli emerged from the dugout for an extended chat with Moscoso between innings.

The Twins had plenty of other missed opportunities. They loaded the bases with no outs in the second via three consecutive singles, but D-backs starter Ryne Nelson pitched out of it with two strikeouts and a groundout.

The sixth inning started with back-to-back walks from Martin and Trevor Larnach, but Nelson induced a double play against Keaschall and struck out Lewis. Nelson owns a 2.76 ERA over his last 17 starts.

Joe Ryan, meanwhile, lasted only four innings, the third time in his last five starts he hasn’t pitched into the fifth inning. Unlike last weekend when he was battling an illness, he had an abbreviated outing because of long at-bats. There were seven plate appearances where he logged at least seven pitches.

His pitch count by inning: 14, 31, 18 and 30.

Ryan, whose 161 innings this year are two-thirds of an inning shy of his career high, uncharacteristically had trouble locating pitches inside the strike zone. He threw 56 of his 93 pitches for strikes, his second-lowest strike percentage (60.2%) in an outing this season.

After giving up two singles in the second inning, Ryan issued an eight-pitch walk to Tim Tawa. Jake McCarthy, the No. 9 batter in the Diamondbacks lineup, fouled a sweeper next to the right-field foul pole. McCarthy thought it was a grand slam, urging his dugout to challenge it as he continued running past second base.

The Diamondbacks didn’t challenge — the ball was clearly foul on replay — and Ryan struck out McCarthy with a fastball on the next pitch. Ryan shouted toward McCarthy afterward.

Ryan threw 18 pitches to his first two batters in the fourth inning, which included a leadoff double to Adrian Del Castillo. There was no chance to catch a breather. Alek Thomas clobbered a fastball in a 2-0 count over the right-field wall for a 440-foot, two-run homer.

In eight starts since the trade deadline, Ryan has recorded a 4.99 ERA. He had a 2.82 ERA in his first 21 outings this year.

The Diamondbacks loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth inning against Pierson Ohl, but Ohl escaped without giving up a run with two ground balls and a strikeout.

Cody Laweryson, who made his major league debut, pitched two scoreless innings with two strikeouts, and Kody Funderburk struck out two in a scoreless ninth.