The Twins were swept out of Kansas City in a 4-1 loss to the Royals Thursday afternoon, sending them back to Minneapolis to begin what will be a mostly meaningless final 12 games of the season before the curtain closes Oct. 5.
The loss drops the Twins 9.5 games behind Cleveland in the AL Central, and they’re well out of contention in the wild card race. Even though they’re not mathematically eliminated, FanGraphs gives the Twins a 0.0% chance to make the playoffs.
Kansas City pitchers held the Twins to two hits, with their only run coming on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Nick Gordon in the seventh inning.
Rookie right-hander Josh Winder went six innings for Minnesota. He struck out four and allowed six hits, including an RBI single by Salvador Perez the third and solo home runs by Edward Olivares and Drew Waters in the fourth and fifth innings, respectively.
Up next: Twins vs. Angels, 7:10 p.m. Friday. Shohei Ohtani is scheduled to start for the Angels against Twins rookie Louie Varland.
Related: No signs that Byron Buxton will play again this season
