Collapsing after the All-Star break for the third straight season means the Twins fell short of their oft-stated goal to "play meaningful games in September" unless you squint really, really hard. Their playoff odds, which rose to nearly 40 percent after buying at the trade deadline, have sunk to 2 percent with 16 games left.
It's over. Not only does ending with a .500 record now appear out of reach given that it would require finishing 12-4, the Twins unraveled so thoroughly by going an AL-worst 13-22 since August 1 that they're no longer even on pace to surpass their 78-win preseason projections from FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus.
There are plenty of reasons for why the Twins failed to climb — and stay — above .500 this season and ultimately ran out of gas long before the finish line. Here are my picks for five of the biggest reasons, including more that should be blamed on bad decisions than on bad luck.