With tonight's loss to the White Sox, the Twins elimination number is now one. If they lose or the White Sox win, the Twins are eliminated from playoff contention.

A very small silver lining is that the Indians also lost tonight, so with the White Sox win, they're also sitting at an elimination number of one. The Twins are playing the ccurrent leader (by a game) White Sox, while the Indians are playing the second-place (by a game) Tigers, so it's pretty heated in both series. This is a silver lining because it means the Twins have a chance to pull ahead and not be the worst team in the AL.

The Twins are staring 100 losses in the face, but that's not likely. They are 60-85 after tonight's loss, leaving 17 games remaining in the season (baring rain-outs that don't get rescheduled). The Twins only need three wins to tie last year's 99 losses, and, of course, more wins means they're further from that record low.

Since their 60-85 record stands gives them a winning rate of .414 now, they're on pace to win seven more games out of the remaining 17. Here's all they have left. (In the parenthesis I'm giving the Twins the benefit of the doubt that they can avoid a sweep against everyone but the Yankees. It's maybe wishful tinking since eleven of the seventeen games are against  current division leaders--or close to it, anyway.)

• Two more in this series against the White Sox who are fighting to stay ahead of the Tigers. (1-1)
• Then three at the Indians who are also fighting to stay out of last place. (2-3)
• Then three at the Tigers, who are trying to take the division. (3-5)
• Then three hosting the Yankees, who are trying to get in first in the east a half game behind Baltimore (who havent finished yet tonight). The Yankees seem to own the Twins, so since they're in the hunt and the Twins are just avoiding 100 losses, the Yankees will probably sweep. (3-8)
• Then three hosting the Tigers to finish the home season. (4-10)
• Then they finish the season away at the Blue Jays, who are currently 16 games back in the east, so they're not fighiting strong either. (5-12)

So that an optimistic maybe five to seven wins for the Twins, as long as no team but the Yankees sweep them, and allowing them to take two from at least one or two teams. If they do half as bad as that, they'll deserve 100 losses.

It's been a hard year. We'll get back at 'em next year, right?