Bad case of "had it coming..."

...in the words of my good friend "Drew."

I think I speak for many of us when I say I wasn't too surprised by the outcome of last night's game:

Twins get good starting pitching.
Twins can't come up with a clutch hit.
White Sox hit home run.

Fairly predictable if you ask me.

Now, you can call me a Negative Nancy if you want to, but the numbers speak for themselves... The Twins didn't really deserve to be in the playoffs. The finished the season by going 11-15 in the month of September. Here are just a few things to chew on during the off season:

The Twins were out homered during the month of September 43-13. Opponents had 30 more homeruns than we did! It's tough to win games when you are letting up 1.65 long balls per game and are hitting 0.5 dingers yourself.

Waaaaaitttt a minute, I can hear you saying. That's not the Twins style of baseball. They don't hit for power. They're the piranhas... they scrap together runs with timely hits and smart baserunning.

Well, then, think about this: During the month of September, the Twins, as a team, left 198 men on base at the end of an inning. 198 homeboys just chilling out there, less than 270 feet from home saying "What's up dude?" 198!! THAT'S ALMOST 8 RUNNERS LEFT ON BASE PER GAME. You may be thinking that's not very much... I bet those big boppers on the other teams left a lot more men on base...

Not only were the Twins getting outhomered by 30, opponents left only 169 men on base during that same span, or 29 fewer men left on base. In other words, the Twins were hitting, on average, one fewer big bomb per game, and leaving one more man on base per game, than their opponent.

Indeed, over the course of the season, the Twins finished with the best team batting average with men on base -- by a long shot. But, they got cold during the month of September, and certainly couldn't heat up in the frigid Lake Michigan air last night.

Throughout the year, I talked with my brothers about the Twins poor chances in the playoffs; in a best-of-five series, a team with homerun hitters needs just a few guys to get hot. A team like the Twins needs their whole team to be firing to win 3 out of 5 games. That situation is magnified significantly in a one game "all-or-nothing" series like last night. The White Sox need just ONE PLAYER to get hot, for ONE PITCH -- which they got, in the form of a 461-foot scud missle off the bat of Jim Thome. The Twins, alas, needed several players to get going for even one run to cross the plate, which they didn't get, leading to the tenth time they were shut out this season.

I'm disappointed today, because I wanted the Twins to do better, and I definitely didn't want the Trash Sox in the post season. Still, you can't say that I didn't see it coming.