Twins stack up well against AL playoff teams

Before play today (Monday, August 5), the Twins have the third best record in the AL at 69-42.  If the playoffs started today, they would be an AL playoff team along with the Astros, Yankees, Indians, and Rays with the Athletics just a half game out of the wildcard picture.

The Twins record agains the AL playoff teams (not including the Athletics) is 16-13, which trails only the Yankees (20-13).  The Astros are next with a sub-500 12-13, and they are trailed by the Indians and Rays at 10-13, and 13-19 respectively.  Obviously, the teams have changed (particularly the Astros with the addition of Greinke) since many of these games were played, but the bottom line is that the Twins have a winning record agains the AL playoff teams.

If you throw games against the Athletics into the mix (not unreasonable since they are barely out of the playoff picture), the situation changes a bit, with the Twins sliding to the third best record (19-17) trailing the Yankees and Astros that are 20-13 and 16-13.  The Twins are leading the Athletics, Rays, and Indians, with records of 15-16, 16-23, and 11-18 respectively.

It is interesting that the Yankees have beat up on the Rays (12-5), and the Astros have beat up on the Athletics (9-2), while the Twins have been competitive with the Indians (5-4) so far this season.  The Twins worst performance is against the (surprise!) Yankees where the Twins fell 2-4; all other series are either +1 or -1.  So the bottom line is that the Twins have been competitive against the AL playoff teams.