The Twins now have the longest postseason losing streak ever in the four major sports
There’s a new synonym for postseason futility — the Minnesota Twins.
With their heartbreaking 4-1 loss to the Houston Astros on Tuesday, the Twins have now lost 17 straight games in the playoffs dating back to 2004. That beats the previous record, held by the Chicago Blackhawks from 1975-1979. This, from YES Network statistician James Smyth:
Brutal way for the Twins to get this record today...
MLB/NFL/NBA/NHL
Longest Postseason Losing Streaks All-Time
* 17 Twins 2004-Present
16 Blackhawks 1975-1979
14 Pistons 2008-Present
14 LA Kings 1993-2001
13 Red Sox 1986-1995
13 Knicks 2001-2012— James Smyth (@JamesSmyth621) September 29, 2020
The Game 1 loss to the Astros was even tougher to swallow because of the circumstances. The game was tied 1-1 in the ninth inning, but the Twins walked in the go-ahead run and then allowed two more to score. If you like even more history, the bases-loaded walk was the first time ever that there was a go-ahead walk in the ninth inning of a postseason game.
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Rough all around for Minnesota. This dry spell dates back to 2004, when they lost the ALDS to the Yankees but at least won one game. Since then, they were swept in the ALDS by the A’s in 2006, and then by the Yankees in 2009 and 2010. In 2017, they lost the wild-card game to the Yankees and in 2019, they were swept by the Yankees again in the ALDS.
What are the odds? Well, quite long.
The Twins have now lost 17 straight playoff games. Assuming each game is 50/50, the odds of that happening are 1 in 131,072. The Twins have played a total of 68 playoff games in their history.
— Mike Regan (@MikeReganNC) September 29, 2020
The No. 7 seed Astros should have been some welcome non-pinstriped relief for the No. 2 seed Twins, but not quite. Not in Game 1 at least. In fact, the Astros have won 42 postseason games since the Twins last won one — how’s that feel, Minnesota?
Other things that have happened since the Twins last won a postseason game:
• The Giants won three World Series and the Red Sox won four.
• Twins slugger Nelson Cruz has hit an MLB-best 395 homers.
• LeBron James has scored 23,552 points.
• Apple has released 17 different iPhone models.
• Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok all launched.
• 266 episodes of “The Simpsons” have aired.
And, the flipside of that: The Seattle Mariners, the team with the longest postseason drought in baseball, haven’t played a single playoff game in that time. So it could always be worse.
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