Minnesota

Twins

Lewis picked up his 16th stolen base of the season before padding Minnesota’s lead with an eighth-inning shot off Rangers reliever Cody Bradford. The 27-year-old’s future remains up in the air as Minnesota enters an offseason that is sure to be filled with changes after a late-season collapse left them out of the playoffs once again.

Kremer closed out the regular season with his second consecutive quality start, nearly blanking a Texas squad that needed to win their season finale to have any shot at the postseason. The 30-year-old righty pitched extremely well for the Twins after coming over from the Orioles at the trade deadline, posting a sparkling 3.48 ERA across 10 starts. He wraps up the year with a pedestrian 4.68 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and 86/29 K/BB ratio across 90 1/3 innings.

Ober gave up 10 hits, walked one and struck out five. He came out of the bullpen to get a save last week, but still lost his last three starts of the season. Ober finished 7-7 with a 4.47 ERA, 1.30 WHIP and 96 strikeouts in 130 innings.

Culpepper returns for Minnesota’s final two regular-season contests against the Rangers following a minimum stint on the injured list with a left hamstring strain. The 23-year-old top prospect has delivered for fantasy managers since arriving in the big leagues back in early August, hitting .275/.333/.404 with 15 runs scored, three homers, 11 RBI and one steal in 120 plate appearances. He’s one of the more dynamic power and speed combo threats to reach the majors recently and should be an intriguing late-round sleeper candidate in drafts next spring.

Hoffman heads to the shelf with two games remaining in the regular season. The 33-year-old has shared the closing role in Minnesota with Andrew Morris for the last couple weeks. He’s recorded one save along with a strong 2.50 ERA and 27/12 K/BB across 18 innings since being acquired from the Blue Jays at last month’s trade deadline. There should be some clarity on his health heading into the offseason at some point in the coming days.

Culpepper has been on the IL since Sept. 16 with a mild hamstring strain. Ryan Kreidler has been the primary shortstop in his absence.

Keaschall certainly doesn’t want this season to end. He helped put an exclamation point on the Twins’ six-run, second-inning rally with a two-run triple and then hit another run-scoring double in the fourth. He’s now up to a .281 batting average and .781 OPS with two games left on the season to go along with 10 home runs and 20 stolen bases. If you split out for just the second half, Keaschall has a .313/.402/.475 slash line. That would be star-caliber production if he could sustain it for a full season.

Ryan let up two runs by the time he faced four hitters, but held tight from that point on. In fact, only three Rangers reached base against him after the first inning. He leaned into his knuckle-curve a bit more than usual and while he hung a handful, it also forced five swings-and-misses. A stint on the injured list played a part, but this was Ryan’s first win since July 5th and he closed the season with a 3.79 ERA, 159 strikeouts, and 31 walks over 144 2/3 innings pitched.

He briefly had a HBP, too, but it was overturned on replay because the pitch, which was actually in the strike zone, hit the knob of his bat, rather than his hand. That made it a foul tip, which was caught by the catcher for a strikeout. Keaschall’s homer was his 10th. He’s cooled off some in September, but he’s still hitting an exceptional .302/.394/.453 since the break.

The runs both scored in the fourth on a Shay Whitcomb popup down the right field line that no one could get to. Prielipp allowed four hits, walked two and struck out three before exiting a tie game. He ends his rookie season 6-7 with a 4.87 ERA and a fine 128/44 K/BB in 125 2/3 innings. He might have a little edge on Zebby Matthews and Mick Abel for a spot in the Twins rotation next spring, but that’s assuming that they leave an opening with Pablo López coming back.