Once again, the Twins collapse in final two months

From 2011-14, the Twins have stunk. Nobody would argue this.

We're here to talk about how those seasons have progressed: bad but not historically awful for the first 100 games or so before descending into truly terrible territory in the final two months.

First, the what: Entering play Tuesday, the Twins were a combined 71-143 in games from 2011-14 that came after Aug. 1 in those seasons. It doesn't take a math whiz to realize they aren't even winning one of every three games in the dog days. They wouldn't win any pennants with their 187-234 pace before Aug. 1 of those seasons, but that's a .444 winning percentage and a pace to win 72 games over a full season — bad, but competent by comparison.

Why do the Twins nose-dive every year? That's a little trickier, but here is an attempt at explanation, with a mix of fact and theory:

• The bullpen, a source of strength early in the season, turns to mush late in the year because of overuse tied to an ineffective starting staff. It happened in 2013, and it's happening again in a bigger way in 2014.

The bullpen ERAs, by month, this season for the Twins: March/April: 3.42; May: 3.86; June: 2.96; July: 2.53. The MLB average for the season is 3.58. But now? The Twins' bullpen ERA soared to 5.09 in August and has ballooned to 5.70 through Monday in September.

The same thing happened last year, with very good bullpen numbers through August before the relievers' ERA bloated to 4.96 in September.

• The malaise of playing out the string is unbearable, particularly as losing seasons mount. Here's where we delve into theory. The 2011 Twins fancied themselves contenders before the season and even clung to slim hopes after a midyear surge. When reality set in, the team crashed hard.

Since then, the Twins' perch as a rebuilding team has left them well out of contention when the calendar turned to Aug. 1. It's not to say players have stopped giving effort — a team devoid of pride wouldn't have rallied from 6-0 down Monday, only to have that overworked bullpen fall apart — but it's natural for a player's mind to drift into offseason thoughts.

• When you're losing anyway, you use the stretch run to give new players a chance — young guys, castoffs, whoever — to see if anyone might be able to help down the road. While that's a good strategy for the future, it often leads to defeats in the present.

And in the case of the Twins, they haven't found enough players in those auditions to prevent a repeat of the same cycle repeating the next season.