There are a bunch of different things you can lead with, regarding the Twins’ 4-1 win in Detroit on Friday night. Sure, you could talk about Kenta Maeda’s triumphant return, as he struck out eight and held the Tigers scoreless over five innings. Sure, you could talk about Royce Lewis homering in the second inning, or Max Kepler homering two batters later.

The most fun, though, is to talk about home plate umpire Lance Barrett, who had a deadly combination going in this one: he was both doing a terrible job, and also he was grumpy about it.

Rocco Baldelli got tossed in the second inning, and not even for one of his usual on-field rants that make him look like a man who is trying to convince his wife, from a distance, that he’s driving an exceptionally hard bargain with a used-car dealer. All he did was yell from the dugout about how the Tigers pitcher was balking, which first earned him a very showy I-will-turn-this-car-around lecture from Barrett, then got him tossed.

Later Barrett threw out Michael A. Taylor, after ringing him up on a curve that missed the strike zone by four inches, and for good measure he also threw out assistant hitting coach Derek Shomon, which was good because it means that Derek Shomon will get his name in the box score and maybe a few stories like this one, if he ever needs to prove that he has an alibi for the evening of June 23.

I’m not sure that the Twins can even complain that much, because plenty of Tigers got rung up on pitches out of the strike zone, too. Apparently they were less mad about it than the Twins were, though, because all of them got to stay until the end of the game.

Maeda walked the leadoff hitter in the first inning, then gave up a single, but followed that with a strikeout and a double play, and allowed only three more baserunners the rest of his evening. Both he and catcher Christian Vázquez came out with huge fist-pumps after he struck out the final hitter he faced, to end the fifth inning; it was a triumph for a guy who hadn’t pitched in the majors in almost two months, and missed all of 2022 with an arm injury.

Jovani Moran and Brock Stewart got themselves into a bind in the sixth, but Stewart managed to get out of it with another double play, and then the Twins’ Good Bullpen went to work. Stewart in the seventh, Griffin Jax in the eighth, Jhoan Duran in the ninth.

Joe Ryan’s complete game on Thursday may have actually won two games for Minnesota, in that it allowed everybody out in the bullpen to get a day of rest.

Minnesota is back above .500, after winning three games in a row, and once again has a two-game lead on Cleveland. The AL Central is terrible, but it’s good if you’re the team in front.

The MNUFC injury report for tonight’s game in Utah is out, and there were some surprises, both good and bad. Franco Fragapane is questionable, with a thigh injury, and if he can’t go you would think that it would mean that Emanuel Reynoso is definitely starting.

On the flip side, Bakaye Dibassy is not on the injury report, is with the team, and could potentially play if needed, according to Andy Greder of the Pioneer Press.

Dayne St. Clair and Joseph Rosales are on international duty, with Canada and Honduras respectively, but Greder also reported that Kemar Lawrence is with an ailing family member, and is not with the Jamaica squad at the Gold Cup.

I missed this late Thursday, but the Timberwolves made two picks in the NBA Draft: a guy named Leonard, and a guy who’s hurt.

Leonard Miller is a 6-foot-10 guy with a 7-foot-2 wingspan who apparently is a wing and not a forward. He averaged 18 points a game in the NBA G League last year, and some teams seemed to think he was a lottery-level talent, which could mean that the Wolves made a good decision to bundle together some second-rounders to move up to #33 to get him. Or we’ll forget all about this by next year at this time, as is traditional with second-round draft picks.

I will say that this move does make me hope even more that the Wolves can re-sign Naz Reid somehow, just in the hopes that they can put Reid, Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Miller all on the floor at the same time. It’d be wonderful to see, especially after they gave up a few offensive rebounds and Chris Finch had a coronary.

Jaylen Clark, the Wolves’ second pick of the second round, was the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year last year, but ripped his Achilles tendon, which is why he was still available at pick 53. He also helps rebuild the team’s extremely deep reserves of guys with names that start with J; the depth chart now looks like this:

  • Jordan
  • Jaden
  • Jaylen (Nowell)
  • Jaylen (Clark)
  • Josh

The St. Paul Saints got back into the win column as well on Friday, coming back to beat Toledo, 10-6. St. Paul was down 5-2 after five innings, but put up crooked numbers in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings - mostly from dink-and-dunk rallies, instead of homers.

Louie Varland, back at Triple-A after an extended stay in the majors, had a rough night. Varland allowed five runs on six hits and two walks, in four and two-thirds innings. The Saints went into the game intending to use just Varland and Blayne Enlow on the mound, in what was sort of the opposite of a bullpen game - two starters, splitting time - and Enlow righted the ship, going four and a third and allowing just one run to get the win.

Second baseman Anthony Prato, who just got called up to Triple-A two weeks ago, hit his second homer in as many weeks. He needs to keep hitting - he had just a .553 OPS at Double-A this year, in 43 games - and hope that Edouard Julien stays in the majors for awhile.

Matt Wallner hit two more singles, but that’s old hat at this point.

TONIGHT’S SLATE

TWINS at Detroit, 6:15pm
LOONS at Real Salt Lake, 8:30 pm

SAINTS at Toledo, 6:05pm
AURORA at Bavarian United, 5:00 pm

ON DECK

LYNX vs Seattle, Tuesday

CROWS vs Thunder Bay, Wednesday
DOUBLOONS vs Portland Timbers 2, July 2