What the heck is going on with the - well, this can go one of two ways.

We could, I guess, start with the Twins, and the shock would have an absurdly negative connotation. But instead let’s start with the Lynx, who are no less shocking, but in a good way.

A few weeks ago, we pointed to the Lynx’s current six-game stretch - Vegas, Washington, at New York, two at Connecticut, home against New York - as a potential back-breaking stretch. Coming into it, Minnesota was 1-8 on the year against teams with winning records, and all four teams had winning records. And when the Lynx lost to Vegas to start things off, giving up 98 points in the process, it seemed like the past was going to predict the future.

Minnesota did pull off a win in the second game, outgunning Washington 97-92 behind a double-double from Napheesa Collier and 21 points from Diamond Miller, but Collier - the team’s best player and sole All-Star - turned her ankle late in the fourth quarter. And so Lynx fans braced for the weekend, expecting disaster.

What the heck is going on with the Lynx? They went out east and beat both New York and Connecticut, without Collier, in two of the most surprising results of the WNBA season.

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Well, they’re still the Twins.

Minnesota struck out 18 times, the bullpen spectacularly blew a four-run lead after a Pablo López gem of a start, and the Twins lost for the first time in five games, 9-7 to the Mariners.

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Monday’s 4-3 Twins win against Seattle was a very good game, from both an excitement and anger perspective; the lead changed twice in the ninth inning and again in the tenth inning, so you can’t beat it for drama, and both Twins fans and Mariners fans both had two or three chances to be indescribably angry along the way.

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If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times, whether it was here or elsewhere: Minnesota United is built for the Leagues Cup.

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I feel bad for Byron Buxton. I don’t think that I necessarily speak for all of Twins fandom when I say that I just kind of feel bad for the guy, but neither do I think I’m alone in this. And while there are a lot of different emotions, as a fan, that are pretty normal when you’re watching a player on your team struggle - empathy, anger, disappointment, “disappointment” that is actually anger, et cetera - I think there are very few Twins fans that aren’t, ultimately, rooting for the guy. Everybody would rather him have an OPS of 1.200 and be hitting 40 home runs this year.

Anyway, the Twins lost 5-0 to the Mariners on Thursday, ending a two-game winning streak that also coincided with Buxton being out of the lineup. Batting fifth, the Twins DH was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. He’s now 0-for-21 since the All-Star break, with 12 strikeouts. His batting average has dropped to .193. His OPS in July - his OPS! - is .363.

If this isn’t rock bottom, then he can definitely see rock bottom from here.

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Starting note: I wrote another World Cup article for the Star Tribune, detailing why the USA probably shouldn’t be the favorite this time - even though, if you go by history, they always are.

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Just a note to start: I’m writing a few articles about the World Cup for the Star Tribune. Here’s the first one about the USA’s competition for the title, including a few traditional men’s powerhouses that were late getting going with women’s soccer.

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Sonny Gray is having a very strange season.

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The Twins swept a series! Now let’s never speak of it again!

Okay, that’s not entirely fair to the Twins, especially since they hadn’t swept a series in Oakland since 1997. But it’s not entirely unfair either, since Oakland is now 25-70 and has a real shot at failing to win 40 games this season.

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Along with “goals change games,” one of the things that MNUFC manager Adrian Heath says most often in postgame press conferences is, “I’ll never turn down a point on the road.”

This is pretty much accepted wisdom everywhere in soccer, that a draw away from home is a good result, but in MLS - with long flights and weather variability and an overall style of play that tends to reward energy alongside, and even sometimes above, skill - even getting a point on the road seems like a tall ask, sometimes.

This is why Minnesota United has usually stuck to a road playbook that starts with the headline “first, you must defend.” The Loons tend to cede possession to the opposition, focus on defending first and foremost, and then try to pick a few opportunities to go forward - one opening for a fullback to get forward and cross the ball while the defense is disorganized, say, or an opening for a midfielder to launch a long pass to a striker who’s running in behind the defense.

I’m not sure this plan has ever worked as well as it did on Wednesday, when the Loons scored twice in the first 20 minutes, and cruised to a 3-0 victory against Houston.

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