The Twins win, the Lynx can’t quite get over the hump, and the MNUFC squad shrinks again. That and more, in today’s Minnesota roundup.

Part of being a baseball manager is giving players chances. It takes more than just a starting nine or a few great pitchers to win a game, and so every manager has to be long on optimism and short on memory, to put faith in struggling players and trust them to come through.

Eventually, though, every team has to lean on its big names and established stars. So while Byron Buxton and Pablo López and Carlos Correa and Max Kepler got a chance to try to make names for themselves, eventually Rocco Baldelli had to turn to his battle-tested players, the tried-and-true, like Royce Lewis and Willi Castro and Donovan Solano and of course the lights-out bullpen combo of Emilio Pagán and Griffin Jax to get the job done.

… I kid. But then again, do I? It was again the Twins Backup Plans that won the game for them, leading Minnesota to a 7-6 win over Cleveland, and the team to its first two-game winning streak since May 14.

Lopez, having completed five really good innings, gave up a walk and six singles in the sixth inning, turning a 3-1 lead into a 6-3 deficit - and when he gave way for Pagán, Twins fans could have been forgiven for switching channels.

Instead, Pagán twirled a solid two and a third - even pitching through some adversity! - to extend the game, and then the Twins’ no-names went to work. Castro beat out an infield hit. Solano ripped a double to left-center. Lewis, with his developing flair for the dramatic, then hit a mammoth home run to center field to tie the game.

After Jax, of all people, set the Guardians down in order in the ninth, the Twins won it in the bottom of the inning, thanks to a Christian Vázquez walk (he was 2-for-3) followed by a Jorge Polanco double, followed by Castro - aka Mr. Clutch, aka Future All-Star Willi Castro - winning the game with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly.

I feel I must point out that Buxton (plunked in the ribs with a 97-mph fastball), Correa (plantar fascitis flare-up), and Kepler (migraine) all had injury-related reasons for leaving the game. Still, though, for the second straight night, it was the little fish and not the big fish that won it for Minnesota.

Also, the Twins’ dwindling bench led to one of the great pinch-running moves of all time; after Polanco’s double moved Vázquez to third base in the ninth inning, the Twins pulled their catcher and inserted Ryan Jeffers, their only remaining bench player, a move that swapped their slowest player with their third-slowest. Rarely has a 300-foot fly ball to right-center left so much doubt as to whether a run could score from third base.

Once again, it was a loss caused by something different for the Minnesota Lynx, which fell to 0-6 on the year after an 89-84 loss at home against Connecticut. Minnesota fell behind by 15 with less than nine minutes to play, but managed to erase the entire deficit in five minutes, including a stretch where Napheesa Collier scored on four consecutive possessions - two free throws, three-pointer, driving layup, three-pointer.

The game was tied at 81 with three and a half minutes to go, but from there, things quickly soured for the Lynx. They gave up offensive rebounds on three straight possessions, leading to two buckets for the Sun. They missed three out of four free throws, then threw the ball away. That turned a tie game into a five-point deficit with 21 seconds to go, and that was enough for the Sun to pull the game out.

Sure, the Lynx may go 0-40 this year. But at least their losses are close? It may be too early to do this much grasping at straws, and yet…

Over in Minnesota United news, the club announced Thursday that they were waiving center back Doneil Henry. Henry was a depth signing even when he was made, but you could tell that they weren’t entirely happy with him; he began the season with an injury, but even after returning, he only made the team’s bench one time. Not even as the squad shrank, and the Loons regularly began filling out their lineup card with two keepers, or - as in the case of Wednesday’s game - two keepers and only five outfield players, did Henry even make an appearance in the substitutes.

He did play 72 minutes in one game for Minnesota United 2, in MLS NEXT Pro, so we’ll always have that. We’ll remember him fondly in the ranks of the Doubloons legends.

And hey, this clears an international roster spot for Minnesota. Assuming Luis Amarilla also departs, they’ll have two open (update: no they won’t, reader Collin reminded me that Amarilla got his green card this year and actually missed the beginning of the season to do so).

That said, at least in terms of recognized MLS players, the Loons are currently down to 15 guys, not counting goalkeepers. Rumors are that Emanuel Reynoso could return as soon as this weekend, so there’s one to add to the squad - and they desperately need the numbers.

The St. Paul Saints are on a roll, winners of five straight, after hammering Buffalo for a third consecutive day, 11-5. Matt Wallner was again the hero, homering (for a third straight day) and driving in three runs, and catcher Chris Williams homered and doubled and knocked in four.

Caleb Thielbar pitched another scoreless inning, and Josh Winder made his third consecutive clean appearance out of the bullpen, after a mid-May debacle (seven earned runs in one inning) semi-permanently blew up his season stats.

Jordan Balazovic struggled again, giving up three runs on four hits in two innings. Balazovic had a 1.80 ERA on May 9, but since then has allowed 14 earned runs in 15 and a third innings across five appearances. The former top-100 prospect is still trying to… find himself, I guess, it’s hard to see where he’s going right now.

TONIGHT: The Twins are set to take on Cleveland again on Friday night, in one of the famed Apple TV games (this offered as a public service for when your dad calls and asks which channel the game is on).

The Saints are still in Buffalo, too - these week-at-a-time Triple-A schedules sure are monotonous - and Minneapolis City is hosting Bavarian United in USL League Two action tonight, a game I’m going to be at, and writing about soon.

It’s the dawn of a new month, the start of meterological summer, and it’s going to be 90 degrees and humid for the next three months in Minnesota. Why don’t we stay inside and round up the evening in Minnesota sports?

We start with Minnesota United FC, which dropped a hair-tearing 2-1 decision in Austin. Joseph Rosales scored the team’s lone goal, but Minnesota could have scored about five; Rosales had a first-half goal ruled out for offside, as did Hassani Dotson as the Loons searched for a late equalizer.

That search for the late equalizer was particularly garment-rending; Dotson’s goal was disallowed, Bongokuhle Hlongwane should have scored, Sang Bin Jeong and DJ Taylor tested Austin keeper Brad Stuver, but nothing came of it.

Of course, this came after Rosales had gone off with an apparent groin strain with 20 minutes to go, leading Adrian Heath to shift his team into a 4-5-1 to try to see the game out. This is a 4-5-1 that’s working about as well as a Vikings prevent defense these days; Austin scored ten minutes later from, of all things, a long throw to the penalty spot that nobody could clear.

Every high school soccer team in the nation has a play where they launch a long throw at the penalty spot, and hope that everyone misses a header and the ball bounces around a little bit and maybe finds a player. In this case, that player was Sebastian Driussi. Not good!

The Loons don’t really have enough points in the bank, or enough points likely to come their way in the future, that they can afford to be dropping one or three. The MLS website had MNUFC winning the xG battle 3.1 to 1.3, so it’s fair to look at this one as three points swirling down the drain.

In other news, Luis Amarilla didn’t even make the bench for this one, and my old, trusted MN soccer friend Brian Quarstad says that he’s hearing that Teemu Pukki to MNUFC is a done deal, so apparently we’re about to be on to a new era of number 9s in Minnesota, for approximately the sixth time in five years. (Amarilla’s apparently off to Mazatlan in Liga MX.)

The more I think about it, the more I support this. Not only did several Norwich City fans tell me on Twitter that Pukki’s drop-off last season was merely due to the craptitude of the entire Canaries attack, but ultimately, the Loons needed to do something up front. Whether this works or not, at least it’s something, and not just “let’s sign the eleventh-leading scorer from a second-rate South or Central American league and see if we unearth a diamond.”

Also deepinthehearta Texas, the Twins finally won a series! On the road, against - of all teams - the Astros! Minnesota hadn’t won a series since pounding the hapless Cubs into the dirt in mid-May, and they did it in surprising fashion in this one. Louie Varland spun a gem, allowing four hits and a walk in seven scoreless innings, and - qué milagro! - the Twins actually got not one, but TWO hits with the bases loaded. Donovan Solano had the first, a single that scored two in the third inning, and Ryan Jeffers had the second, a ground-rule double in the fifth inning that maybe relegated Christian Vázquez to second-catcher duty for awhile.

Solano drove in four, Willi Castro scored three runs, Michael A. Taylor was on base three times and scored twice and drove in a run with a double - it truly was a victory for the “guys that the Twins signed because their best players were not-so-secretly hurt” brigade.

Also, a word for Jorge López, who might be out on the street at this point if the Twins weren’t entirely desperate for relief pitching, and who - despite becoming completely unpitchable - is probably still second on the “drop this guy” list behind Emilio Pagan. Lopez went all of March and April without giving up a run; in May, his ERA is a deserved 9.00. Wednesday, he came in the eighth with the Twins leading 8-0, gave up two home runs on three pitches, walked a guy, hit a guy, and then was presumably tackled off the mound by Pete Maki before he got them both fired.

He also can’t tell the difference between Gatorade and water and took it out on a cooler. Not helpful, Jorge!

I predicted a bloodbath in the Minnesota Aurora’s scheduled game against hapless RKC Third Coast, but it ended up worse than I thought; the Aurora won 10-0 and Maya Hansen had a hat-trick in the first half.

I would submit to whoever’s running the USL W League that maybe letting just anybody field a team in the league is not a great idea.

Down in Triple-A, the Saints won again in a Wednesday matinee, beating up on Buffalo 6-2. Jose Miranda and Matt Wallner both hit home runs and had three hits; Miranda’s 5 for 9 in Buffalo after batting .155 in his first two and a half weeks with the Saints. Wallner, fresh off a four-game stint with the Twins in which he was 7 for 11 with a homer, has continued tearing it up in St. Paul, homering in both games and going 3 for 5 on consecutive days.

Would it be churlish to note that Max Kepler is 1 for 14 since replacing Wallner with the Twins?

Oh, Kyle Garlick mashed a homer for the Saints, too.

Thursday, the Twins return as conquering heroes to Target Field, taking on Cleveland in the first of four. I’m sure Twins fans have no bad memories at all of the Twins playing Cleveland at home in early summer with a 3.5 game lead on the Guardians.

The Lynx are also back home, taking on the East-leading Connecticut Sun, which should be a tall order. The Saints are still in Buffalo, and play the Bison at 10:05am, which is not a typo; it’s “School Kids Day” in Buffalo, which I’m sure will be deafening chaos. My thoughts and prayers to everyone who’s chaperoning kids in Buffalo.

Getting back into the swing of things here, to use a cliche that sounds like it should be a baseball cliche but isn’t, so let’s round up the Minnesota sports scene for today.

The Twins have lost four consecutive series, and the way things looked on Tuesday night in Houston, they’re headed for five. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but they didn’t hit much, they didn’t hit at all with runners in scoring position (1-for-8), and Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton both hit into double plays.

They managed all this off of Brandon Bielak (you know, “Who?”), one of the many pitchers with no real track record of success that the Twins have made into potential All-Stars this season.

Correa, of course, is the one that’s still driving me crazy - not even because of the contract, because it’s not my money, but because he’s genuinely been a disaster in big spots this year. He’s hit into nine double plays, which is difficult for a guy who can run at least a little, and his WPA at the plate (coming into last night) was a negative 1.0, which is among the worst 20 players in the game.

We’re beyond the “well it’s early in the season” excuses for Correa. For the rest of the Twins, too, but they either have an OPS north of .700, or weren’t the type of guy who was expected to carry the team (Michael Taylor, Max Kepler, etc.)

But hey, Christian Vázquez got two hits in a single game, and even drove in a run. So if nothing else, this one was a collector’s item.

The Lynx are 0-5 now, after a 94-89 loss in Dallas last night, and it’s looking like it’s going to be a long 40 games this year for Minnesota. They’ve got that affliction - familiar to fans who watched either Gopher basketball team last winter - where it’s always just something that goes wrong, not even the same thing every time, just something. Either they can’t shoot one night, or they can’t play defense, or - as in this one - they turn the ball over a hundred times.

They actually out-shot Dallas in this one, including hitting nine of 18 threes (a number that also counts a desperation heave at the buzzer by Rachel Banham), but they gave up 46 points in the paint and turned the ball over 15 times.

The biggest news might be that first-round draftee and presumed franchise cornerstone Diamond Miller was injured in the second quarter, spraining her ankle in ugly fashion. She didn’t return to the game, after ending up in tears on the floor, so you may go ahead and (potentially) mark off one of the reasons to watch Minnesota.

Frankly, keep your eyes on June 27, June 29, August 18, and August 20. Those are the dates that Minnesota plays fellow stragglers the Seattle Storm, and by the time those games roll around - especially in August - the #CollapseForCaitlin effort could be reaching fever pitch.

The big MNUFC news of the day, beyond the fact that Emanuel Reynoso and Bakaye Dibassy were with the team and training, was a rumor linking the Loons to Finnish striker Teemu Pukki.

Pukki, familiar to most as the dude with the funny name who was the only bright spot for Norwich City for two Premier League relegations in a row, is apparently a free agent. He’d have a friend in Minnesota, fellow Finland international Robin Lod, and he plays striker, the position that has bedeviled Minnesota since time immemorial.

That said, he’s also 33 years old, and his numbers in the Championship this year were way down from his previous two stints in the English second division. I’d like to convince myself that this is simply because the Canaries were much worse (13th, instead of winning the league like they did the last two times they were at that level), but the numbers do concern me.

But hey, what do European stats mean? Adrien Hunou’s were fine for three years in Ligue 1 before he got to Minnesota, and he mostly flopped, so maybe they really mean nothing and Pukki is the answer. Here’s hoping, because the Loons need somebody to work out.

Down at Triple-A, the Saints beat Buffalo 9-1, led by occasional Twin Matt Wallner, who was a single short of the cycle and drove in four runs. Jose Miranda also got two hits and drove in three, and given that he’s batting .177 since his demotion, the Twins (and Saints) will take all the hits they can get out of him.

On the mound, Kenta Maeda and Caleb Thielbar both pitched, somewhat oddly as openers, making the Twins’ pitching line look a bit spring training-ish. Maeda walked one and struck out four in two scoreless innings, Thielbar gave up one hit and struck out one in a scoreless inning, and then they turned it over to Brent Headrick, who went five innings and got the win.

Headrick’s one of those semi-anonymous depth guys - he’s a starter, but the Twins called him up and used him as a reliever earlier this year - so it’s nice to see him having some success.

The Twins are again in Houston tonight, finishing off that series, but otherwise it’s a soccer-focused night. MNUFC is in Austin, taking on fellow Western Conference middlers Austin FC.

On the local side, Minnesota Aurora is playing at home, against RKC Third Coast, a team so well-established that they don’t have a Wikipedia page. (Maybe they don’t have the internet yet in Racine, Wisconsin?) Anyway, RKC Third Coast is 0-3 this year, losing their games by a combined score of 13-1, while the Aurora are 2-0 and have yet to give up a goal, so it should be a real… barn-burner in Eagan.

Robin Lod hasn’t scored a goal in a year.

That statement’s not quite true, not yet, but on Wednesday’s Apple TV broadcast of the Minnesota-Houston game, they flashed a stat on the screen, noting that Lod hadn’t scored since May 22, 2022, which immediately prompted a “okay they must have screwed that up, there’s no way Robin Lod hasn’t scored a goal in a year” reaction from me.

So I looked it up, and I’ll be darned, it’s true. Weirdly, it was on the end of a stretch where Lod scored five times in six appearances, even though he was out sick in the middle.

To be fair to him, it was only about a month after that goal that the Loons started regularly deploying him in central midfield, rather than as a forward; by my count, he’s only gone seven or eight starts at forward without scoring a goal. But still, it was astonishing, and so I decided to look up some more droughts and streaks for the Loons.

read more...

Just a quick note, but after taking a month off (by accident), The Sportive did three podcasts last week. I was on all three, joined in turn by each of the three Sportive guys, talking Wild and Twins and Wolves. I won’t link to them individually but here’s the link to the podcast overall; all I’m asking is that, if you removed us from your podcast subscriptions because you thought we were dead (or if you never subscribed in the first place), please add us back, because we are alive!

When Minnesota United goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair was going good - and he was never going better than mid-season last year when he made the MLS All-Star Team - his scouting report was pretty clear.

He’s not a great distributor. He doesn’t really command the penalty area, preferring to stay on his line. He’s not much of a sweeper-keeper, nor is he especially good with the ball at his feet… but man, he sure can stop some shots.

Halfway through last year, that shot-stopping ability was carrying him to one of the best goalkeeper seasons in MLS history. The numbers put him in the upper echelon of MLS keepers, up there with Djordje Petrovic and Andre Blake and other, better-known goalkeeper names. He slid a bit in the second half, but by almost any measure, he was still a top-10 keeper for the season.

Now, the 2023 season is one-third over, and we can no longer lean on “well, it’s a small sample size” as an excuse, and so we’re forced to reckon with what the numbers are telling us for 2023, and we need to ask ourselves an uncomfortable question.

Is Dayne St. Clair currently the worst goalkeeper in MLS?

read more...

I joined the Star Tribune’s Michael Rand, on his daily podcast, to talk about all things Minnesota United FC. Among the topics discussed: why the Loons can’t score, why their defense is better, and what’s the deal with soccer analytics these days.

Major League Baseball’s unmitigated success with its new pitch clock is sweeping the nation. Americans have clock fever! The pitch clock, were it a single person, would be the most popular figure in the history of baseball!

This is hyperbole, but not ridiculous hyperbole. Baseball has managed to cut a half-hour or so out of its usual running time, without changing anything major about the game itself, and all simply by putting an actual clock in view, to help umpires enforce the rules about pace of play that were already on the books.

With this in mind, I think it’s time for the next step: there should be a pitch clock in soccer.

read more...

Through 55 minutes, Minnesota United’s 2-1 loss against Orlando City looked like it would be another in a series of tight, cagey defensive performances by the Loons.

Orlando had yet to create anything that looked like a scoring chance. The Loons weren’t much more dangerous.

Ten minutes into the second half, though, Minnesota made a change that, finally, unlocked their own offense - but in the process, gave the Lions the space that they needed to steal three points.

read more...

In 1995, John Feinstein published “A Good Walk Spoiled: Days and Nights on the PGA Tour,” an insider’s account of the 1994 PGA Tour season. The central cast of the book includes Zimbabwe’s Nick Price, the world’s top-ranked golfer at the time, and the man who led the money list on the 1994 tour.

The book adopts a head-shaking, almost tongue-clucking tone at the sum that Price earned that season, an otherworldly $1,499,927. It’s cast as almost too much money for a single golfer to make, a sum that would potentially deflate Price’s desire to not only compete, but to ever play golf again. Adjusted for inflation, that’s a little less than $3 million in 2022.

On the 2022 PGA Tour, 26 golfers earned more than $3 million for the season.

read more...