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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The days around baseball’s all-star game tend to be some of the quietest sports days of the whole year. In Minnesota, both the Twins and the Saints have four days off, and it just so happened that the Lynx and Loons don’t play again until Wednesday evening, and so all has been calm since Sunday.

With the benefit of some quiet, it’s hard not to notice how negative everything feels right now. The Twins are immensely frustrating. The Loons are outside the playoff picture. The Lynx are the best of the major-league lot, and even their best-case scenario for this season feels like being somewhere in the middle of the pack.

With that in mind, I thought I’d better sit down and make a list of a few players who’ve given me some hope this year - pleasant surprises, if you will. It’s small, but I think this is important, if for no other reason than just to manage my own attitude for the rest of the summer.

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We’ve hit baseball’s summer break, meaning that there’s not much going on in the sports world for the next two days. That said, there was plenty happening in Minnesota sports over the weekend - and not much of it was good.

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