#-1: Lynx (Last Week: -1). You know, I thought the Fox Sports ticker said they lost to Tulsa Saturday. Turns out they did not; they beat the Shock in Tulsa by 11, preceded by victories at home vs. the best team in the Women's National Basketball Association, the Atlanta Dream, by 22 Tuesday and on the road against the defending WNBA Champions Indiana Fever (which the Lynx lost to in the Finals) by seven Thursday. They have won four in a row and now own, by percentage points over the Dream, the best record in the league.
Good. I thought the addition of Janel McCarville was holding this team back, especially in two defeats in Los Angeles. But I have also noticed that in this extremely impressive 3-0 week, Seimone Augustus did not play, presumably to make sure her ankle is rested. I'm not saying that the Lynx play better without her -- necessarily. But they sure haven't skipped a beat, and even if McCarville routinely plays ten minutes less than the other starters (which now includes Monica Wright, who's playing awesome right now), I nor the organization cannot be too unhappy with how they're playing at the moment.
This would be a great time for the league to flood the schedule with games. The four days surrounding Major League Baseball's All-Star Game are the quietest in the sports year. Give sports fans something! But odd and wasteful an opportunity it is, there are only three games in that span: None yesterday, only one today, two tomorrow (one of those apparently being Seattle's annual afternoon basketball day camp) and two Thursday (one of being a camp held in the afternoon for New York's camp, supposedly). Minnesota's off until Friday, when they resume their four-game roadtrip at San Antonio and finish it in Phoenix Sunday.
#-2: Twins (Last Week: -4). It's bad. 2-4 for the week, including a gag-inducing sweep at the Tampa Bay Rays, and they have gone 3-12 in their last 15. Many times I have been visibly upset at how the Twinks have done. And I knew that firing Ron Gardenhire would have solved nothing, but it was beyond time to do something in reaction to this team's shitty play.
And yet ... the first series win in the Bronx against the hated New York Yankees in a dozen years, featuring the first defeat of Pitcher C.C. Sabathia for the first time since 2007, may very well be an illusion; I have no doubt that this team could go 3-12 again. But as a fan who remembers a level of success and since has tasted the bile of back-to-back 90-losses seasons, swear to God, winning two-of-three in New York seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Moreover, I really, really think that that series saved Gardy from losing his job. It looked like they were going to lose nine-of-ten in this impossible roadtrip, and with the ASG Break coming up, it was the perfect time to make a change at Manager and start tearing down the whole team. Upon reflection of the end of this road trip, it's possible that such a thought is rash. With the team winning two in a row on the road in a tough place (even though the Yankees are nowhere close to the juggernaut they were when they whipped the Twinks routinely in the playoffs, the franchise definitely has an inferiority complex when it comes to the Bronx Bombers) it's possible Gardenhire still has influence in the locker room.
A sign that he definitely does comes in Star Tribune beat writer Phil Miller's 6-4-3 blog breaking down the team's moves, made seemingly as soon as the team recorded the final out in their 10-4 win over the Yanks Sunday, where they sent down Chris Parmalee, Oswaldo Arcia and Eduardo Escobar to AAA Rochester and called up Shortstop Doug Bernier, Catcher Chris Herrmann and a player to be announced later, although it's likely it's First Baseman Chris Colabello; the team has not promoted him yet because they want him to play in the AAA All-Star Game, which is going to be played in Reno, Nev., Wednesday. Note that Miller says near the end of his self-Q&A that "[Twins General Manager] Terry Ryan and Ron Gardenhire are sending a message." If Gardy were about to be fired, Ryan would not let him help send a message. Unless this shit continues to nosedive -- a distinct possibility -- he at least lasts the season.
Meanwhile, that message is another of those put-up-or-shut-up moves. The club is telling Parmalee, Arcia and Escobar that they haven't been good enough to stay with the big-league and want them to work and focus in Rochester so they can give them another chance. Like Miller said, neither Bernier, Hermmann nor Colabello are considered long-term or even intermediate-term options for the team. They want to see if the true pieces of the future are going to take their lumps and continue to learn, or if they'll just fold up like once-highly-touted prospect Joe Benson and get himself released from the team.
After the four-game ASG Break, the second half of the season begins with three at home against Cleveland. They will then head back out on the road to begin a four-game series in Anaheim against the Angels Monday. For the month of July, the Twins play only nine games at Target Field.
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