#-1: Twins (Last Week: -2). Hmmm ... at the end of the day I'm giving the top spot in this week's survey to the Twinks only because their record of 4-3 is slightly better than the Lynx's pure .500 record. Don't have much reason than that.
It started off with a 2-1 victory Thursday afternoon, salvaging a split of a four-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals. I was able to attend that game -- even though it was a close call; would have been late to pick up a commuter rail ticket if not for the fact that the train, once again, was late -- and it was close but not very dramatic. All three runs were solo shots; Jason Heyward put the Cards on top, then Joe Mauer (whodathunkit?) went opposite field to tie before Kennys Vargas, who grounded into two double plays that game, lofted one into right field in the bottom of the ninth. St. Louis is a damn good team, and a well-supported one, too; when Vargas bounced into the second of his GIDPs, Redbird Nation, which was a good 10% of Target Field, stood up to give their team a huge round of applause. Nevertheless I was truly happy when the good guys won at the end.
The club, still hosting through the week, then dropped two-of-three against the suddenly surging Chicago Cubs before taking two-of-three against the flailing Chicago White Sox. The rubber match Wednesday afternoon went Minnesota's way, 6-1, despite Pale Hose Pitcher Chris Sale striking out ten Twins batters while getting hung for the loss.
Byron Buxton remains on the team, for now. Despite his struggles to get on base, Manager Paul Molitor actually moved him up to first in the lineup in Monday's (?) 13-2 win over the Sox. Where will Buxton be this weekend, when they play three at Milwaukee? They continue on their maximum-length road trip with a trio in Cincinnati starting on Monday, then three at Kansas City starting on Thursday.
#-2: Lynx (Last Week: -1). OK, I am back to thinking that there might be a change at the top of the WNBA. Two days after the Jynx marched into San Antonio and blitzed the Silver Stars by 15 Friday, they had a rematch against The Bastard Detroit Shock at home and, unlike their victory earlier in the season, they lost, 86-78. The Lynx seem to have some trouble with Tulsa. I saw them beat Minnesota at Target Center two or three years ago. And just like then, they seemed to have lost to the Shock the same way: Easy penetration to the hoop with the occasional kick-out to the perimeter resulting in a made three-pointer. Head Coach Cheryl Reeve didn't like the matador defense, and neither do I.
So now Minnesota and the Phoenix Mercury are chasing Tulsa in the Western Conference; will they be chasing them all year? In the meantime they have yet another two-game screening week which falls right around the weekend: At Seattle Thursday, home to the Mercury Saturday, then they will be off till next Friday, for some odd reason.
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