Positive Numbers: Twins (Last Week: 0). The first time I ever saw this ballclub play -- on TV, not in person -- was Friday, when I was at a house party and I just whipped it out on two girls. (They were not amused.) It was the top of the ninth and their game versus the Tampa Bay Rays was tied at 3. But like they have done all year (at least so far) the lineup was able to get on base, and that set up Eddie Rosario's ground ball into Left Field, scoring two. The bullpen, which got shellacked in the only loss of this team's 4-1 screening week Thursday (14-3 to Tampa) and almost coughed up a 7-0 lead Sunday (before winning 9-7), was able to hold down the Bay Rays. Winning three-of-four in Tampa after taking the back half of a two-Game series at home against Milwaukee? That is a credible trial by fire. And even though Monday night ends with the Twins not having the best record in Major League Baseball (that distinction goes to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are in front of second-place Minnesota by a half-Game), they are a Game in front of the Houston Astros for tops in the American League and have pushed their lead in the American League Central Division to 11 1/2 Games (over Cleveland and the Chicago White Sox). Things are still coming up Milhouse, so I'll keep these guys atop the WMNSS ... and in Positive Numbers.
Couple things to watch. First, the MLB Draft began last (Monday) night, and for their first-round selection the team drafted a young man by the name of Keoni Cavaco, a Shortstop out of Eastlake High School in California. Wonder why the franchise drafted another SS when they have two surefire prospects that aren't all that close to The Show (Royce Lewis and Wander Javier). But the beginning of the draft heralds the end of a restriction, sort of: As of Monday, free agents can be signed by any squad without giving up a draft pick and its allotted draft pool money. And there are only two free agents worth giving a damn about right now: Starting Pitcher Dallas Keuchel and Relief Pitcher Craig Kimbrel. I have no idea how close they are to landing either, or both. And I am a bottom-line guy when it comes to sports; I don't care if you give up your top prospects to get the best players available via trade or not, I care that you win, and if you don't win, whatever you did was the problem. But golly, if there is any time to go all-in contract-wise to get these two (especially Kimbrel; Sunday's dumpster fire shows the Twins could use another bullpen arm), overspend to get these two!
They are in the middle of one of their maximum-length roadtrips, which will finish this week -- at Cleveland, at Detroit, both for three.
#0: Lynx (Last Week: -1). I should expound on this more, but I probably won't, but I still want to toss of this hot take: With the advent of other sports gaining attention and attracting niche crowds in the past few years -- Gopher volleyball, Minnesota United FC, and now Gopher softball -- I kind of feel sorry for the Lynx. They were good when there was not casual fanbase to cast a curious eye, and now that people are starting to expand their sports palate, they see the Lynx as being a past dynasty, and a team that is currently in transition and therefore not deserving of any support.
The only way to combat that, or at least to survive in a crowded local sports market, is win. And by Job, they continue to do that, keeping arm's-length away from defending champs Seattle at home Wednesday by 11, then outlasting The Bastard Detroit-By-Way-Of-Tulsa Shock in Dallas Saturday, 70-67. In that win over the Wings, it was Damiris Dantas who led the way with 20; Sylvia Fowles followed up with 19 and hauled in a dozen Rebounds. They're 3-0; can't ask for anything better. But this screening week will be busy: At Seattle tonight (Tuesday night), then games at Target Center vs. Phoenix Thursday and Los Angeles Saturday afternoon in a nationally-televised Game. The Lynx will use that platform and audience to retire Lindsay Whalen's #13 jersey.
#-1: United FC (Last Week: -2). Not a good week for the Loons -- two matches against quality opponents and they lost both. First, on Wednesday, a close deficit got blown wide open thanks to two late Goals by Atlanta United's Josef Martinez to make it a 3-0 final. Then on Sunday afternoon, MNUFC lost at Allianz Field for the first time in a Game that counts, 3-2 to the Philadelphia Union. You can argue that it was the most entertaining contest this team has ever had in top-flight. You could also argue that this defeat was their best match ever, and that would make me grind my teeth in partial agreement. The Union allowed Minnesota to attack down the shaded flank all day, and Hassani Dotson scored his first-ever Goal to tie it up at 1. But Philly's counterattack was good, and they fouled a ton and got away with it.
Kevin Molino tied it up at 2, but the Union won it in the 86th Minute. Ike Opara crashed to the ground and was slow to get up. The Loons failed to clear and Philadelphia was back on the attack. Opara tried to shake it off, but the cross got over his head. People are saying that that Game-losing Goal was on Brent Kallman, who tried to head it away but was foiled by a foot by the Union's Auston Trusty and was having a crappy performance all around. But Opara was let go by Sporting Kansas City because he was injured too often. He sat out the win over Houston on the 25th. And I believe that an Opara at 100% would have cleared that ball out of danger.
United FC still sit in playoff position, but it is now only three Points clear of the "cut line." And now they go on the road; on Saturday they visit Colorado, an XI that is last in the Western Conference but has finally gotten themselves off the mat with a few wins.
#-Infinity: Gopher softball (Last Week: Positive Numbers). OK, so the seventh-Seeded Minnesota Golden Gophers were two-and-done, and by chronological order they were the first team in the Women's College World Series to be eliminated. (I would have felt a tad better if the team seeded below them, #8 Alabama, also got bumped off in the same round, but the Crimson Tide actually survived to the WCWS final four and also pipped a Game off of Oklahoma before falling to the Sooners in the rubber match; Oklahoma faces UCLA in the best-of-three title series.) I didn't listen to either Thursday's 7-2 loss to UCLA or Saturday's 5-3 season-ending defeat to Washington, so I don't know the flow and tenor of either contest. I'm not sure if they were "in" either game, so they may have met two teams that were a quarter-step up in class.
But now that I've had a couple days to digest it, you know, so what? Minnesota was nominally ranked second in the Big Ten behind Michigan. They started the season off ranked, but by rankings they were not even supposed to reach a Super Regional, let alone host it, let alone get to the WCWS. Regional hero and Virginia transfer Allie Arneson and Outfielder Maddie Houlihan graduate, but Ace and First-Team All-American Amber Fiser (who did take the loss in both WCWS Games) returns for one more year, Infielder and Second-Team All-American Hope Brandner becomes a Junior, and Outfielder, Third-Team All-American, and One Of Us (she's from Hopkins) Natalie DenHartog is a Sophomore. The future is looking bright, very bright. Good on ya, Gophers!
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