The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#-1: Twins (Last Week: -3).  They've seemed to have had a lot of these kinds of screening Weeks, where they go 4-2 on the basis of winning both of their series.  This time it was against the team with the best record in the majors, The Philadelphia Phillies (albeit at home), and a not-awful Detroit Tigers squad in Motown.  Unfortunately, Cleveland (who somehow still has the best record in The American League) has matched the Twins' last 10, therefore Minnesota remains 4 1/2 Games behind the Guardians.  They are keeping ahead of Kansas City for ALWC2, but a Wild Card Series at The Bronx vs. The Yankees remains in sight.  Also, the Trade Deadline comes tomorrow/Tuesday at 5, and true to form, they're not going to go big in order to land the Starter everyone thinks they'll need to really contend (sigh)

They have a three-Game set in Queens against a vastly-improved Mets club starting tonight/Monday night, then host a Chicago White Sox outfit that may have sold everything that's not tied down by the time that series starts Friday.

#-2: United FC (Last Week: -2).  Yeah, it isn't league play, but I guess I'll cover it.  Startup journalism sites covering the Loons have also debated whether or not they will cover these Leagues Cup Matches, but for other reasons.  See, The Leagues Cup is a tournament devised by Major League Soccer in conjunction with Liga MX, the Mexican pro soccer league.  Since this is their baby, they are making their players play and devote more attention to that tournament to the detriment of the Lamar Hunt U. S. Open Cup, the century-plus-old tourney which encompasses every organized professional and semi-professional soccer club in a March Madness-style knockout format.  MLS has responded by allowing their teams to disrespect the Open Cup, even allowing (asking?) teams to only field their reserve players for Games in that tournament.  MNUFC was one of those teams, and in the spring those call-ups lost at Allianz Field to some lower-division team.  This money grab and slap in the face of history and tradition is not sitting well with pretty much every Supporters Group for every team in MLS.  They are boycotting these Leagues Cup Matches.  But when it comes up to pop-up sites in The Twin Cities, they are reasoning that they are first and foremost a source of journalism that covers all things Minnesota United, and so they are going to cover the Leagues Cup.

Now, whether the team shows up is also a good question.  To be fair, they held the Sounders to a stalemate for about 85 Minutes on Friday, but they allowed two Goals and got shut out, and so they have still never beaten Seattle in Seattle.  So, because groupings in the Leagues Cup are comprised of only three teams, the Looooooooons face a do-or-die contest at Midway against Liga MX Side Necaxa, which might be the youngest team in this competition.  And young might mean "spry" and "having nothing to lose."  And MNUFC, too often looking stodgy and unimaginative, might see their stay in this Astroturfed tourney end after Tuesday night.