MINNESOTA SPORTS FAN DAILY: Monday, September 4, 2017

MSF Daily: 9/4/17

Twins LOSE vs. Royals in series finale:

Things were surprisingly quiet to start the game on Sunday, after the offensive fireworks that went off Saturday night, when the Twins exploded for 17 runs. Santana calmly sliced and diced for the first 3 innings, giving up just 1 hit.

The Twins’ defense was on point again, to help the cause.

Things changed in the 4th and Santana started to fall behind hitters. The Royals started the inning with 3 straight hits and a run scored. He threw more pitches, before getting an out in the 4th inning (18), than he did any of the full innings prior. But, like Santana has done so many times this year when in trouble, he spun a double-play and minimized the damage to just 1 run.

1-0 Royals Lead after 4

Byron Buxton hit a triple in the 5th and Eduardo Escobar came to the plate later in the inning. He has been all anyone could ask for since Sano left the lineup with a shin injury. He got the Twins started again on Sunday:

2-1 Twins Lead after 5

In the 6th inning, the two teams exchanged punches. First, Cabrera hit a two-run home run to take the lead in the top of the inning. Then, Buxton singled in the bottom half, to score Mauer and Rosario, taking the lead back.

4-3 Twins Lead after 6

The 7th inning would decide the game. Lorenzo Cain was at the plate with runners on and 2 strikes. Cain swung at a pitch… but the ump didn’t think so. Molitor wasn’t happy.

Cain would follow with this:

Royals WIN 5-4

That is how things would stay but the Angels lose too and the Twins remain 1.5 games ahead for the 2nd WC spot.

Berrios will take the mound on Labor Day Monday. He will face off against Alex Cobb (9-9, 3.72 ERA) and the Tampa Bay Rays.

Gametime: 6:10 @ Rays

(Stats From ESPN)

Jim Souhan is pissed off at bloggers – Calls them Cowards:

An article was written about a week ago from a StarTribune writer that I normally enjoy reading. He isn’t nice and he doesn’t give a shit what you think. I appreciate that. But, some of what Jim Souhan writes is there to stir the pot. He enjoys it. I wish he would just admit it. It doesn’t really matter though.

He wrote one of those pieces last week about Miguel Sano.

Souhan: Pounds sneak up on injured Sano as Twins get back in race

He says that he meant no ill will on the piece. However, he admits he had the information, from his sources, for a while but didn’t bring it to light because Sano was playing so well…

So instead, he waits until Sano gets a shin injury. We have no idea if Sano’s weight contributed to his injury or his slow recovery but Souhan brought it out at a time, and in a way, that made it hard to doubt what HE attributed the injury to…. Read the rest here.



Adrian Peterson ready to “Stick it to the Vikings”:

Everyone knows that the Vikings start the season at U.S. Bank Stadium against Adrian Peterson and the New Orleans Saints. We get that he is happy to be back in the South and we are happy for him. I don’t want to read too deep into these comments because I don’t think he really means anything by them.

However, he comes off like an asshole. Especially when Minnesota paid him millions of dollars to be hurt a lot in the last few years of his contract AND took him back after he was caught beating his kid.

Here is some of what he had to say, followed by the full story from Mark Craig with the StarTribune:

“Of course I want to stick it to them. I want to stick it to everyone we play. But going back to Minnesota, playing the Vikings? Yeah, I want to stick it to them.”

“There’s more love here, I guess, because it’s Louisiana and there’s a lot of Southern people,” said the native Texan. “New Orleans and the Saints have more of a family-type feel. It feels right.”

Aaron Slegers will get his 2nd MLB start on Wednesday:

He has had a great minor league season, winning 15 games in AAA. Then, he made his first MLB start and dazzled, going 6 2/3 innings, giving up just 2 hits. Well on Wednesday, he will pitch in his biggest game yet. A game that will push the pendulum of a postseason race. Here is the full story from Phil Miller of the StarTribune:

MSF Daily by Eric Strack @RealMNSportsFan

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