Listen for this week's Minnesota sports update from Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson
Atlanta Braves' Ozzie Albies runs past Minnesota Twins first baseman Alex Kirilloff (19) after hitting a triple during the first inning of a baseball game June 27, in Atlanta.
John Bazemore | AP
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Audio transcript
TIM NELSON: And it is Minnesota Now. And I'm Tim Nelson, and it's time for sports. The sports guys are here. Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Wally's the creator of Minnesota Score Magazine and the host of the 10,000 Takes sports talk show. His co-host is Eric Nelson, who's also the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Eye on Football Show. Hi, Wally and Eric.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Tim, how are you?
TIM NELSON: I'm good.
ERIC NELSON: How's it going, Tim?
TIM NELSON: It was hard to watch that last series for the Twins there. What's going on with the hometown team there?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Oh, boy. Well, lots of not enough. The not enough goes back to their inability to score runs. And that has been a problem for them really over the last month or so. The Twins are now in second place. They're off today after getting swept by Atlanta this week, as you referred to. Now headed to Baltimore for three games beginning tomorrow.
Cleveland inched ahead of the Twins by a half game after clobbering Kansas City last night 14 to 1. As I mentioned, the Twins continue to struggle hitting the ball and scoring runs. Twins hitters were 0 for 23 against Atlanta with runners in scoring position. So in other words, if there's a runner at second or a runner at third base, they did not get a hit the entire series. They only scored three runs in three games. Oh, by the way, they struck out 14 times in yesterday's loss.
Minnesota tomorrow will send Pablo Lopez to the mound in Baltimore to hopefully end the losing streak. One other note. After yesterday's game, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli, he closed the locker room to reporters for a players only meeting. They've had a few of those this year. Rocco then called his team out and said afterwards he wasn't happy with the team's efforts.
You got to think that Rocco might be on the hot seat. Earlier in the week, he got thrown out of a game trying to spark his team, which has now gone 23 and 30 since May 1st. So it has been a rough month and a half or so for the Twins.
TIM NELSON: And of course, for Twins fans, there's nothing worse than watching the New York Yankees. What happened last night?
ERIC NELSON: Yeah. So true, Tim. They have been the evil empire over the years as far as the Twins are concerned. Although Minnesota did win the season series against the Yankees in 2023. But last night, the New York Yankees, we had something happened in Major League Baseball that comes around about as often as Halley's Comet. A perfect game. Yankees pitcher Domingo German threw a perfecto against the Oakland A's out in California.
That means he did not allow a hit or a run. He retired 27 straight A's batters in an 11-0 New York Yankees win. It's the first perfect game in Major League Baseball since 2012. And just the 24th, Tim, in the history of the sport. And let's take the Twins, for example. They've been playing in Minnesota since 1961. The Twins have never had a pitcher throw a perfect game in franchise history.
Now Minnesota has had seven no hitters, but never a perfect game. And then if you want to go back to the start of when the Twins were the Washington Senators playing in DC way back in 1901, the Senators never had a perfect game. So what we saw last night in Oakland, California, extremely rare. And it was orchestrated by Yankees pitcher Domingo German. Perfecto.
TIM NELSON: And it's a little warm out there. It seems a little far from the NHL season. But hockey's on the agenda still, right?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, it is. The NHL draft started last night. The Wild with their first round pick, they took Charlie Stramel from Rosemont. The Wild will continue with the NHL draft today in rounds two through seven. It's being held, as I said, in Nashville, Tennessee. The Wild have five picks remaining today as of now. Of course, things could change. They could make some trades.
But they do have two second round picks, and we'll see what direction they go. As for Stramel, he just finished his freshman season at the evil empire of the Midwest, the University of Wisconsin. He had five goals and seven assists in 33 games. One other Minnesotan was taken yesterday. Future Gopher Oliver Moore from Mounds View, he went 19th overall to the Chicago Blackhawks. Moore is committed to the U of M and will play for Bob Motzko in this upcoming season.
TIM NELSON: And the Lynx, they had a tough start to the beginning of the season there. How are they doing now?
ERIC NELSON: Well, Tim, they're making progress. The Lynx are five and nine. They're in Seattle tonight against the Storm. Seattle's four in 10, so certainly this is a winnable game. But you look at this match-up. These are two of the pedigree teams in the history of the WNBA. They're going to play at the brand new Climate Pledge Arena in Downtown Seattle.
Both are struggling. And the Lynx have won four WNBA titles, as I think most Minnesota sports fans are aware of. Well, same with Seattle. They have a great tradition out there. Now these teams played Tuesday night in Minneapolis. Minnesota won 104 to 93. Napheesa Collier had a career high-- 33 points, 10 rebounds. The rookie Diamond Miller coming back from an injury chipped in with 18 points for the Lynx.
So the good news is, Tim, they're playing better. But if they keep winning, they may play themselves out of the Caitlin Clark Paige Bueckers or Angel Reese Sweepstakes. Those are the three top prospects coming out in the draft.
TIM NELSON: And Naz Reid, the surprise of the Wolves playoff run, it looks like he's coming back.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, he is. And that's fair to say. I mean, he was hurt at the end of the year, unfortunately. But I think he was a key part to the Timberwolves' success that they did have this past season, particularly when Karl-Anthony Towns went down with the injury. Of course, earlier this week, the Wolves did sign him to a three-year contract extension worth $42 million. He was out there as a free agent. The Wolves decided, hey, we want to keep him, and Naz Reid wanted to stay here. An undrafted player who really made his name here in Minnesota. So good for the Wolves.
Today, however, they had to waive forward Taurean Prince. They wanted to save some room under the NBA's luxury tax, figuring in the Naz Reid $42 million contract. Prince came to the Wolves a couple years ago from Cleveland in exchange for Ricky Rubio. Now cutting Prince, as I mentioned, will give them more salary room.
What they want to do is they want to resign Nickeil Alexander Walker. He was a key defensive player for them in the post-season and towards the end of the year. He came to Minnesota in that deal, that monstrous deal at the trade deadline that sent D'Angelo Russell to the Lakers. It also brought Michael Conley here to Minnesota. So Wolves trying to gear up for a potential playoff run this year, let's hope.
TIM NELSON: And I saw the Minnesota United fans making their way through the smoke to Allianz Stadium last night on my way home.
ERIC NELSON: Yeah, it was a muggy, sticky, smoky, lightning delayed affair at Allianz Field there on the Saint Paul Midway. It was called an international friendly. Germany sent a second division club. FC Kaiserslautern came to Minnesota, and MNU got a chance to split its squad. A group of players playing in each half. And the Loons get the 2 to 1 win.
The second team unit did pretty well after halftime for MNU. Now the next regular season match-up for Minnesota United will be Saturday in Saint Paul when they play the Portland Timbers. And one other soccer note, Tim. The United States Men's National Team is coming back to Minnesota for an international friendly on Tuesday night, September 12th at Allianz Field.
The team will be taking on Oman in the second of their two matches in September. And if you remember, Team USA played Honduras at Allianz Field back in February of 2022. It was a World Cup qualifying match played in frigid temps. And the US did that on purpose. They brought Honduras to Minnesota in February to get a win and cement a spot in the World Cup. They iced them out.
TIM NELSON: I remember the shivering. Well that's Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Wally's the creator of Minnesota Score Magazine and the host of the 10,000 Takes sports talk show. His co-host is Eric Nelson, who's also the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Eye on Football show.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Tim, how are you?
TIM NELSON: I'm good.
ERIC NELSON: How's it going, Tim?
TIM NELSON: It was hard to watch that last series for the Twins there. What's going on with the hometown team there?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Oh, boy. Well, lots of not enough. The not enough goes back to their inability to score runs. And that has been a problem for them really over the last month or so. The Twins are now in second place. They're off today after getting swept by Atlanta this week, as you referred to. Now headed to Baltimore for three games beginning tomorrow.
Cleveland inched ahead of the Twins by a half game after clobbering Kansas City last night 14 to 1. As I mentioned, the Twins continue to struggle hitting the ball and scoring runs. Twins hitters were 0 for 23 against Atlanta with runners in scoring position. So in other words, if there's a runner at second or a runner at third base, they did not get a hit the entire series. They only scored three runs in three games. Oh, by the way, they struck out 14 times in yesterday's loss.
Minnesota tomorrow will send Pablo Lopez to the mound in Baltimore to hopefully end the losing streak. One other note. After yesterday's game, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli, he closed the locker room to reporters for a players only meeting. They've had a few of those this year. Rocco then called his team out and said afterwards he wasn't happy with the team's efforts.
You got to think that Rocco might be on the hot seat. Earlier in the week, he got thrown out of a game trying to spark his team, which has now gone 23 and 30 since May 1st. So it has been a rough month and a half or so for the Twins.
TIM NELSON: And of course, for Twins fans, there's nothing worse than watching the New York Yankees. What happened last night?
ERIC NELSON: Yeah. So true, Tim. They have been the evil empire over the years as far as the Twins are concerned. Although Minnesota did win the season series against the Yankees in 2023. But last night, the New York Yankees, we had something happened in Major League Baseball that comes around about as often as Halley's Comet. A perfect game. Yankees pitcher Domingo German threw a perfecto against the Oakland A's out in California.
That means he did not allow a hit or a run. He retired 27 straight A's batters in an 11-0 New York Yankees win. It's the first perfect game in Major League Baseball since 2012. And just the 24th, Tim, in the history of the sport. And let's take the Twins, for example. They've been playing in Minnesota since 1961. The Twins have never had a pitcher throw a perfect game in franchise history.
Now Minnesota has had seven no hitters, but never a perfect game. And then if you want to go back to the start of when the Twins were the Washington Senators playing in DC way back in 1901, the Senators never had a perfect game. So what we saw last night in Oakland, California, extremely rare. And it was orchestrated by Yankees pitcher Domingo German. Perfecto.
TIM NELSON: And it's a little warm out there. It seems a little far from the NHL season. But hockey's on the agenda still, right?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, it is. The NHL draft started last night. The Wild with their first round pick, they took Charlie Stramel from Rosemont. The Wild will continue with the NHL draft today in rounds two through seven. It's being held, as I said, in Nashville, Tennessee. The Wild have five picks remaining today as of now. Of course, things could change. They could make some trades.
But they do have two second round picks, and we'll see what direction they go. As for Stramel, he just finished his freshman season at the evil empire of the Midwest, the University of Wisconsin. He had five goals and seven assists in 33 games. One other Minnesotan was taken yesterday. Future Gopher Oliver Moore from Mounds View, he went 19th overall to the Chicago Blackhawks. Moore is committed to the U of M and will play for Bob Motzko in this upcoming season.
TIM NELSON: And the Lynx, they had a tough start to the beginning of the season there. How are they doing now?
ERIC NELSON: Well, Tim, they're making progress. The Lynx are five and nine. They're in Seattle tonight against the Storm. Seattle's four in 10, so certainly this is a winnable game. But you look at this match-up. These are two of the pedigree teams in the history of the WNBA. They're going to play at the brand new Climate Pledge Arena in Downtown Seattle.
Both are struggling. And the Lynx have won four WNBA titles, as I think most Minnesota sports fans are aware of. Well, same with Seattle. They have a great tradition out there. Now these teams played Tuesday night in Minneapolis. Minnesota won 104 to 93. Napheesa Collier had a career high-- 33 points, 10 rebounds. The rookie Diamond Miller coming back from an injury chipped in with 18 points for the Lynx.
So the good news is, Tim, they're playing better. But if they keep winning, they may play themselves out of the Caitlin Clark Paige Bueckers or Angel Reese Sweepstakes. Those are the three top prospects coming out in the draft.
TIM NELSON: And Naz Reid, the surprise of the Wolves playoff run, it looks like he's coming back.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, he is. And that's fair to say. I mean, he was hurt at the end of the year, unfortunately. But I think he was a key part to the Timberwolves' success that they did have this past season, particularly when Karl-Anthony Towns went down with the injury. Of course, earlier this week, the Wolves did sign him to a three-year contract extension worth $42 million. He was out there as a free agent. The Wolves decided, hey, we want to keep him, and Naz Reid wanted to stay here. An undrafted player who really made his name here in Minnesota. So good for the Wolves.
Today, however, they had to waive forward Taurean Prince. They wanted to save some room under the NBA's luxury tax, figuring in the Naz Reid $42 million contract. Prince came to the Wolves a couple years ago from Cleveland in exchange for Ricky Rubio. Now cutting Prince, as I mentioned, will give them more salary room.
What they want to do is they want to resign Nickeil Alexander Walker. He was a key defensive player for them in the post-season and towards the end of the year. He came to Minnesota in that deal, that monstrous deal at the trade deadline that sent D'Angelo Russell to the Lakers. It also brought Michael Conley here to Minnesota. So Wolves trying to gear up for a potential playoff run this year, let's hope.
TIM NELSON: And I saw the Minnesota United fans making their way through the smoke to Allianz Stadium last night on my way home.
ERIC NELSON: Yeah, it was a muggy, sticky, smoky, lightning delayed affair at Allianz Field there on the Saint Paul Midway. It was called an international friendly. Germany sent a second division club. FC Kaiserslautern came to Minnesota, and MNU got a chance to split its squad. A group of players playing in each half. And the Loons get the 2 to 1 win.
The second team unit did pretty well after halftime for MNU. Now the next regular season match-up for Minnesota United will be Saturday in Saint Paul when they play the Portland Timbers. And one other soccer note, Tim. The United States Men's National Team is coming back to Minnesota for an international friendly on Tuesday night, September 12th at Allianz Field.
The team will be taking on Oman in the second of their two matches in September. And if you remember, Team USA played Honduras at Allianz Field back in February of 2022. It was a World Cup qualifying match played in frigid temps. And the US did that on purpose. They brought Honduras to Minnesota in February to get a win and cement a spot in the World Cup. They iced them out.
TIM NELSON: I remember the shivering. Well that's Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Wally's the creator of Minnesota Score Magazine and the host of the 10,000 Takes sports talk show. His co-host is Eric Nelson, who's also the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Eye on Football show.
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