Processing that Twins loss, and other sports news

CATHY WURZER: The Minnesota Twins season is over. And we don't normally do this on the radio, but we're going to rewind to the beginning of game 4 against the Houston Astros. Fans had 20 years of hope and excitement stored up to bring to Target Field.

[CROWD CHANTING]

But this time, the team just could not pull off a win.

[BOOING]

Some boos there. Sports guys, Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson joined me earlier today to process the game and talk about what's next in Minnesota sports. Wally is the founder of Minnesota Score Magazine and co-hosts the 10,000 Takes sports talk show. Eric's the other co-host of that show and the Vikings reporter for CBS Sports' Eye on the NFL. I started by asking Wally, what happened with the Twins?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, they couldn't hit the baseball is what it came down to. And rumor has it that's an important thing when you're trying to win baseball games, especially in the playoffs.

CATHY WURZER: [LAUGHS]

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Just three hits last night. Two of them were home runs. And they struck out a whopping 14 times. Now, to a casual listener, you might say, wow, 14 strikeouts? That's a lot. Well, it is, except for the fact that the Twins led Major League Baseball and set an all-time record for the most strikeouts in a season. So they are the whiff kings, if you will.

And it really came into play last night. They really were an all-or-nothing team. Two of their three hits, as I said, were home runs. Royce Lewis got them started with a home run, gave them the early lead. But it evaporated.

Twins starting pitcher Joe Ryan went just two innings. And that wasn't on his-- it was not on his own accord. He was pulled out by Rocco Baldelli. The strategy was to bring in the bullpen, empty the bullpen. And, for the most part, it worked, with the exception of Caleb Thielbar. The Minnesota native came in in the fourth inning, and he gave up a two-run homer.

And that was really it. The Twins did get a home run from Edouard Julien later in the game to make it a 3-2 game. But really, a difficult loss insofar as they just were frustrated from beginning to end in trying to get guys on base. They only drew a couple of walks. Really, they had no traffic on the bases, so you really didn't make the pitchers work very hard. Just a lot of strikeouts.

And the fan base, as you heard, in some of the nat sound that you guys ran, they didn't give up from beginning to end. I actually went out into the stands for a few innings. And they were really into the game, about as much as you possibly could be. But in the end, they ended up losing the baseball game 3 to 2. The season is over. And they'll point towards next year, I guess.

CATHY WURZER: Eric, the fans really-- they really did show up in the postseason.

ERIC NELSON: Yeah, absolutely, Cathy. They had over 40,000 last night at Target Field, another sellout. That was four straight in the playoffs, if you include the two games against Toronto last week. So I'm sure the Minnesota Twins are hoping to get a bounce in 2024-- more season ticket sales, more people coming to the ballpark. Because they only averaged around 23,000 fans a game this year, despite being on top of the AL Central for most of the season.

And I know there's a lot of gloom and doom here in Twins territory, and all those Twins flags are flying at half staff today, those car flags. But the opponent that knocked them out, Houston, this is a juggernaut franchise. This will be the seventh straight year the Houston Astros have played in the American League Championship Series. They've won a couple of World Series. Who knows? They might win a third.

So they're an outstanding team. And it was tough for the Twins fans who stuck around after the final long enough to watch the Astros party down on the diamond as the Twins shuffled off into their clubhouse, knowing their season was over, and they're not going to reconvene until February in Fort Myers, Florida.

But it's an outstanding Houston team. And it sets up the Lone Star state showdown now, the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers. The winner will go to the World Series. But I think there's reason for optimism if you're a Twins fan-- Royce Lewis, Edouard Julien, young rookies who bring an energetic vibe onto the field.

One big question will be Byron Buxton in the offseason. He did have an at bat last night. He hit a soft popup to first base. He was a pinch hitter. Hopefully, Byron can get healthy and maybe come back next year and contribute. But I would say we don't know the [INAUDIBLE] right now in Minnesota.

CATHY WURZER: OK. I want to talk Vikings here before-- we got about two minutes, two and a half minutes. Vikes traveled to Chicago. Wally, kind of the battle of the bottom dwellers?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Boy, and who would have thought that at the beginning of the year, that the Vikings would be battling to get out of last place? Yeah, they're 1 and 4 on the season, as are the Chicago Bears. The Bears snapped a 14-game losing streak last week by beating Washington. But as for the Vikings, as you said, they are tied for last with the Chicago Bears, so the winner will be out of the basement, so to speak.

Justin Jefferson is going to be out for at least four weeks. He is on the injured list. And the Vikings really are-- if they have any hope of making something out of this season, they're going to have to beat the Chicago Bears. If they go 1 and 5 and will have a loss to Chicago in that mix, that'll pretty much tell you where they're at this year. And right now, it's not very good.

The good news is they do have all of their divisional games remaining. They still have six divisional games, both against Chicago, both against Detroit, who now leads the division, and both against Green Bay. So if they are going to get back in it, somehow, some way, they're going to need to win in Chicago on Sunday. And that will pretty much tell you where they're at, if they have any hopes at all.

CATHY WURZER: Eric, I got a minute left. The Wild open up their regular season tonight at the X.

ERIC NELSON: Yeah, and they're going to face the Florida Panthers, who reached the Stanley Cup Finals last season. And they were bounced out by the Vegas Golden Knights. So this is a tough opponent.

The Wild, whenever you begin a season, everyone's all, [INAUDIBLE] reached the playoffs last year, but they were 1 and done, losing to the Dallas Stars. I think this is one of those seasons where if you're a Wild fan, the goal is get off that treadmill.

They were able to make the playoffs. They're a good hockey team. But they're not able to advance to the second round or the third round or go on a Stanley Cup run. I think the fan base is tired of being on this treadmill, and let's raise the bar high.

Obviously, they have Kirill Kaprizov, who is-- I think he's a budding superstar in the NHL. We'll see. But it's a very tough Western Conference in the NHL. The Golden Knights are in that conference. They're the Cup champions. So we'll find out what kind of start the Wild get off to, beginning tonight. The puck drops in downtown Saint Paul at the X at about 7:10 PM.

CATHY WURZER: Wally Langfellow is the founder of Minnesota Score sports magazine. Eric Nelson is the Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Radio's Eye on the NFL. Together, they host the sports talk show 10,000 Takes. And they are our sports guys here on Minnesota Now.