Sunday could have an epic day where Minnesota sports fans were glued to their couches for 10 hours straight, remote controls in hand and eyes glazed over even as a summer-like early fall day beckoned them outside.
At noon the Vikings face the Packers, a rivalry game that always draws attention but feels particularly important because Minnesota has far exceeded initial expectations in starting 3-0.
The Twins and Orioles play at 2:10 p.m. in the final game of the regular season at Target Field, a contest that should begin when the Vikings-Packers game are kicking off the second half.
And the Lynx host Connecticut in Game 1 of their WNBA semifinal series at 7:30 p.m. at Target Center. If you were at home watching it all you might have just enough time to grab some dinner between the Twins and Lynx. If you were downtown taking in both games live, you might do the same.
All three games are going on as scheduled. But the reason it only could have been epic is the hole in the middle caused by the Twins’ collapse.
Watch that game at your own peril. Try not to get too angry about what might have been if the Twins hadn’t collapsed to the point that they almost certainly will enter Sunday eliminated from postseason contention.
It would have taken the bare minimum of credible baseball from mid-August until now for Sunday to be meaningful. But they couldn’t even provide that, as I talked about on Friday’s Daily Delivery podcast.
The Twins were 70-53 on Aug. 17, a near-cinch to grab at least a wild card spot while charging hard at the AL Central-leading Guardians. They are 12-24 since then, leaving the Twins three games back of Detroit and Kansas City in the wild card race with three games to play.
