Eric Ramsay was questioned Wednesday and validated Saturday.

The Minnesota United head coach’s decision to make a startling eight changes to the starting lineup at Houston midweek led to a disjointed 2-0 loss. His revision back to his primary starters on the weekend ended with a rejuvenated 3-0 win over St. Louis at Allianz Field.

Minnesota (7-4-3, 25 points) cut down on its habit of dropping points to clubs much lower in the West standings. Mired in 14th place, St. Louis (2–75, 11 points) is now winless in a club-record 10 matches since mid-March.

Tani Oluwaseyi scored in the 33rd minute off a corner kick from Joaquin Pereyra and an assist from Nico Romero. The crafty back heel finish was the Canadian’s first goal in more than six games since an opening-minute tally against New York City on April 6.

Joaquin Pereyra doubled the lead in the 62nd minute, benefitting from Robin Lod, Bongi Hlongwane and Oluwaseyi’s playmaking.

Julian Gressel subbed into the match in the 76th minute and scored in the 78th, burying a nice cross from Pereyra.

After making eight changes to its starting lineup for the 2-0 loss to Houston on Wednesday, Minnesota returned to the same XI they used in the 4-1 home win over Inter Miami last Saturday.

The Loons’ 5-4-1 formation had Oluwaseyi as the lone striker, Pereyra and Robin Lod as attacking midfielders, Carlos Harvey and Wil Trapp as defensive mids.Anthony Markanich came back from an ankle injury to play left wingback. The center back trio were Romero, Michael Boxall and Jefferson Díaz, with Bongi Hlongwane at right wing back. Dayne St. Clair started his 14th straight game in net.

Up 3-0 in the 78th minute, Ramsay used his last four subs, bringing in Kelvin Yeboah, Sang Bin Jeong, Owen Gene and Sam Shashoua, with a U.S. Open Cup match against St. Louis coming Wednesday in St. Paul.

City will travel back to Missouri before returning to Minnesota early next week.

Three tidbits

MNUFC has held moments of silence when opponents are dealing with tragedies back home. On Saturday, Loons did one pregame for deadly tornados in St. Louis. In April, United did another when Vancouver was mourning fatalities at a Filipino street festival. … Gene returned to field after missing seven MLS matches since injuring his ankle on March 29 vs. Real Salt Lake. … Timberwolves fan Boxall has “confidence they can go all the way” to the NBA championship. He believes they match-up better against Oklahoma City with Denver’s big man Nikola Jokic “is just scary.”

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MILWAUKEE – The difference between this season’s lengthy winning streak and last season – when the Minnesota Twins won 12 in a row, but ultimately missed the playoffs – per manager Rocco Baldelli, is pitching. And after Saturday’s decisive 7-0 win in Milwaukee, there’s also a matter of streak length.

Twins starter Pablo Lopez was brilliant, allowing just a pair of Brewers hits in six innings of work, as Minnesota cruised to a 13th consecutive victory, gaining a game on AL Central-leading Detroit in the process. Lopez is now 4-2 after striking out six Brewers on Saturday.

Designated hitter Ryan Jeffers homered, singled twice and doubled, bringing in a pair of runs as Minnesota scored in each of the first six innings, quieting Milwaukee’s second sellout audience of the season. With clean sheet wins in Baltimore on Thursday, in Milwaukee on Friday and again in Milwaukee on Saturday, the Twins have back-to-back-to-back shutouts for just the second time in team history. And the scoreless ninth gave them 33 consecutive innings without allowing a run, which is a new club record.

Minnesota got single-inning relief efforts from Justin Topa, Jorge Alcala and Kody Funderburke in the win.

Adding another dose of early inning offense to their resume, Jeffers hit Milwaukee starter Tobias Myers’ third pitch of the game deep to left center for an early 1-0 lead. For a Brewers team that has struggled to score, giving up early offense hurt.

“For them, it’s like just a punch of the mouth. As soon as we score early, like with how well we’re pitching, it definitely puts them in a hole and then gives us utmost confidence to continue swinging the bat,” Jeffers said.

Lopez needed 23 pitches to escape the first inning without surrendering a run, and survived yet another Twins injury scare when Brewers leadoff hitter Brice Turang laced a hard shot back to the mound that hit Lopez in the upper right leg for an infield single. After a cursory examination by trainers, Lopez stayed in the game. Turang made it as far as third before Sal Frelick bounced out to second, ending the threat. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said it looked like the ball hit Lopez on the side of his rear end.

“Not the way you want to start things. Pablo’s got a big strong behind. I think he can handle taking a line drive off of that thing,” Baldelli said. “But if you’re going to catch a legitimate major-league-caliber line drive off of something, that’s where I would want Pablo taking it.”

Royce Lewis led off the second and came in to score on a RBI single by Christian Vasquez for a 2-0 Twins lead. They made it 3-0 in the third when Jeffers’ leadoff double was one of four straight hits to start the inning. Ty France brought Jeffers home with a fly ball to deep right that Frelick grabbed with what appeared to be a diving catch, only to have the ball come out of his glove when he hit the warning track.

In the next at-bat, Kody Clemens singled to right, and Brooks Lee tried to score from second base but was tagged out at the plate on a nice throw by Frelick. Clemens, who came to the Twins in a late April trade with Philadelphia, has been a surprise source of offense.

“One of the first things that Rocco says every spring training to everyone in the clubhouse is ‘hey, at some point we’re going to need a lot of you guys. Don’t think because you didn’t start the season on the 26-man roster, you’re not going to help contribute,’” Lopez said, after Clemens went 3-for-5 in the game. “Lo and behold, a couple of weeks later, we have guys in the lineup that were not part of the Opening Day, but were part of that philosophy, that mentality that we’ve been building that everyone in here competes.”

Minnesota kept up its one run per inning pace in the fourth, chasing Myers by stringing together a trio of two-out hits, with Trevor Larnach scoring on a RBI single to right by Lee. Myers allowed 11 hits and struck out four Twins in 3-⅔ innings for Milwaukee.

Myers’ replacement, Grant Anderson, saw Clemens send a ball over the right field fence to open the fifth inning, putting the Twins up 5-0. They stretched the lead to a half-dozen in the sixth when Larnach led off with a single and scored on Lee’s sacrifice fly.

Topa relieved Lopez in the seventh, pitching his way into, and out of a jam. With one out, Topa gave up a single, a walk and a hit batter to fill the bases with Brewers. But pinch hitter Isaac Collins popped out to the pitcher, and Turang hit a bouncer to first to end the threat.

The Twins tacked on a seventh run in their final at-bat when DaShawn Keirsey singled to score Clemens from third. Minnesota pounded out 18 hits in the win.

“It’s just like there were no easy innings. You know, If we’re making the opposing team work every inning like that, you’re going to win a lot of games. And I was real happy with that. I mean, in a big way,” Baldelli said. “You’re like, that’s what it looks like. You’re working hard every inning, having exceptional at bats, every inning. You know, there’s homers, there’s stringing hits together, there’s grabbing a walk, there’s making the pitcher work hard. All of it. That was good.”

Myers fell to 1-1 with the loss.

The series finale is a 1:10 p.m. CDT start on Sunday with Twins right-hander Zebby Matthews making his first start of the season versus Milwaukee right-hander Freddy Peralta.

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Minnesota adapted softball runs through Dakota County.

For the second straight season, Dakota United won both the PI and CI Division state titles, as the Hawks swept the championships again Saturday at Chanhassen High School.

PI DIVISION

The Hawks claimed their fifth-straight title via a 14-4 victory over Rochester. The program has now won 61 consecutive contests.

Dakota united is made up of Apple Valley, Burnsville, Eagan, Eastview, Farmington, Hastings, Lakeville North, Lakeville South and Rosemount.

On this year’s team are Sean Wilson, Bryce Andrews, Dominik Albus, Sammy Jordheim, Nick Smock, Bennett Herrmann, Will Warder, Dylan Burns, Chloe Shibata, Thomas Klobe, Ellie Deyo, Reece Martin, Ben Schussler, Jose Collado Baez, Laura Wagner, Liv Grossbauer, Jae Bahma and Cayden Needham.

CI Division

Dakota United got vengeance for an 11-8 season-opening defeat at the hands of New Prague with a 4-2 victory in Saturday’s final, largely thanks to the long ball and some sound defense.

The co-op is made up of Apple Valley, Eagan, Eastview, FIT Academy, Hastings and Rosemount.

On the Hawks roster are Chelsea Ludvigson, Max Pucci, Remington Benedict, Joshua Jackson, Malina Finch, Nolan St. Sauver, Jake Jackson, Myles Johnson, Logan Healy, Mustafa Adnan, Henry Eisele, Anthony Dyakin, Ada Kramer, Colin Price, Oran Hill, Makai Smith and Jacob Staats.

Burnsville/Farmington/Lakeville beat South Washington county 9-8 in the third-place game.

MILWAUKEE – Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was plainspoken, with no real note of optimism in his voice, when he spoke about injured outfielder Byron Buxton prior to Saturday’s game, saying that like all players dealing with a potential concussion, they were taking things slowly, deliberately.

Before batting practice had ended at American Family Field, any lingering optimism had been replaced by the harsh reality of the current Twins injury report, to which Buxton was officially added on Saturday afternoon. After colliding with infielder Carlos Correa during a win in Baltimore last week, Buxton has now been added to the seven-day injury list. Correa went on that same list a day earlier.

As is the nature of dealing with concussions – which can impact a player for a number of days to a number of years, depending on the severity – Baldelli said the team is taking its time and doing things by the book.

“You’ve just got to be very thoughtful and aware and there’s a reason why this is the type of injury that we have these types of protocols for, and many, many steps and clearances that you have to go through,” he said. “’Cause there’s not an easy way to either diagnose and treat and monitor. You have to be thoughtful.”

Concussions are not a new thing for Buxton, 31, who has dealt with injuries throughout his career. He had appeared in all but three of Minnesota’s 2025 games prior to the collision with Correa, batting .261 with 10 home runs, 27 RBI and eight stolen bases.

With the Twins winning, despite the injuries, other players have talked about the roster being filled with players willing to do whatever is needed in desperate times.

“I think for us, it’s cliché as it sounds like, it’s just next man up,” said infielder Ty France, who missed a game last week after fouling a ball off his foot. “Losing those key pieces to your team, it hurts, but every single guy in here prepares as if they’re the main guy on this team. So they fill right in.”

France noted the Friday night major league debut of 30-year-old infielder Ryan Fitzgerald, who made the five-hour drive to Milwaukee from Des Moines, where he had been playing with the St. Paul Saints, to fill in at second base after the injuries to Correa and Willi Castro.

“Fitzy makes his debut and looks like he’s been here forever, so that’s one good thing about this group,” France said. “This clubhouse, you know, we’re here for each other, we’re here to pick each other up, and we’ve done a great job of that.”

Castro taking some time

Castro initially stayed in the game to play left field, after he fouled a ball hard off his right knee in the first inning on Friday. But he left the lineup shortly thereafter, allowing Fitzgerald to play in The Show for the first time.

In the clubhouse before Saturday’s game, Castro said the pain was intense immediately.

“I felt in the moment when I got I hit. I was very painful for a couple seconds,” he said. “But I got back up and was feeling fine. Then when I went back to play defense, that’s when it started getting tight and getting swollen. When I got back to the dugout, that’s when it started feeling a little funky and that’s when they decided to take me out.”

Taking Saturday’s game off, both Castro and Baldelli said they do not expect the injury to keep him out of the lineup for too long, and he could be available on an emergency basis if the Twins were to deal with additional injuries.

“I don’t think he’s going to be out there running around if someone got hurt in the second inning. I don’t think Willi is going into the game to finish the game,” Baldelli said. “But if other things happen in the game and he’s forced into being on his feet, that might have to be an option. We’re already short a player.”

Castro is batting .235 with two home runs and six RBI in 98 at-bats this season.

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