DETROIT  — When ESPN selected the Twins and Tigers to feature on Sunday Night Baseball, they were looking for a good show to broadcast to their national audience. They certainly got one — it just happened to come at the expense of the Twins.

Reigning American League Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal dominated the Twins from the beginning of his seven-inning to the end, leading the Tigers to a 3-0 win over the Twins in the series finale at Comerica Park.

Skubal started his day by striking out Byron Buxton. There was a whole lot more of that coming.

The ace of the Tigers (53-32) and quite possibly the best pitcher in baseball right now, struck out eight of the first nine Twins batters he faced. Only one, Ryan Jeffers, put the ball in play, flying out to center. Two of the batters he struck out did so after he fell behind 3-0 on them.

Within that stretch, he punched out seven straight batters, most of them on low changeups. In total, he got 15 of 22 swing and misses on that pitch alone. The next time through the Twins’ lineup, they were at least able to put the bat to the ball. And yet they still came away with next to nothing.

Skubal retired the first 13 batters he faced before Ty France hit a single which fell between center fielder Parker Meadows and right fielder Kerry Carpenter. The fifth inning hit was the only one the Twins (40-44) could manage all night against Skubal, who later walked Christian Vázquez. Neither runner who reached advanced past first base.

Before his night was over, Skubal struck out 13 Twins, matching a career high. He got all nine in the batting order to go down swinging and got a couple of them — Harrison Bader and Brooks Lee — twice.

His brilliance meant that Chris Paddack would have had to have been nearly perfect himself to keep the Twins in the game. And while Paddack did enough to give the Twins a chance to hang around it wasn’t enough against Skubal near his best.

Paddack allowed a solo home run to Kerry Carpenter in the first inning, another solo shot to Riley Greene in the fourth and a third run on a Carpenter triple in the fifth, which ended his night.

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Matt Freese saved the U.S. men’s national soccer team from an embarrassing loss in the CONCACAF Gold Cup in Minneapolis on Sunday.

The New York City FC goalkeeper made three saves on Costa Rica’s six attempts in a penalty kick shootout for the U.S. to advance through the quarterfinal stage. After his third save, he stuck out his tongue in defiance.

The U.S. will play Guatemala in a semifinal in St. Louis on Wednesday.

U.S. defender Max Arfsten had two lows and one high. The Columbus Crew left back conceded a penalty kick that allowed Costa Rica to take a 1-0 lead in the first half. Then he scored early in the second half to give the U.S. a 2-1 lead. But another defensive error from Arfsten led to Costa Rica leveling the match at 2-2 in the 71st minute.

After Arfsten’s poor foul in the box, former Loons captain Francisco Calvo converted on a penalty to give Costa Rica a 1-0 lead in the 12th minute. Calvo was one of three players Freese denied during PKs.

Malik Tillman missed a PK for the U.S. in the 37th minute, but Diego Luna scored off a big deflection to make it 1-1 just before halftime.

Better crowd

At the start of the tournament, the U.S. couldn’t fill two much-smaller MLS stadiums, with only 12,610 in San Jose on June 15 and 11,727 in Austin on June 19.

The Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium in Arlington had plenty of good seats available on June 22, and the U.S. and Hait played in front of an announced attendance of 20,918.

CONCACAF announced Sunday’s attendance at 32,289, but that is less than half of the 66,200-seat capacity. No fans sat in the third deck.

‘Let the team down’

Minnesota United fans have enjoyed goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair prowess on penalty kicks over the years, especially in the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs series with Real Salt Lake.

Fans of the Canadian soccer weren’t so fortunate Sunday as Guatemala won 6-5 after seven rounds of penalty kicks.

“Especially in penalties where I know I’m so good at, part of me feels like I let the team down a little bit,” St. Clair told reporters postgame. “Of course, penalties can go either way, but I know how strong I can be in those moments. Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way.”

St. Clair didn’t single out if one PK bothered him more, but he went the correct way on the first two penalties but shots barely eked past him.

“He guesses right on the first two and (if) he can get more of a solid hand on it, then maybe he makes a save,” coach Jesse Marsch said.  “That is how you look at penalties, right. It’s the margin for error once you get (there).”

Fellow Loons player, striker Tani Oluwaseyi, had a header saved off the line by a Guatemala fullback Aaron Herrera in the 14th minute, but Oluwasyi drew the penalty kick later in the first half after Herrera was whistled for contact in the box. Jonathan David converted from the spot.

Guatemala fans, who made up an overwhelming majority of the crowd for the first quarterfinal, booed relentlessly after the PK was awarded and converted.

With Canada’s loss, St. Clair and Oluwaseyi will rejoin the Loons with plenty of time to prepare before the away match versus FC Dallas on Friday.

Demolished on world stage

The FIFA Club World Cup was forgettable for the three MLS teams in the other major tournament in the U.S. this summer.

Inter Miami, the only team to advance out to the round of 16, were throttled in a 4-0 loss Sunday to Paris St. Germain, the UEFA Champions League winner.

Seattle and Los Angeles FC didn’t make it out of the group stage.

All three teams combined for one win, six losses and three draws, with a minus-11 goal differential.

Briefly

The tighter dimensions at U.S. Bank Stadium have been referenced as a reason why the FIFA World Cup will not come to Minnesota next summer. The standard dimensions are 115 yards long by 74 yards wide; U.S. Bank Stadium’s measurements were 110 by 70. … Here’s one context on Guatemala’s upset. They are ranked the 106th-best team in the world, per FIFA, while Canada comes in at 30th. Meanwhile, USA checks in at 16th and Costa Rica 54th.

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Josh Minott and Luka Garza will be free agents when that period begins Monday evening after the Timberwolves declined their team options, a source confirmed to the Pioneer Press.

Garza was set to make $2.35 million next season, while Minott was due $2.19 million.

Neither was able to crack the rotation during their times with the Timberwolves. Minott had the opportunity to do so earlier in the season after a strong summer, but seemingly lost the trust of Wolves coach Chris Finch after committing too many gameplan errors.

Garza was touted throughout his time in Minnesota for his professionalism, but was always stuck at the back end of a deep big-man rotation.

With the decisions, the Wolves now have two open roster spots as free agency begins. But whether they use both remains to be seen. They could use just one of the two spots — presumably on another big man or a ball handler — and roll into the season with just 14 players signed to active roster spots, to go along with their three allotted two-way players.

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DETROIT  — Perhaps the most important question surrounding the 2025 Minnesota Twins, at this point in time, centers around what is going on with Bailey Ober. He’d love to know the answer, too.

“I wish I knew,” the starter said after his start on Saturday. “We’re looking at everything.”

Ober entered the month of June with a 3.48 earned run average. He leaves it with an ERA nearly two runs higher. In five starts this June, across 30 innings pitched, Ober has given up 30 earned runs, including seven in three of the starts. He has now allowed seven runs in back-to-back outings.

Safe to say Ober has had a tough go of it of late.

“Just got to try to figure something out, make some adjustments,” Ober said. “I feel good. Throwing good pitches and just getting hit.”

A particular point of pain has been the longball. He allowed four of them — on a variety of pitch types — to the Detroit Tigers on Saturday, part of a month in which he served up 14 of them. In six starts in May, Ober allowed just two of them.

“Obviously the results haven’t been what we’re looking for. The homers are obviously an issue,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “If we knew exactly what was going on, if it was one particular thing, it would be a little easier to identify. But we’re going to get back to working on it and spend a lot of time on it.”

Pitching coach Pete Maki said they have identified some areas that they will work on, though did not want to go into specifics because “other teams read the media.”

Ober has dealt with hip issue for parts of the season, but it’s something both him and the team have said they don’t believe is the main cause of his issues. He’s cited mechanical issues throughout the season and noted his mechanics felt “not smooth and disjointed,” earlier this season. He’s also been pitching with diminished velocity — his four-seam fastball has averaged 90.4 miles per hour this season to 91.7 miles per hour last year — though he pitched well with lower velocity earlier in the season.

And so the Twins are exploring “any and all options,” Maki said, as they look to get the starter back on track.

“We’ve made number of small adjustments along the way and we have to keep looking for different adjustments to make,” Baldelli said. “And that’s really what this is all about. Sometimes you look at everything and you give it a full glance top to bottom and you immediately see what you need to see. Sometimes you don’t but you continue to look and you find it.”

Lewis likely back soon

Sunday night’s game could possibly be the last the Twins play without Royce Lewis, who seems to be on track to meet the team in Miami after playing in three rehab games over the weekend.

Lewis, who strained his left hamstring running to first base on June 13 in Houston, went 0-for-8 this weekend against Triple-A competition while playing for the Saints. Baldelli has said he didn’t think Lewis would need a long rehab assignment, but they needed to get him some at-bats and back on his feet working before his return.

Briefly

Sunday’s game marked the first time the Twins were on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball since Sept. 20, 2020. … The Twins will have Monday off after a late arrival into Miami. Joe Ryan, Simeon Woods Richardson and David Festa are slated to start against the Marlins this week.

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