Minnesota United is stress-testing the jurisprudence of Murphy’s Law.

Amid a stubborn and growing list of absent players, the Loons’ play early in Wednesday’s game against Vancouver Whitecaps further pushed the adage of what can go wrong, will go wrong.

Loons captain center back Michael Boxall made a ghastly error in the opening four minutes to concede a goal and MNUFC were immediately chasing the game in a 3-1 loss at Allianz Field.

MNUFC (8-8-6, 29 points) have now lost five straight matches, setting a new club record for worst skid in its MLS era.

To twist the knife, Vancouver (8-7-7, 31 points) joined Portland with recent wins over Minnesota leading to them leaping over the Loons in the Western Conference standings.

Boxall under-hit a back pass to goalkeeper Alec Smir. Whitecaps forward Ryan Gauld pounced and passed to Brian White for the opening goal.

On a Vancouver corner kick in the 16th minute, Boxall had Mathias Laborda get in behind for a header into the back of the net.

The Loons had two chances to get a goal back in the 24th and 27th minutes. Goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka came far out of goal, but Robin Lod’s shot was blocked by a Vancouver defender. Then Vancouver was called for a handball in the box, but surprise penalty kick taker Joseph Rosales’ poor shot was saved by Takaoka.

Rosales got some redemption on a corner kick on the 30th minute. His service was headed by Hassani Dotson to the back post and Bongi Hlongwane got his left foot on it to make it 2-1.

Goalkeeper Alec Smir made his MLS debut in net for the Loons; the 25-year-old MNUFC2 player got the start with Dayne St. Clair away with Canada and Clint Irwin injuring his groin after the Portland loss Saturday.

Smir said he learned about his start earlier this week and first called his parents to share the news.

“It’s been a wild couple days,” Smir said on the 1500 ESPN pregame show.

Smir gave up three goals, including a quality long-range strike for Sebastian Berhalter in the 60th minute. None of the three concessions should be chalked up as Smir’s fault.

Briefly

The Loons had 16 shots to Vancouver’s six, but only five of Minnesota’s attempts were on frame. … With eight players out, Alejandro Bran was thrust into the starting lineup after being away from the Loons for weeks and just coming off the bench for Costa Rica in Copa America on Tuesday night in Austin, Texas. … The Loons signed goalkeeper Oscar Herrera to an MLS NEXT Pro contract and a short-term loan to the first team for Wednesday’s match. Herrera of Madison, Wis., played at Augsburg through 2023 and has been training with MNUFC’s first and second teams this year. … Midfielder Franco Fragapane made his 100th appearance for the Loons on Wednesday.

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The Rev. Jo H. Campe III, who overcame addiction and revived the Central Park United Methodist Church in St. Paul, died June 24 from a respiratory illness. He was 79.

Rev. Jo Campe

In 2000, the United Methodist minister decided to center St. Paul’s oldest Methodist congregation around the 12-step recovery process, which Campe knew would help people like himself.

A driving factor for that decision was Campe’s relationship with a janitor at the church who struggled with his recovery. The janitor couldn’t stay sober and eventually died from alcohol poisoning.

Campe got angry at addiction, according to a friend, Bob Swoverland.

“He became a warrior, if you will,” Swoverland said. “He was willing to go anywhere, in front of anyone, and share the hope of recovery.”

Campe also helped establish the Minnesota Recovery Connection, an organization led and governed by representatives of local recovery communities.

Campe used to hold classes at the Christ Recovery Center in St. Paul, where men can come off the streets to get clean and sober, staying as long as they need, said Ted Garner, a friend and sponsor.

Campe had a sense of humor, according to friends. He’d often open his sermons with a joke, many of them either “in poor taste” or “just bad”, said Swoverland.

“He’s going to be missed by a lot of people,” Garner said. “A lot of us, myself included, have gotten conditioned to losing people. This one is hard to take.”

Campe was born Jan. 11, 1945, in Minneapolis. He is survived by two adult children, Joey and Molly, as well as grandchildren Kai and Ruby, siblings Chris and Annette and a golden retriever, Cedar.

He was also known for his love for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. At age 14, he and a friend spent a few weeks in the boundary waters alone, without a tent, according to daughter, Molly Campe. When Molly was just 3-years old, Campe brought her up to the boundary waters for the first time, igniting her love for the wilderness.

A celebration of life will take place at 1 p.m. Sunday, July 21, at the Recovery Church in St. Paul.

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The Twins hope to pencil the names “Lewis” and “Lee” into the lineup together hundreds of times over the course of the upcoming years.

But Wednesday, the first time Brooks Lee got the call, it came at Royce Lewis’s expense. Lewis was placed on the 10-day injured list with a right adductor strain after leaving Tuesday night’s game early. To fill his spot on the roster, the Twins called up Lee, giving an opportunity to the 23-year-old top prospect.

That made Wednesday somewhat of a bittersweet day for the Twins.

Lewis, who suffered a severe quad strain running the bases on Opening Day and subsequently missed the next 58 games, is not expected to miss as much time this time around.

President of baseball operations Derek Falvey said they anticipate him being down for a few weeks with what he said was a Grade 2 strain. Falvey said they will revisit his timeline and return after the All-Star break, which runs through July 19.

“It’s a difficult day,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “… Obviously he’s been excellent when he’s been out there playing. He’s been a huge part of the great run of baseball we’ve been playing.”

Lewis was nothing short of spectacular when he returned in June, hitting 10 home runs in his first 16 games of the season. At the time of his injury, he was hitting .292 with a 1.039 OPS in 24 games played, having helped reinvigorate the Twins’ offense.

The injury is yet another hurdle in a promising young career filled with them. Lewis twice had anterior cruciate ligament tears that required surgery. Over the past two seasons, he’s dealt with an oblique, hamstring, quadricep and now an adductor injury that have forced him off the field.

While the two injuries this season have both been on his right side in a similar area, Falvey said it is “hard to really pinpoint,” if there’s a connection.

“Obviously tough news for Royce. He’s been through a lot. We’ve talked about this too much at this stage,” Falvey said. “ … (It’s) just an unfortunate reality with him but hopefully we’ll get him back as soon as we can.”

In the meantime, the Twins will slot in Lee and get a good look at the player whom they drafted eighth overall in 2022. Lee is currently the Twins’ No. 2 prospect and is ranked 13th overall by MLB Pipeline.

While Lee will primarily play third base, Baldelli said he would “continue to stay sharp” all over the field.

Lee, who might have gotten the call earlier this season when Lewis landed on the injured list if not for his own back injury, has hit .329/.394/.635 with a 1.029 OPS in 20 games at Triple-A St. Paul since his return.

He’s made great strides particularly from the right-side of the plate, a focus for him this offseason, to the point where he said he is more confident in his right side than his left currently.

“The fact that he continues to mature as a hitter, it’s just a really good sign,” Falvey said. “ … He’s ready for this.”

While Lee said he was trying to get his family in town at the very least for Thursday’s game, he got to share a touching phone call with his mother, father and sister upon getting the news of the lifetime.

“Everyone was crying. A special moment,” Lee said. “I think they all knew it would happen at some point soon. I didn’t know when it was going to be, but I’m happy to be here.”

Briefly

The Twins and Tigers will now play their series finale at 12:10 p.m. on Thursday instead of 1:10 p.m. as originally scheduled. Gates to the ballpark will open at 10:30 a.m. The move was made in response to the weather forecast, which calls for rain later on Thursday. … To add Lee to the 40-man roster, the Twins transferred Brock Stewart (shoulder) to the 60-day injured list. Stewart has progressed into throwing live batting practice and the move does not have an impact on when he will return — he has already been on the IL since May 3.

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KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — An Israeli airstrike slammed into a residential building next to the main medical center in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis, wounding at least seven people, hospital authorities and witnesses said Wednesday.

Nasser Hospital sits in the western part of the city, which is inside the Israeli-designated humanitarian “safe zone” where Palestinians have been told to go, according to maps provided by Israel’s military. The latest Israeli evacuation order affected about 250,000 people earlier this week across wide swathes of Gaza, the United Nations estimated.

As dust from Wednesday’s strike billowed through a street near Nasser Hospital, an Associated Press contributor filmed people running in all directions — some rushing toward the destruction and some away. Men carried two young boys, apparently wounded. Later, civil defense first responders and bystanders picked their way across chunks of cement and twisted metal, searching for people who might have been buried.

Displaced families ordered out of eastern Khan Younis on Monday have struggled to find places to live in overcrowded shelters and open areas in the western parts of the city. Wednesday’s airstrike hit an area that also includes a school-turned-shelter for displaced people, many of whom are living in makeshift tents.

“We were sitting in this tent, three people, and we were surprised by the rubble and dust,” said one man, Jalal Lafi, who was displaced from the city of Rafah in the south.

“The house was bombed without any warning, hit by two missiles in a row, one after another,” he said, looking back over his shoulder at the rubble, his hair and clothes covered in grey soot.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike.

Andrea De Domenico, the head of the U.N. humanitarian office for the Palestinian territories, said Gaza is “the only place in the world where people cannot find a safe refuge, and can’t leave the front line.” Even in so-called safe areas there are bombings, he told reporters Wednesday in Jerusalem.

An Israeli airstrike Tuesday killed a prominent Palestinian doctor and eight members of his extended family, just hours after they complied with military orders to evacuate their home and moved to the Israeli-designated safe zone.

Most Palestinians seeking safety are either heading to a coastal area called Muwasi or the nearby city of Deir al-Balah, De Domenico said.

The Israeli military said Tuesday it estimates at least 1.8 million Palestinians are now in the humanitarian zone it declared, covering a stretch of about 14 kilometers (8.6 miles) along the Mediterranean. Much of that area is now blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities with limited access to aid, U.N. and humanitarian groups say. Families live amid mountains of trash and streams of water contaminated by sewage.

It’s been “a major challenge” to even bring food to those areas, De Domenico said. Although the U.N. is now able to meet basic needs in northern Gaza, he said it’s very difficult getting aid into the south. Israel says it allows aid to enter via the Kerem Shalom crossing with southern Gaza, and blames the U.N. for not doing enough to move the aid.

The U.N. says fighting, Israeli military restrictions and general chaos — including criminal gangs taking aid off trucks in Gaza — make it nearly impossible for aid workers to pick up truckloads of goods that Israel has let in.

The amount of food and other supplies getting into Gaza has plunged since Israel’s offensive into Rafah began two months ago, causing widespread hunger and sparking fears of famine.

“It’s an unendurable life,” said Anwar Salman, a displaced Palestinian. “If they want to kill us, let them do it. Let them drop a nuclear bomb and finish us. We are fed up. We are tired. We are dying every day.”

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Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Samy Magdy in Cairo, and Drew Callister in New York contributed.