MINNESOTA SPORTS FAN DAILY: Monday, August 28, 2017

By Eric Strack |

Updated: Jul 1, 2021

MSF Daily: 8/28/17

Twins WIN @ Toronto; Take series 2-1:

What a day it was for the Minnesota Twins, who needed a good day.

Well, what a day it was for Byron Buxton. Miguel Sano hit the Disabled List and many people wondered how the Twins would make up for his offensive production. Byron Buxton didn’t. He has stepped up and been a new man since he came off a Disabled List stint of his own.

Buxton didn’t play with the Twins for the whole 2nd half of July. He came back on August 1.

Since his return, according to Baseball-Reference.com, Buxton has played in 26 games. He has 92 AB, .304 BA, .340 OBP, 5 HR, 2 3B, and just 25 SO.

Today was probably the best game of his young career. If it gets better than this, I can’t wait. Buxton went 4-4 with 3 HR and 5 RBI. Watch for yourself:

Here are all three of Byron Buxton’s home runs from this afternoon’s game. #MNTwins pic.twitter.com/sfrdMoU3h6

— Twins Highlights (@TwinsHighlights) August 27, 2017

Kyle Gibson also had his second straight solid outing. You did not read that wrong. Gibson has now had two good starts in a row. In his last outing, he went 7 innings, giving up just 1 run on 7 hits. Today was more of the same. He lasted 6.2 innings on Sunday, giving up 2 runs on 7 hits. This pitching staff would look a lot different if Gibson was somewhat consistent.

Kennys Vargas had the other two RBI on a bases-loaded single in the 3rd. Buxton’s homers made up 4 of his RBI. He also had an RBI single in the 1st inning. The final score would be 7-2 and it wasn’t close all game.

The Twins needed to win this series against a struggling Blue Jay’s Team. They are now 67-63 and 1.5 games ahead of the Angels in the race for the second Wild Card. Now they will pack up and head back home to Target Field. They will start a 3 game set against another bad team in the Chicago White Sox. Bad team or not, the Twins haven’t been overly dominant against the Sox this season. They are 9-7. They need to change that this week. They will start their top 3 pitchers in the series. Santana will take game 1, Berrios in game 2, and Colon to finish the series out.

Game 1 will start Tuesday at 7:10 CT.

Vikings vs 49ers in telling 3rd preseason game?

The preseason game that is supposed to show us what we might expect come the regular season didn’t go very well for the Vikings in the first half.

The 49ers made the Vikings defense look like shit on the first two drives. It was REEEALLLY frustrating to watch. Here is how Brian Hoyer looked after those two drives:

49ers outgained Vikings 143-19 in first quarter. Hoyer 8-for-8 for 128 yards and a TD. Passer rating of 158.3.

— Ben Goessling (@GoesslingStrib) August 28, 2017

Yes. Brian Hoyer.

Here is Trae Waynes looking like he hasn’t improved at all:

And that was just a sneak peak. Here is what happened right after that play:

And then TD number 2:

However, the Vikings defense did get better on the last 2 drives from the 49ers’ offense. They started to get some pressure on Hoyer and hit some receivers. Here is Kendricks getting a sack.

Watch out. @EricKendricks54 bursts through for the sack. #SFvsMIN pic.twitter.com/lC1dKCcL9R

— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) August 28, 2017

The Vikings offense would show some promise on and off but they would stall every time, sometimes by shooting themselves in the foot. There is a lot left for them to work on going into the regular season. Here are some of the few highlights:

Laquon Treadwell pulled in a couple of balls so that was good to see.

Here is what Sam Bradford had to say about the performance:

McKinnon gave us a highlight in the second half and tried to grab the Kick Returner job:

Randy Johnson trying to show us more PJ Fleck

If you haven’t had enough of PJ Fleck, Randy Johnson from the StarTribune has more.

In Sunday’s morning paper, he tries to give us an insight into how PJ Fleck thinks and what we can expect from him on the field, which seems to be the least thought of part so far…

You’ve heard elite motivational talk from P.J. Fleck. But what might you see on the field from the #Gophers coach? https://t.co/ynYeVnm9W3 pic.twitter.com/8SGzTZjZA8

— Star Tribune Sports (@StribSports) August 26, 2017

MSF Daily by Eric Strack @RealMNSportsFan