MINOT, ND – There are changes in this weeks Class 11AA and 11A football polls. The polls are voted on by the North Dakota Associated Press Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.

 

 

Team (First Place Votes)    Record    Points    Last Week
1. Mandan (11)                     2-0          59         2
2. Fargo Shanley (1)             2-0         48          3
3. Fargo Davies                    1-1          30        RV
4. West Fargo Sheyenne     1-1           22         1
5. West Fargo                      1-1           20         5

 

Others receiving votes: Bismarck Century (0-2)

 

 

Team (First Place Votes)     Record    Points    Last Week
1. Jamestown (12)                2-0           60         1
2. Fargo North                      2-0           47          2
3. Fargo South                      2-0          34          4
4. Grand Forks Red River    2-1           24          5
5. Dickinson                          1-1          10          3

 

Others receiving votes: Valley Ciy (2-0), Wahpeton (1-1)

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TWINS-YANKEES

 

NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge hit his Major League-leading 54th home run, connecting for the third straight day and sending the New York Yankees over the Minnesota Twins 5-2 on Monday. Judge has homered in five of his last seven games for the AL East leaders. He snapped a 2-2 tie in the sixth inning when he hit a 3-1 slider from Trevor Megill (3-2) into the second deck in left. The All-Star slugger reached 54 homers in his 131st game. He is on pace to hit 65 homers, four more than Roger Maris’ AL record in 1961. Judge, who also doubled, followed Gary Sánchez’s 473-foot, two-run homer into the left field bleachers off Jameson Taillon in the fifth that tied it at 2. Marwin Gonzalez also homered for the Yankees, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa added his second homer this year in the seventh. Minnesota’s Chris Archer allowed two runs and four hits in five innings and is winless in his last 10 starts. Taillon allowed two runs and six hits in five innings.
UP NEXT
Minnesota RHP Joe Ryan (10-7, 3.88 ERA) opposes New York RHP Gerrit Cole (10-7, 3.28) tonight. Cole allowed a career-high five homers in 2 1/3 innings June 9 in Minnesota.

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TWINS-MAHLE IL

 

CHICAGO (AP) — The Minnesota Twins put right-hander Tyler Mahle back on the 15-day injured list on Sunday, raising questions about their rotation during a difficult stretch. Mahle left Saturday night’s 13-0 loss at the Chicago White Sox because of shoulder inflammation. He was charged with four runs and five hits in two innings in his fourth start since he was acquired in an Aug. 2 trade with Cincinnati. The 27-year-old Mahle was activated from the IL before the game after previously being sidelined by shoulder inflammation. “I wouldn’t want to close the book on his season,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Is there an opportunity for him to come back and pitch? Maybe. But we have to learn a lot more before then.”

 

Mahle’s continued shoulder trouble comes on the heels of Sonny Gray leaving Friday night’s game because of tightness in his right hamstring. Gray is slated to pitch Wednesday night against the AL East-leading Yankees, but that could change. “The next thing for Sonny is for him to throw his bullpen, which will be in New York, and that’s when I think we’ll learn how his hamstring is doing,” Baldelli said.

 

Infielder Jorge Polanco tested his ailing left knee before Saturday night’s loss, but Baldelli said he is still experiencing some pain when he works out. Polanco was placed on the 10-day IL, retroactive to Wednesday, and infielder Jermaine Palacios was recalled from Triple-A St. Paul.

 

The Twins recalled left-hander Jovani Moran from St. Paul to replace Mahle on the roster. Moran was optioned on Saturday when Mahle was activated.

 

Minnesota (68-64) had lost three in a row before Sunday’s 5-1 victory at Chicago. The Twins began the day in second place in the AL Central, one back of Cleveland and one ahead of the White Sox. Baldelli said he wanted to wait before discussing the team’s plan for its rotation with Mahle out. He also expressed confidence in his players’ ability to respond to the recent adversity for the club. “I think we’ve proven that time and time again, that regardless of what goes on, any elation or disappointment or anything like that, it really doesn’t affect us,” he said before Sunday’s win. “We just continue moving in the direction that we want.”

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TWINS-SANCHEZ

 

CHICAGO (AP) — Minnesota Twins catcher Gary Sánchez was feeling fortunate Sunday after he nearly walked into a major injury. Sánchez was almost struck in the head by a full swing by teammate Gilberto Celestino during Minnesota’s 5-1 victory against the Chicago White Sox. The incident occurred when Chicago brought in Kendall Graveman to face Sánchez with two outs in the eighth inning. Sánchez was heading back to the dugout to learn more about the reliever when he was almost hit by Celestino in the on-deck circle. Celestino missed Sánchez’s face by mere inches. “I had a few minutes to go and ask a couple questions about that pitcher,” Sánchez said through a translator. “I saw his bat was on his shoulder just standing there in the on-deck circle and so I went back to the dugout and I didn’t notice he was swinging.” Sánchez lowered his head after the bat passed, and Celestino leaned back with an incredulous look on his face. “He almost hit me, but thank God, nothing happened,” Sánchez said. “It’s just an accident. It’s fine.”

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VIKINGS-SMITH

 

EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — Za’Darius Smith wore a wide smile in the Minnesota locker room before practice on Monday, a knowing expression that exuded the eagerness of getting to his first game with the Vikings. The eighth-year outside linebacker didn’t want to divulge any depth of the feelings he might be harboring about facing his former team, Green Bay, this weekend. His confident and relaxed demeanor did the talking for him.

 

“He’s got a different energy already. I don’t know if he just took like a three-day nap,” teammate Harrison Phillips said a few cubicles down, “but he is fired up.”

 

The week before Smith signed a contract valued at $42 million with the Vikings, he was released by the Packers for salary cap savings. Two months later, the NFL revealed the 2022 schedule that assigned Green Bay to visit rival Minnesota for the season opener. The game on Sunday afternoon will also mark the first for new Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell. “I had a whole year off, and now I get the opportunity to go back and do something that I love,” said Smith, whose 2021 season was limited to one game because of a back injury. “Just happy. Can’t wait.”

 

Smith, who turns 30 on Thursday, quickly became part of the heart of the Packers’ defense he joined in 2019 after playing his first four years in the league with Baltimore. The process has played out similarly in Minnesota this summer, a vital leadership role that was promised to him during the recruitment in free agency. “You need to have a guy who’s got energy,” said Phillips, the nose tackle who also is in his first season with the Vikings after arriving as a free agent from Buffalo. “When adversity is going to face us at some point in the season, he can be a ‘hoo-rah, rah-rah’ type guy. Sometimes you need that kick in the butt, and I think a lot of us would look to him for that.”

 

The pass-rushing potential of putting him and Danielle Hunter on the edges of the well-regarded scheme introduced by new defensive coordinator Ed Donatell made Smith a natural target in free agency for Minnesota. The fact that Smith played in a similar defense with Green Bay? Even better. Vikings assistant head coach Mike Pettine was his defensive coordinator for his first two years with the Packers, and outside linebackers coach Mike Smith — who also holds the title of pass rush specialist — was plucked off Green Bay’s staff, too.

 

New nickel cornerback Chandon Sullivan is another expat from the Packers, slotted in the primary lineup between Patrick Peterson and Cameron Dantzler. Albeit with a lesser stature, Sullivan also spent the past three seasons with the Packers, who won the NFC North each time. “It’s my first chance to really show myself in a Vikings uniform. First game of the season, there’ll be a lot of emotions. Then I get to play my old team,” Sullivan said. “I’m just ready to hear those fans. The preseason game I got my first taste of it, and I had chills all over my body. So I’m ready to hear that chant and make a play.”

 

Said O’Connell: “I’d like to think each and every week is going to be important to those guys, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t expect them to be that much more dialed and that much more focused this week knowing that they want to get off to a great start against their former team.”