just doing his thing

Minnesota Twins management may have waved the white flag on this season, purging the roster at the trade deadline, but Matt Wallner is still out there battling, doing Matt Wallner things. The Southern Miss product — the school’s all-time home run leader — hit his 15th homer on Monday night. The sixth-inning shot at Detroit’s Comerica Park gave the Twins a brief lead before they ultimately fell to the first-place Tigers 6-3. It was the Twins’ fifth loss in six games and they now stand 52-60. If the club is fading away, Wallner is not. The 6-foot-4 lefty slugger, at .217 on the season, is batting .368 over his last seven games and has four homers in his last eight. He is one of those proverbial “three true outcome” players: In 259 plate appearances this season — he missed a chunk of time early on with an injury — he has struck out 75 times and walked 32 (with four HBPs) in addition to his career-high homer total. He has 44 career bombs in 240 games. When Wallner hits the ball, he hits it hard: Of his 48 hits in 2025, 28 are for extra bases. In Monday’s game, his homer off Casey Mize carried 436 feet to center field. Wallner also walked once and struck out once. And, oh yeah, he has a cannon for a right arm; USM used him as a closer at times. Playing right field on Monday, he threw out two Tigers on the bases. The Minnesota native may give disheartened Twins fans something to cheer about down the stretch. P.S. Wallner is tied for third in the all-Mississippi home run derby for 2025. Brent Rooker leads with 23, followed by Austin Riley at 16 and Wallner and Nathaniel Lowe at 15. Jordan Westburg — hitting .419 in his last seven games — belted his 13th homer for Baltimore in a losing cause on Monday. … On the topic of homers, ex-Ole Miss star Ryan Rolison yielded a bomb in Colorado’s blowout loss to Toronto at Coors Field and has now allowed 10 homers in 34 2/3 innings this season, his first in MLB.