Over the Mother's Day weekend all four of the Twins full-season minor league affiliates were in action. The Twins flirted with their first winning streak of the season before losing Saturday evening's 2-1 battle against our neighbors to the North, the Toronto Blue Jays. Twins minor league call-ups have been the story lately for the Twins with stellar pitching performances from both Scott Diamond and P.J. Walters who combined to throw 20.0 innings. Last week Diamond pitched 7.0 innings of shutout baseball before giving way to the Twins bullpen who were able to secure the W. Walters gave the Twins a quality start going 6.0 innings and gave up only 2 runs but the offense was unable to respond against Drew Hutchison and the Toronto bullpen, managing only 1 run when Hutchison walked Brian Dozier to force home a run. Dozier is 8-for-29 in his first week in Minnesota and Drew Butera has three hits in his four games of action since getting called up to join the Twins. Diamond pitched again on Mother's day and pitched another 7 scoreless innings to bring his scoreless inning streak to 14 and although Jeff Burton tried to give the game away, Diamond is now 2-0 on the season with the Twins and has yet to surrender a run. But enough about the guys playing in the big leagues, let's take a look Down on the Pond![/url]

AAA Rochester Red Wings (14-22)

Friday: Red Wings vs Syracuse Chiefs - L 2-8

Saturday: Red Wings vs Syracuse Chiefs - L 0-11

Sunday: Red Wings vs Syracuse Chiefs - L 2-4

The Red Wings played the first three games of their four game set against the Syracuse Chiefs and lost all three. On Friday, Jeff Manship struggled early giving up 3 runs in the first and 6 total in his 4 innings of work. The Red Wings offense scattered 8 hits on the day with 2 each from Ben Revere and J.R. Towles but managed only 2 runs in the 2-8 loss. On Saturday, things got worse for the Red Wings as Daryl Thompson gave up 7 runs in 3.2 innings of work and the offense managed just 5 hits, 2 from Clete Thomas who had a double and a triple for the day, but were unable to score any runs as the Chiefs shutout the Red Wings 11-0. Rochester lost again on Sunday despite a strong pitching performance from Liam Hendriks on Mother's day. Hendriks went 6.0 innings, giving up 1R, 1BB and 4K's, but Deolis Guerra could not hold the slim 2-1 lead and gave up 3 runs (2 earned) in his first inning of relief. The bats were quiet the last 5 innings and the Red Wings lost 2-4 despite out hitting the Chiefs 7-5 over the course of the game.

Studs: Ben Revere continues to have a hot bat, Revere was 4-for-12 over the weekend with no K'sand is 11-for-27 on the current 7 game road trip. His season average in AAA sits at .319 and his on base plus slugging is .674.

Liam Hendriks pitched 6.0 innings and gave up only 1 run in his no decision, and has given up only 2 runs in his 11.2 innings of work for the Red Wings this season.

Duds: Jeff Manship took his first loss of the season giving up 6 runs in 4.0 innings of work, and recording only a single strike-out.

Daryl Thompson gave up 7 runs in 3.2 innings of work on Saturday and was tagged with the loss to move his record to 1-4 on the season.

Casey Fien came in to mop up the 9th inning on Saturday and gave up 4 runs on 5 hits in a single inning of work and saw his ERA rise from 3.20 up to 4.79. Fien had given up only 7 runs in 19.2 innings of work prior to entering the game.

Joe Thurston went 0-for-7 over the weekend and has a slash line of .139/.267/.236 (BA/OBP/SLG) on the season and is now batting .038/.133/.154 in the month of May.

AA New Britain Rock Cats (22-14)

Friday: Rock Cats vs Reading Phillies - W 4-1

Saturday: Rock Cats vs Reading Phillies - W 8-4

Sunday: Rock Cats vs Reading Phillies - L 4-6

On Friday afternoon the Reading Phillies' Trevor May took a no-hit bid into the top of the 7th before the Rock Cats' bats came alive. The Cats would score one in the 7th and 3 more in the 8th. Wilkin Ramirez homered in the 8th to make it three games in a row with a HR. The Rock Cats' own David Bromberg also had a nice evening on the mound pitching 6 innings and giving up no runs and striking out 7. Lester Oliveros came on to pitch 2 innings of perfect relief and picked up the win. Daniel Turpin came on for the ninth and gave up a run to spoil the shutout, Rock Cats 4, Phillies 1. On Saturday the Phillies took an early 1-0 lead off of B.J. Hermsen, but he settled down to pitch 7.0 innings and gave up only 2 runs, no walks to go with 3K's. The Rock Cats got the bats out and scored in 5 different innings and Wilkin Ramirez went 3-for-4 and hit another HR to take his HR streak to 4 games which ties a Rock Cats record. Aaron Hicks went 3-for-4 with 2 doubles and 3RBI. Blake Martin pitched a scoreless inning of relief and Louis Perdomo made things interesting in the 9th when he came in and surrendered 2 before securing the win for Hermsen, Rock Cats 8, Phillies 4. On Mother's Day, with the series lead 2-1 on the Phillies, the Rock Cats were unable to get the W and had to settle for a series split. Andrew Albers gave up only 3 runs in his 6.0 innings of work, however; the Rock Cats were hitless until Nate Hudson broke up the no-no in the bottom of the 6th. The Rock Cats would score 4 runs on 4 hits, but Caleb Thielbar was unable to keep the Phillies at bay and gave up 3 runs in 1.1 innings of work. The Phillies would hold on for the W, Rock Cats 4, Phillies 6. The Rock Cats now sit a half-game back of the Phillies for the division lead.

Studs: David Bromberg, 6.0 innings, 0 runs, 7 K's.

Lester Oliveros, 2.0 innings, no hits, no runs, 1 K.

Wilkin Ramirez, 4-for-8 over the weekend, with HR's in 4 straight games and is now batting .388 on the season. Ramirez enjoyed a well earned day off on Sunday. Over the course of his last 10 games, Ramirez has a slash line of .419/.444/.884 with 9XBH.

Duds: Joe Benson was 0-for-9 this past weekend with 3 K's. Benson is batting .095 (2-for-21) since his demotion to New Britain earlier this month.

Caleb Thielbar pitched 1.1 innings in relief and gave up 3 runs on 5 hits and a walk. He recorded no K's. Tough outing for the usually reliable Thielbar who had pitched 6.1 scoreless innings of releif since being promoted from Fort Myers before his Mother's day struggles.

To Read the rest of the recap, head on over to www.puckettspond.com

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