Article: Twins Minor League Report (6/28): Gonsalves Rolls Again

[Seth Stohs]

A full slate of games was scheduled in the Twins farm system on Wednesday. The Miracle game was postponed by weather. Stephen Gonsalves looked to continue his winning ways. He was helped by the home run ball. Did Zack Granite’s hitting streak continue? Royce Lewis was hit by a pitch, and it caused some discussion. So much happened in the Twins system on Wednesday. Get caught up on it all here.Find out everything and more that happened happened in the Twins system on Wednesday, starting with the transactions of the day.

 

 

TRANSACTIONS

 

There were a handful of transactions in the Twins system on Wednesday.

• Phil Hughes is now back on the Twins roster. He was removed from the disabled list after his stint in the Red Wings bullpen. Craig Breslow was placed on the 10-day DL.
• Alex Wimmers was outrighted to Rochester after clearing waivers. Later in the day, we learned that Mason Melotakis had also cleared waivers and was outrighted to Rochester. Best case scenario for the Twins.
• Infielder Dan Gamache has been released. He had spent the season with the Chattanooga Lookouts. Ryan Eades was activated from the disabled list.

RED WINGS REPORT

Rochester 0, Buffalo 3

Box Score

 

Dillon Gee made his first appearance in the Twins organization on Wednesday night when he made the start for the Red Wings. While he spent a couple of days as insurance in the Twins bullpen, he didn’t get into a game. On Wednesday, he was limited to 50 pitches since he hasn’t pitched in nearly two weeks. The right-hander threw three scoreless innings. He gave up one hit, walked one and struck out one, all in 47 pitches.

 

Lefty Matt Tracy came on and gave up three runs over the next two innings. He gave up seven hits and walked two. Alex Wimmers worked two scoreless, perfect innings.

 

The Red Wings’ offense didn’t do much. Engelb Vielma had two of the team’s six hits, including its lone extra base hit, a double. Zack Granite started the game 0-3, but he got a single in his final at bat. He now has a ten-game hitting streak and has hit in 27 of 28 games in June.

 

CHATTANOOGA CHATTER

Chattanooga 5, Mississippi 1

Box Score

 

The Lookouts put together a strong, complete game with good pitching and some timely hitting.

 

Stephen Gonsalves was on the mound, and his overall line looks terrific. The left-hander gave up just one run on five hits and a walk over seven innings. He struck out five. The run came on a solo homer in that seventh inning. But as impressive as that is, Gonsalves also found a way to work out of some tough situations. Twice, there were two runners on with nobody out and Gonsalves worked out of it. Some was luck. In one instance, Gonsalves threw what would have been a wild pitch, but Dan Rohlfing hustled back and threw to Gonsalves at home in time to get the runner attempting to score. But then Gonsalves got a big strikeout for the second out. It was a good mix of dominating at times and working out of some tough situations as well. Gonsalves improved to 4-3 with a 2.63 ERA in his eight starts since returning from the disabled list.

 

Nick Anderson worked a scoreless eighth inning, and Randy Rosario worked a perfect ninth inning.

 

The Lookouts took the lead with one run in a long second inning. Mississippi’s starter walked four straight batters. Levi Michael’s walk drove in a run. In the third inning, Jonathan Rodriguez hit a solo homer. With two on in the fourth inning, Rodriguez came up and launched a three-run homer to give the Lookouts a 5-0 lead. Rodriguez went 2-4 with a walk and his seventh and eighth homers. Michael went 2-4 with a walk. Nick Gordon was 0-2, though he did walk three times.

 

 

MIRACLE MATTERS

Ft. Myers, Clearwater

Box Score

 

Rain won the day in Ft. Myers and caused another postponement. The two teams will try to play a doubleheader on Thursday. Then on Friday, Tim Tebow and the Port St. Lucie Mets will come to Hammond Stadium.

 

 

KERNELS NUGGETS

Cedar Rapids 2, Burlington 5

Box Score

 

Sometimes all it takes is one bad inning, and that’s what happened in Cedar Rapids on Wednesday afternoon. Eddie Del Rosario cruised through the first two innings. After a strikeout began the third frame, he walked the next two batters. They both scored on a double. After another walk, Del Rosario gave up a three-run homer before getting out of the inning, but the damage was done. The Kernels were down 5-1.

 

In all, Del Rosario went 5.1 innings and gave up those five runs. He gave up three hits, walked four and struck out four. Logan Lombana gave up two hits over 1.2 scoreless innings of relief work. Max Cordy then worked two scoreless innings.

 

Ben Rortvedt led the offense. He went 2-3 with a walk in the game. His ninth double scored Amaurys Minier. Minier reached twice on walks. Joe Cronin went 1-2 with two walks. Travis Blankenhorn also walked twice. Hank Morrison had the only other extra-base hit, his first triple with the Kernels.

 

After meeting with a doctor on Tuesday, right-hander Tyler Wells had an MRI on Wednesday. Results should be known in the next day or so. The MRI was given since it was the second time that Wells has experienced this.

 

 

E-TWINS E-NOTES

Elizabethton 4, Kingsport 0

Box Score

 

What a difference a start can make. Maybe Edwar Colina was more relaxed in his second start in the United States. In his first start, the E-Twins season opener, he gave up six runs (four earned) on six hits and three walks in just 4.1 innings. On Wednesday night, it was a different story. Colina threw five shutout innings. In fact, he left the game without giving up a hit. He did still walk four, but he struck out four as well.

 

Jose Martinez came on and gave up a single right away in the 6th, so there wasn’t too much no-no drama. He gave up two hits over 2.2 scoreless innings. He struck out three. Calvin Faucher got the final four outs, two of them by strikeouts.

 

JJ Robinson had a big game. With two runners on base in the first inning, Robinson singled in Trey Cabbage with the first run of the game. In the fifth inning, Wander Javier hit an RBI double to score Andy Cosgrove. But then after a Matt Albanese single to start the top of the 8th, Robinson knocked a two-run homer. It marked his first home run as a pro, and gave the Twins a 4-0 lead. An inning later, it was a 4-0 win.

 

Along with Robinson’s 2-4, outfielder Shane Carrier went 2-4. Albanese was 1-3 with a walk, and Trey Cabbage reached twice on walks.

 

 

GCL TWINS TAKES

GCL Twins 8, GCL Orioles 3

Box Score

 

It was a rough start for the GCL Twins, but the tide quickly changed. Juan Mojica started and gave up three runs and recorded only two outs. Carlos Suniaga came on and got the final out of the first inning and worked four more innings without allowing another run. In fact, he gave up just two hits. Suniaga began the season with Elizabethton and actually worked 3.1 scoreless innings with four strikeouts last week in a game. Amilcar Cruz came on and worked four innings of one-hit, no-run ball for the save.

 

The Twins saw themselves down 3-0 before they even came to bat, but they responded with a six-run bottom of the first inning. A Colton Burns single was followed by walks to Royce Lewis and Jared Akins to load the bases. Benjamin Rodriguez singled to score Burns. Then Victor Tademo added a single that scored Lewis and Akins. Kerby Camacho grounded out, but it was enough to score Rodriguez with the fourth run of the inning. With two outs, Roni Tapia singled to score Tademo. Finally, Humberto Maldonado tripled to score Tapia and give the Twins a 6-3 lead.

 

That’s where the score remained until the bottom of the seventh when the Twins tacked on two more runs. Ricky De La Torre tripled to score Tademo. Tapia then doubled to score De La Torre.

 

Rodriguez went 2-3 with a walk and a triple. Tapia went 2-4 with a double and two RBI. Humberto Maldonado went 2-4 with a triple. Royce Lewis went 0-3, though he also walked and was hit by a pitch. Immediately after being hit, he stole second base. It caused words to be exchanged.

 

 

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY

 

Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Stephen Gonsalves, Chattanooga Lookouts

Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Jonathan Rodriguez, Chattanooga Lookouts

 

 

THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

 

Rochester @ Buffalo (12:05 CST) - RHP Chris Heston (0-1, 8.44 ERA)

Chattanooga @ Mississippi (7:00 CST) - RHP Felix Jorge (8-1, 3.26 ERA)

Clearwater @ Ft. Myers (DH @ 4:00 CST) - LHP Lachlan Wells, LHP Lewis Thorpe (1-2, 2.05 ERA)

Burlington @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 CST) - RHP Sean Poppen (5-2, 3.15 ERA)

Elizabethton @ Kingsport (5:30 CST) - RHP Huascar Ynoa (0-1, 3.60 ERA)

GCL Twins @ GCL Orioles (11:00 am CST) - TBD

 

 

Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Wednesday’s games.

 

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[Tommygun921]

Good to see Melotakis cleared. Must be a good time to pass guys through waivers or there must be something wrong with his arm.

[TKGuy]

Thinking same thing on Melokatis. Gonsalves, ho him, just consistently good

[yarnivek1972]

Should we be concerned about Gonsalves' HR rate? 5 allowed in 41 IP. He allowed just 1 in 74 IP at AA last year and 2 more in 65 IP at high A. So, a homerun every 45 IP last year to one every 8 IP this year. That has to raise flags.

[Seth Stohs]

 

Should we be concerned about Gonsalves' HR rate? 5 allowed in 41 IP. He allowed just 1 in 74 IP at AA last year and 2 more in 65 IP at high A. So, a homerun every 45 IP last year to one every 8 IP this year. That has to raise flags.

 

It's probably the only red flag out there... but it seems that he's throwing more strikes this year, and once in awhile one will get squared up. I'd have to look, but I think all of them have been solo shots. I don't think it's worth worrying about too much at all at this time. 

[mikelink45]

If we need another starter this weekend, I would rather give Gonsalves a start than Gee.

[drjim]

Should we be concerned about Gonsalves' HR rate? 5 allowed in 41 IP. He allowed just 1 in 74 IP at AA last year and 2 more in 65 IP at high A. So, a homerun every 45 IP last year to one every 8 IP this year. That has to raise flags.

I would say a little for sure. The hr rate has gone up, but good news is he has significantly dropped his bb rate. To me, if he maintains the low bb rate as he moves up, he's going to give up some hrs. His increase in fb% might be a small red flag too.

 

The big takeaway is he needs a little more polish than we might think.

[drjim]

If we need another starter this weekend, I would rather give Gonsalves a start than Gee.

For one start I would go Romero over Gonsalves. But it's going to be Gee.

[twinssouth]

Gonsalves needs to go to AAA. Hard to believe this is Michael's 3rd year in Chattanooga

[PDX Twin]

Funny how the timetable differs for drafted players vs. international signees. I feel like we have been hearing about Javier forever, and it's really wonderful to see his name finally start to appear in the game reports. On the other side, Lewis has been a Twin for two weeks and here he is already!

[gunnarthor]

Nice to see Gonsalves and Romero pitching well in AA. I hope they get promoted to AAA this year (or the majors).

 

Blankenhorn is doing well after a mid-season slump as well.

[TKGuy]

Wasn't Wander 16 yo when we signed him?

[bluechipper]

Nick Gordon has been named on the roster for the Futures game. I didn't see any other Twins listed unfortunately.

[gman]

Last year was Wander's first year. He got 30 plate appearances in the DSL, then was injured the rest of the year.

[laloesch]

 

Nice to see Gonsalves and Romero pitching well in AA. I hope they get promoted to AAA this year (or the majors).

 

Blankenhorn is doing well after a mid-season slump as well.

 

It would be nice to see them called up to AAA sooner rather than later.  Although with Romero that may happen next year.

[Oldgoat_MN]

I love it that we have a player named Joe Cronin.

Makes it tough to look up his BB-Ref stats, though.

[yarnivek1972]

I don't like the chances of Fort Myers playing one tonight. Forget two. Going to rain for 2-3 more hours.

[Bob Sacamento]

 

I don't like the chances of Fort Myers playing one tonight. Forget two. Going to rain for 2-3 more hours.

 I was just at the Centurylink Complex grabbing GCL rosters and schedules, it wasn't raining at the time (nor is it now) but we got dumped on in the hours leading up to the game.  Unfortunately for the next week or so it's looking about the same for heavy PM showers around game time.  Which kind of sucks for the Miracle gatebox as this is "Tebow Weekend" with the former Gators QB in town Friday-Monday with the St. Lucie Mets.