Article: Twins Minor League Report (5/3): Royce Lewis Continues to Crush in A-Ball

[Eric R Pleiss]

The Rochester Red Wings made their season debut as the Plates, and while they lost, they looked delicious. The Kernels dressed like food, sort of, with the corn and all. They finished off a sweep of the South Bend Cubs. The Miracle have some food on their logo, depending on how you feel about eating coconut (Mounds bar anyone?). They lost, coconuts and all. The Lookouts don’t really have a food connection. They lost too.Find out everything that happened in the Twins minor league system on Thursday.

 

RED WINGS REPORT

Lehigh Valley 5, Rochester 2

Box Score

 

Aaron Slegers gave up a few runs early, but settled down and stuck around long enough to give up a couple late as well, before being lifted after 98 pitches and 6 1/3 innings. He gave up 10 hits, five runs (all earned), walked one, struck out four and give up a pair of dingers. Gabriel Moya went 1 2/3 and struck out two of the four batters he faced. Nick Anderson came on in the ninth and pitched a clean frame, giving up a hit and striking out one batter.

 

The Red Wings were just 5-for-30 as a team and were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. They scored a couple of runs but didn’t tally any RBIs for their efforts. No player had more than one hit, but both Kennys Vargas (1-for-3) and Bobby Wilson (1-for-3) had both a hit and a walk.

 

CHATTANOOGA CHATTER

Chattanooga 4, Mobile 1

Box Score

 

Chattanooga jumped on the board early with a run in the first and two more in the second to take a 3-0 lead. Mobile got one back in the bottom of the fourth, but a LaMonte Wade home run in the sixth pushed the lead back to three at 4-1, the final. The Lookouts tallied 10 hits on the night, with seven coming from their 1-4 hitters. LaMonte Wade led the way with a 2-for-5 night that included the home run mentioned above. Nick Gordon was 2-for-5 with a pair of singles and a pair of strike- outs. Zander Wiel was 2-for-4 with an RBI and a strikeout.

 

Former top prospect Kohl Stewart was on the bump to start for the Lookouts, he went five innings and gave up just one run (earned). He gave up five hits, walked three, and struck out five. Stewart moved to 3-1 with the victory and now sports an ERA under 5 (4.91). Tyler Jay had his fourth consecutive scoreless outing of the year, picking up his third hold with two innings of scoreless ball. He gave up one hit, walked two and struck out two. Jay was lifted for Zack Jones who earned his first save of the year with a six-out performance where he gave up just one hit and two walks and recorded four of the six outs via strikeout.

 

MIRACLE MATTERS

Tampa 5, Fort Myers 0

Box Score

 

A really tough night at the plate for the Miracle who were just 4-for-30 as a team and while they put a few men on base and into scoring position, they were 0-5 with runners in scoring position. The Miracle struck out 14 times as a team and walked just twice. No Miracle player had multiple hits, or an extra base hit. Lewin Diaz led the team, I guess, reaching base twice, going 1-for-3 with a single and a walk.

 

Starter Charlie Barnes got hit early, and left after four innings having given up four earned runs on eight hits. He walked three, struck out one, and gave up a home run. Calvin Faucher pitched the next two innings and he gave up a run on three hits, and struck out a batter. Logan Lombana finished the last two innings for the Miracle, he did not give up a hit, walked one and struck out two.

 

KERNELS NUGGETS

Cedar Rapids 6, South Bend 5

Box Score

 

The Kernels were outhit 10-8 but were 4-for-9 with runners in scoring position, scoring six runs. The South Bend Cubs were swept out of town, much in part to hitting just 2-for-12 with men in scoring position. Royce Lewis had another good day at the plate, 2-for-3 with an RBI and a walk. He’s now hitting .354 and trying to hit his way to Fort Myers. Teammate Alex Kirilloff had a nice game as well, going 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored a home run and three RBIs.

 

Bailey Ober started for the Kernels and gave up four runs on seven hits, left the game behind by two after just four innings but was let off the hook thanks to the Kirilloff three-run homer. Carlos Suniaga was the beneficiary of that home run, earning the win to move to 1-0 on the year with 2 2/3 innings. Suniaga gave up a run on three hits, walked one and struck out two. Jose Martinez picked up the rare seven-out save, giving up no hits, a walk, and striking out two to preserve the win.

 

STARS OF THE DAY

Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Kohl Stewart, Chattanooga Lookouts

Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Alex Kirilloff, Cedar Rapids Kernels

 

TOP 20 PROSPECT PERFORMANCE

1. Royce Lewis – 2-3, R, RBI, BB

3. Nick Gordon – 2-5, 2 K

5. Alex Kirilloff – 2-4, 2 R, HR, 3 RBI

10. Akil Baddoo – 0-2, R, 2 BB, K

13. Lewin Diaz – 1-3, BB, 2K

14. LaMonte Wade – 2-5, R, HR, RBI

16. Ben Rortvedt – 0-3, BB, K

17. Travis Blankenhorn – 1-4, 3K

19. Tyler Jay – 2.0 IP, H, 2 BB, 2 K,

 

FRIDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

Rochester (5:05 pm) – D.J. Baxendale (0-1, 0.00)

Chattanooga (7:05 pm) – Zack Littell (0-3, 5.87)

Fort Myers (6:00 pm) - Andro Cutura (1-0 ,5.40)

Cedar Rapids (6:35 pm) – Brusdar Graterol (0-0, 2.45)

 

Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Thursday's games.

 

Click here to view the article

[slash129]

Kirilloff is producing big in that CR lineup. Hope they can make a run for first place this weekend

[AZTwin]

I hope Lewis and kirilloff are in ft Myers after all star break. Lewis will probably see more success just due to him being more of a contact guy in his career. Will be nice to see. Hope the Wisconsin catcher joins them as well

[diehardtwinsfan]

Kohl Stewart continues to rack up those Ks. ERA is a bit high due to one start, but he's got a K/9 over 9 right now one month into the season. That's pretty encouraging. 

[rdehring]

Does anyone know the health status of Wander Javier?  Sure looks like his moving up to Cedar Rapids would be a good time for Lewis to move up to Fort Myers.  Spending half the year in Hi-A this year could put Lewis on track to join the Twins late next year, shortly after his 20th birthday! 

 

Great to see Kirilloff driving in more than a run a game.  What a great start for a kid who missed all of last year.  For that reason I could see his spending more time in Cedar Rapids, perhaps the entire year. 

[jud6312]

 

  On 5/4/2018 at 12:24 PM, diehardtwinsfan said:

Kohl Stewart continues to rack up those Ks. ERA is a bit high due to one start, but he's got a K/9 over 9 right now one month into the season. That's pretty encouraging. 

Even more impressive to me is the 2.5 walks per 9. He keeps the walks down, the GB rate up and keeps missing bats, and we could see something in the neighborhood of what they thought they'd get. 

 

It seems like he's been around forever, but still just 23. I remain optimistic. 

[Danchat]

I'm not sure what Gordon and Wade have left to prove in AA at this point. It's time for at least a promotion to AAA and the Twins could use Wade in the majors right now.

[gunnarthor]

Baddoo seems to be drawing a lot of walks even if he isn't hitting as well as I thought he would.

[USNMCPO]

 

  On 5/4/2018 at 6:00 AM, AZTwin said:

I hope Lewis and kirilloff are in ft Myers after all star break. Lewis will probably see more success just due to him being more of a contact guy in his career. Will be nice to see. Hope the Wisconsin catcher joins them as well

Hope I can get to CR before the move!

[Seth Stohs]

 

  On 5/4/2018 at 12:42 PM, rdehring said:

Does anyone know the health status of Wander Javier?  Sure looks like his moving up to Cedar Rapids would be a good time for Lewis to move up to Fort Myers.  Spending half the year in Hi-A this year could put Lewis on track to join the Twins late next year, shortly after his 20th birthday! 

 

Regarding Wander, somewhat mixed reports. Might be awhile before he gets to Cedar Rapids. 

 

Lewis will move up sometime. And late 2019 is possible. Early 2020 more possible, if not almost probable. 

[Seth Stohs]

 

  On 5/4/2018 at 1:49 PM, gunnarthor said:

Baddoo seems to be drawing a lot of walks even if he isn't hitting as well as I thought he would.

 

Yeah, he's got a .215 average, ,but he's been on base 39% of the time... 19 walks in 86 plate appearances. A 10% walk rate is pretty good... He's walking 22% of the time! But he's still aggressive with his swing. He's striking out in 35% of his plate appearances. 

[mlhouse]

Do you realize that of the 9 non-pitching starters for the Rochester Red Wings, not a single player was drafted by the Twins.

 

Only one of these players, Kennys Vargas developed from the Twins organization and he was released earlier this year.

 

And the average age of these 9 is 28.

 

FOr a team that has sucked so bad over the past several years, why do we have a bunch of cast offs in AAA and not our own prospects?

[howieramone2]

 

  On 5/4/2018 at 10:14 PM, mlhouse said:

Do you realize that of the 9 non-pitching starters for the Rochester Red Wings, not a single player was drafted by the Twins.

 

Only one of these players, Kennys Vargas developed from the Twins organization and he was released earlier this year.

 

And the average age of these 9 is 28.

 

FOr a team that has sucked so bad over the past several years, why do we have a bunch of cast offs in AAA and not our own prospects?

Berrios was a TR draft pick as was Gonsalves. Romero was signed as a IFA   when TR was in charge for Bill Smith. We have good depth in Rochester, and our farm system will be in the top 10 come this off-season. 

 

The big picture looks very good, you can always manipulate the microscopic picture to fit any agenda. You do know we were in the hunt, 2 of the past 3 years.