Twins Minor League Report (8/30): Mejia Strong in Rehab Outing, Kernels Impress in Front of Hunter

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Randy Dobnak was promoted to Cedar Rapids from Elizabethton. An undrafted free agent this year, Dobnak had a 2.39 ERA over 26.1 innings with the E-Twins.

RED WINGS REPORT

Scranton 8, Rochester 4

Box Score

Mejia, seeing his first live game action since Aug. 8, struck out four batters over three scoreless innings. He gave up two hits and walked a batter. He only required 36 pitches, 23 of which were strikes (63.9 percent). While that performance was encouraging, Stephen Gonsalves didn’t have the best of nights.

Making his first relief appearance since 2013 (in order to accommodate Mejia’s rehab start), Gonsalves got just two outs and gave up four runs on four hits and a pair of walks. He’s up to 14 earned runs over 22.2 innings for the Red Wings (5.56 ERA).

Jake Reed managed to throw 2.1 shutout innings, and the Rochester bats battled back to within a run of the RailRiders, but Alex Wimmers also had a rough night. He gave up four runs in the bottom of the seventh, two coming on a Tyler Austin homer.

Niko Goodrum hit a two-run triple and J.B. Shuck was the only Wings player with two hits.

CHATTANOOGA CHATTER

Jackson 4, Chattanooga 0

Box Score

The Lookouts just couldn’t get anything going. The game got off to an ominous start, as the Generals struck out the side in the top of the first. Chattanooga only got a runner as far as third base once.

Ryan Eades made the start, and gave up a run over four innings. Keaton Steele was the first man out of the pen and gave up two unearned runs over two innings thanks to errors by Nick Gordon and Brian Navarreto. Randy Rosario took care of the final two frames. He walked four batters and gave up a single in the eighth inning, but managed to give up just one run.

LaMonte Wade was 2-for-4 and Jonathan Rodriguez and Brian Navarreto each had a double.

MIRACLE MATTERS

Fort Myers 4, St. Lucie 3 (10 innings)

Box Score

The Miracle squandered a 3-0 lead, but ended up taking this one in extras. Sean Miller opened the 10th inning with a single, advanced to second on a Tanner English sac bunt, moved up to third on a passed ball and scored on a sac fly from Brandon Lopez. How’s that for small ball?

With the game tied in the bottom of the seventh, St. Lucie managed to get the first two batters of the inning on. But the Miracle went around the horn to complete the first triple play in their 26th year in existence. It went third baseman Brandon Lopez to second baseman Sean Miller to first baseman Chris Paul.

Clark Beeker gave up three runs over five innings, but he also hit Tim Tebow with a pitch. That’s gotta be worth something, right? Alex Robinson provided two scoreless innings of relief. Tyler Jay added two perfect innings of his own, striking out two batters in the process. Michael Kohn earned his first save with a scoreless bottom of the 10th inning.

Chris Paul was 2-for-5 with a three-run homer. Zander Wiel was 2-for-4 with a double.

KERNELS NUGGETS

Cedar Rapids 11, Burlington 1

Box Score

Torii Hunter had quite the impact on his visit to Cedar Rapids. Royce Lewis’ exaggerated leg kick is no more, and the Kernels scored seven runs in the first inning. OK, who knows if Torii had anything to do with either of those things, but it was pretty cool to see him in the dugout.

https://twitter.com/JimCrikket/status/903048656034684930

The big blow of that first inning was a Trey Cabbage bases-clearing double. Travis Blankenhorn drove in five runs, including two on his 13th homer of the season, and also stole his 12th base. Royce Lewis had three hits, including a triple, and a walk. Ben Rortvedt also had a three-hit night.

Tyler Watson, making his fifth start since coming over in the Brandon Kintzler trade, held the Bees to one run on three hits over 5.0 innings. He had six strikeouts and walked three batters. Max Cordy and Evan Sanders each pitched two scoreless innings of relief.

E-TWINS E-NOTES

Elizabethton 7, Kingsport 3

Box Score

Yet another victory for the Appy League West division champs. Rainis Silva had four hits, Gorge Munoz hit a homer and Akil Baddoo was 2-for-5 with a double, a triple, two RBI and a run scored. Baddoo’s slash line is now an eye-popping .361/.484/.590 for Elizabethton.

Starter Ryley Widell, the Twins seventh-round pick this year, gave up a pair of runs over four innings. With eight more strikeouts, he’s up to 41 in 29.2 innings pitched (12.6 K/9), but he also walked four batters, and is up to 20 on the season.

GCL TWINS TAKES

GCL Twins 3, GCL Rays 1

Box Score

This game was scoreless heading into the eighth inning, but the Twins took advantage of a couple of errors committed by the Rays over the final two frames. In fact, none of the four runs scored in this game were credited to the pitcher as earned as the Rays committed four errors in the game. The Twins only committed three.

Carlos Suniaga gave up just two hits over 6.0 innings, lowering his ERA to 1.69. His catcher, Kirby Camacho, reached safely in three of his four plate appearances, recording a single and two walks. The 19-year-old hasn't shown much power yet, but his OBP is up to .394 and he has more walks (13) than strikeouts (9).

Humberto Maldonado had the Twins only extra-base hit, a double, and Ricky De La Torre had the team's only multi-hit game.

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY

Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day: Carlos Suniaga, GCL Twins (6.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 2 K)

Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day: Travis Blankenhorn, Cedar Rapids (2-for-5, HR, 5 RBI, 2 R, SB)

THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

Rochester at Scranton, 6:05 pm CT, David Hurlbut (3.55 ERA, 1.42 WHIP)

Chattanooga vs. Montgomery, 6:15 pm CT, Zack Littell (3.03 ERA, 1.29 WHIP)

Fort Myers at Jupiter, 5:30 pm CT, TBD

Cedar Rapids vs. Burlington, 6:35 pm CT, Tyler Wells (2.21 ERA, 1.01 WHIP)

Elizabethton at Kingsport, 5:30 pm CT, TBD

GCL Twins vs. GCL Rays, 9:00 am CT, TBD

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