Fourth of July in the Minors

Twins Daily hopes that you and your families and friends had a fun and safe Fourth of July holiday. The Twins had the honor of facing reigning AL Cy Young Award and AL MVP Justin Verlander. The righty from Old Dominion dominated the Twins with the exception of a solo home run off the bat of Chris Parmelee. It was one of just four hits the Twins had in the game, and two of them were from Denard Span. Brian Duensing left the game after 4.1 innings. Then Kyle Waldrop and Cole De Vries each gave up homers to Miguel Cabrera, who is good at baseball, in case you were wondering.

For all this and more, here is a look at the Twins minor league scores and highlights from Wednesday:[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]

ROCHESTER 4, PAWTUCKET 7

Matt Carson hit his seventh home run of the season for the Red Wings. Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Rene Rivera each hit their seventh doubles of the year. Unfortunately, the key #7 was the number of runs that Red Wings pitchers allowed in this loss. Luke French gave up six runs on seven hits and two walks in just 1.1 innings. He gave up two home runs, one of them to former Twins OF Jason Repko. Esmerling Vasquez then gave up just two hits over 3.2 scoreless innings. Caleb Thielbar gave up three hits and a walk, but no runs, in two scoreless innings. Bobby Lanigan gave up a run on two hits and a walk in two innings.

NEW BRITAIN 3, TRENTON 2

Logan Darnell started and gave up two runs on seven hits. In 6.2 innings, he walked one and struck out two. Dakota Watts walked one and struck out one in 1.1 scoreless innings to record his first AA win this year. Bruce Pugh picked up his fourth save. He struck out two in one perfect inning.

Deibinson Romero went 2-4 with his 11^th home run. James Beresford was 2-3.

FT. MYERS 7, CHARLOTTE 5

Matt Hauser is now in the Miracle starting rotation. He was good again on Wednesday. He gave up five hits in four scoreless innings. He walked none and struck out four. Jose Gonzalez then struck out five in three scoreless frames. He walked one. Ricky Bowen gave up five runs (4 earned) on five hits and two walks in 1.2 innings. AJ Achter came in and got the final out to hold the lead and to record his second Miracle save.

It was a great day for the Miracle bats as several players had multi-hit games. Danny Santana again led the offense. He was 3-4 with his tenth doubles and seventh triple. Jairo Perez went 3-4 with a walk and his sixth home run. Danny Ortiz went 2-4 with his fifth triple. Josmil Pinto was 2-5 with his 14^th double. Danny Rams went 2-5 with his second triple and third home run.

BELOIT 6, CLINTON 8

Steven Gruver started for the Snappers. The left-hander gave up six runs on nine hits in six innings. He walked two and struck out three. Cole Johnson came in and gave up two runs on two hits in two innings. He walked one and struck out three.

Inexplicably, the Snappers scored six runs despite just four hits and only two Matt Koch walks.

ELIZABETHTON 8, KINGSPORT 1

Hudson Boyd recorded his first Win as a professional pitcher. The large right-hander gave up only an unearned run on five hits and a walk in six innings. He struck out five. Hein Robb came in and recorded one of those fun, statistical anomalies. The lefty from South Africa struck out four in one inning. DJ Baxendale struck out two in his inning. Dallas Gallant struck out one and gave up one hit in a scoreless inning.

The E-Twins continued to hit well. Josh Hendricks was 2-5 with his first home run. Adam Walker went 2-5 with his third double. Romy Jimenez is now hitting .449 after another 2-4 game. Niko Goodrum was 1-3 with two walks and his fourth double. Travis Harrison was 1-3 with a walk and his fourth double.

GCL TWINS 5, GCL ORIOLES 2

The GCL Twins got a nice win. Felix Jorge made his first start and threw three shutout innings. He gave up one hit, walked one and struck out three. Markus Solbach gave up two hits in his two scoreless innings. Gonzalo Sanudo threw two scoreless innings in which he gave up just one hit and struck one out. Bryan Haar went 2-3. Byron Buxton more than doubled his batting average with a 2-4 game.

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Players of the Day for Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Pitcher of the Day – Hudson Boyd

Hitter of the Day – Jairo Perez

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A Look Ahead – Thursday, July 5, 2012 Schedule

Rochester vs Pawtucket – RHP Jeff Manship

New Britain @ Trenton – RHP BJ Hermsen

Ft. Myers vs Charlotte – RHP Tom Stuifbergen

Beloit @ Clinton – LHP Jason Wheeler

Elizabethton vs Kingsport – RHP Ricardo Arevalo

GCL Twins vs GCL Rays – TBD

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If you have any questions or comments on the Twins minor league system, players, teams, etc., leave them in the Comments and I’ll try to answer them!