Minor League Report (5/26): Two Touchdowns and an Electric Outing

TRANSACTIONS

• St. Paul Saints activated 3B Drew Maggi from the 7-day injured list.
• Cedar Rapids Kernels placed RF Matt Wallner on the 7-day injured list. Right wrist sprain.
• Cedar Rapids Kernels placed RHP Blayne Enlow on the 7-day injured list.

SAINTS SENTINEL

St Paul 4, Iowa 3

Box Score

Just a day after exorcising the I-Cubs by a score of 17-6, the Saints proved they could win close games too, squeaking out a 4-3 win over Iowa on Wednesday afternoon. RHP Charlie Barnes was as electric as any Saints pitcher has been all year, surrendering only one earned run and striking out seven through seven innings.

Wednesday was Barnes’ fourth appearance of the year. Coming off a four-inning eight-hit performance on May 21, the Sumter, South Carolina native cleaned things up on Wednesday, retiring eight of the first nine batters and shaving his ERA from 3.95 to 3.05 following his final pitch. Barnes is now 2-0 on the year, has only walked five batters on the season, and has yet to give up a HR on the year. 

The Saints channeled their ‘inner-pirahna’ to push runs across the plate. Brent Rooker doubled in the fourth inning and later scored on a sac-fly from Jimmy Kerrigan. Ryan Jeffers scored the go-ahead run in the same inning thanks to a Drew Maggi single. 

The Saints would score their final run in the seventh inning courtesy of Tomás Telis sac-fly that would score Damek Tomscha. Telis was perhaps the most valuable Saint at the plate, driving in two of the team’s RBI. He is now slashing .297/.329/.775 on the season. 

And despite a few hiccups in the eighth inning, Derek Law recorded his first two-inning save of the season, pitching a scoreless ninth inning. The save was Law’s second of the year. 

Off the field, the Saints had some fun with the New Era ‘Local Market Caps’ that were pulled from retail today due to heavy (and justified) mockery. I don’t know about you, but I’d rock one of these bad boys at CHS Field!

WIND SURGE WISDOM

Wichita 14, Springfield 1

Box Score

The Wichita bats’ resembled a west-coast offense on Wednesday night, plating a touchdown of runs in the first inning to propel the Wind Surge to a 14-1 victory over Springfield. 

CF Gilberto Celestino got the party started in the first with a one-out double. Celestino scored on the next at-bat thanks to a single from RF Ernie De La Trinidad. Trinidad has been stellar so far this season, hitting .298  in 57 plate appearances. 

And while the Wind Surge had flexed their muscles with the long ball in previous games, their first-inning success came courtesy of five singles, two doubles, and a walk. Wichita opened the flood gates again in the sixth inning thanks to a handful of singles and walks on top of an Andrew Bechtold double. 

Wednesday was an offensive milestone for the Surge. The first seven batters in the Wichita batting lineup recorded multi-hit games and every single hitter in the order recorded a hit. That's a first in team history and their 18 total hits is the most the Surge have put up all season. 

14 runs scored without a single home run? Putting up 18 hits sure seems to work. 

Trey Cabbage scored his first run at the Double-A level in the third inning thanks to a double from 2B Sherman Johnson. He followed that up with his first Double-A hit in the sixth, lining a single to RF and scoring SS Jermaine Palacios. Cabbage finished the night with two hits and reached base four time.

Cabbage was promoted to Wichita from Cedar Rapids on Monday and played his first game at Riverfront Stadium last night. Welcome to Wichita, Trey!

Wind Surge pitcher Cole Sands was nothing short of spectacular on his fifth start of the year. The Twins’ 2018 fifth round pick tossed four scoreless innings, surrendering only one hit and striking out six. Sands now has a 2.45 ERA on the year and has yet to give up more than four hits in a game this season. Enter Sandsman!

And after Sands exited, the Wind Surge bullpen picked up right where he left off. Brandon Koch (1-0) and Calvin Faucher each pitched two scoreless innings, only surrendering one hit and one walk in four total innings. Yennier Cano came in to finish the game, pitching a one-run ninth. The run was only his second total earned run on the year in seven appearances. The Havana, Cuba native still touts a 1.80 ERA on the season. 

And it's oh so great to see the Wind Surge social media team echo the spirits of their big brother up in St. Paul.

KERNELS NUGGETS

Wisconsin 5, Cedar Rapids 0

Box Score

LHP Kody Funderburk pitched a stellar 4.2 innings of baseball on Wednesday night in Cedar Rapids. Despite the strong effort, the Wisconsin bats came alive in the final two innings, pushing the Timber Rattlers to a 5-0 win in a game that surpassed three and a half hours. The loss marks the first time the squad has been shut out this season. 

The Kernels put good wood on the ball throughout the night but weren't able to catch a break. 

"Early in the game I thought we hit some balls hard and their CF did a nice job tracking some of them down," Cedar Rapids manager Brian Dinkelman said. "We had some good early at-bats with solid contact but just weren't able to find any holes."

3B Seth Gray reached base the most of the Kernels, drawing two walks and lining a single to right field in the fifth inning. SS Wander Javier recorded the only extra base hit for Cedar Rapids, launching his fifth double of the season in the fourth inning. 

Funderburk’s performance continues an impressive 2021 campaign for the lefty, who now posts a 0.98 ERA through five starts.

"Fundy was really good there the first time through the lineup and got himself out of trouble in the third inning," Dinkelman said.

Reliever Derek Molina was equally as effective, tossing 2.1 innings of scoreless baseball with three strikeouts after Funderburk left the game. RHP Owen Griffith also struck out three batters in his two innings of work. 

"Defense and pitching did their thing tonight, we just couldn't come up with the big hit to take the lead early in the game tonight," Dinkelman said. "A good effort from the guys tonight, we'll come back tomorrow."

MUSSEL MATTERS

Lakeland 10, Fort Myers 9 (10)

Box Score

Despite a plethora of offense and a quality start from Regi Grace, the Mussels dropped an extra-inning heartbreaker in Lakeland on Wednesday evening. 

Fort Myers saw multi-hit games from multiple players, including an impressive day at the plate from 2B Edouard Julien, who was a triple shy of the cycle. Julien roped a two-run double to contribute to a six run fourth-inning for the Mussels. He also made his 2021 long ball debut with a blast over the right field wall in the third inning, putting the Mussels on the board. Julien has been electric so far this year and now sits at a .359 AVG with a 1.076 OPS. 

Regi Grace got off to a tough start but was able to compose himself for four quality innings on the bump. After a three-run first, Grace was scoreless through three innings, striking out six batters. 

The Mussels were inches away for pulling off some ninth-inning magic in the Sunshine State. Trailing by a run, Jefferson Morales launched a game-tying home run over the left center field wall. Julien followed up with a single and a stolen base, but was stranded at second to end the inning. 

 

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY

Pitcher of the Day- Charlie Barnes (St. Paul)- 7 IP, 5 H, R, BB, 7 K

Hitter of the Day- Gilberto Celestino (Wichita)- 3-for-6, 2 R, RBI

PROSPECT SUMMARY

Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed:

#1 - Alex Kirilloff (St. Paul) – 0-for-3, BB, K

#2 - Royce Lewis (Rehab) - Out for Season (torn ACL)

#3 - Trevor Larnach (Minnesota) – 1-for-2, BB, K

#4 - Ryan Jeffers (St. Paul) – 0-for-4, R, 2 K

#5 - Jhoan Duran (St. Paul) – Did not pitch

#6 - Jordan Balazovic (Wichita) – Injured List (back)

#7 - Keoni Cavaco (Ft. Myers) – Did not play

#8 - Aaron Sabato (Ft. Myers) – 1-for-4, R, BB, 3 K

#9 - Matt Canterino (Cedar Rapids) – Did not pitch

#10 - Blayne Enlow (Cedar Rapids) – Did not pitch

#11 - Gilberto Celestino (Wichita) – 3-for-6, 2 R, RBI, K

#12 - Brent Rooker (St. Paul) – 1-for-4, R, K

#13 - Matt Wallner (Cedar Rapids) – 7-Day IL (wrist)

#14 - Misael Urbina (Fort Myers) – 1-for-5, RBI, 2 K

#15 - Cole Sands (Wichita) – 4.0 IP, 0 R, H, 3 BB, 6 K

#16 - Edwar Colina (Rehab) - 60-Day IL (elbow)

#17 - Ben Rortvedt (Minnesota) – Did not play

#18 - Alerick Soularie (Complex) – N/A

#19 - Jose Miranda (Wichita) – 3-for-5, 2 R RBI, BB, K

#20 - Bailey Ober (Minnesota) – Did not pitch

FRIDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

St. Paul @ Iowa (7:05PM CST) – RHP Jhoan Duran (0-0, 3.00 ERA)

Springfield @ Wichita (7:05PM CST) – RHP Chris Vallimont (0-0, 1.93 ERA)

Wisconsin @ Cedar Rapids (6:35PM CST) – RHP Matt Canterino (1-0, 1.29 ERA)

Fort Meyers @ Lakeland (5:30PM CST) – RHP Sawyer Gipson-Long (0-2, 16.20 ERA)