Monday in the Minors

The Twins got big offense from their nine through four hitters and came away with a nice 7-1 win over the Oakland A’s, one of baseball’s hottest teams. Of course, the biggest story was the performance of Brian Duensing. The lefty gave up two runs (1 earned) in six innings. He gave up five hits, walked one and struck out seven. Quite the improvement over his mid-July start against the A’s when he gave up six runs on seven hits (3 HR) in just two innings. Casey Fien pitched two scoreless innings in relief, followed by a scoreless ninth by Alex Burnett.

As for the offense, #9 hitter Pedro Florimon went 3-3 with a walk, a stolen base and three runs scored. Leadoff man Ben Revere went 2-5. 2-hitter Darin Mastroianni was 2-3 with a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly, two runs and two RBI. He also stole his 15^th base. Joe Mauer went 3-5 with two RBI. Josh Willingham went 3-5 with a double and two RBI.

Before the game was over, the team’s learned that the A’s had traded for Diamondbacks’ shortstop Stephen Drew who will improve the A’s. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]

Denard Span missed another game and incredibly had his first MRI on Monday despite missing the last nine days. With Nick Blackburn taken off of the 40 and 25 man rosters, the Twins will need to make a move before Wednesday’s game. That is when Blackburn was supposed to start for the Twins. The assumption here is that Liam Hendriks would get the start for the Twins in that spot since he last started on Friday night. The other option, Esmerling Vasquez, pitched for Rochester on Monday night.

Here is a look at the Twins minor league scores and highlights from Monday night:

ROCHESTER 9, PAWTUCKET 6

The Red Wings had a big seven-run second inning, and it proved to be enough on this night. Wilkin Ramirez has been one of the hottest hitters in the International League the past week. In the second, he hit a grand slam, his 11^th homer of the season. Brian Dinkelman added his fourth homer of the year, a two-run blast in the same inning. Tsuyoshi Nishioka was 2-5. Brian Dozier doubled for the tenth time with the Red Wings.

Esmerling Vasquez put together another quality start for the team. He went the first six innings and gave up two runs on three hits. Both runs scored on solo homers. Vasquez walked three and struck out four to improve to 9-5 with a 2.86 ERA. Daniel Turpen pitched the 7^th inning and gave up three runs (2 earned) on two hits and two walks. Luis Perdomo gave up one run on three hits and a walk in his inning. Anthony Slama recorded his 11^th save and dropped his season ERA to 0.68 with a scoreless ninth.

NEW BRITAIN 3, PORTLAND 4 (10 innings)

The first four Rock Cats of the game reached on singles. Before they had an out, they had scored two runs. Unfortunately, that was about it for the offense. Over the next 27 outs, the bats managed just two more hits. Oswaldo Arcia went 2-4 with his 17^th double. He was also hit by a pitch.

BJ Hermsen started for New Britain. He gave up three runs on 11 hits and a walk spread over 6.1 innings. He struck out five. Blake Martin came in and struck out two in 1.1 scoreless innings. Matt Hauser got the next three outs. Aaron Thompson got the final out of the ninth inning. He started the tenth frame by giving up a run on three hits and only getting one out. Bruce Pugh got the final two outs without any additional runs scoring.

FT. MYERS MIRACLE

No games scheduled in the Florida State League on Monday.

BELOIT 8, QUAD CITIES 2

Cole Johnson continues to impress in his time with the Snappers. He started this game and threw five shutout innings. He gave up two hits, walked one and struckout seven. Steven Gruver gave up two runs on five hits over the next 2.2 innings. He struckout two. Mason Melotakis came on and got the final four outs, all of them on strikeouts.

The Snappers bats showed up. Kennys Vargas was 3-5. Drew Leachman went 2-5 with his tenth double. Nate Roberts went 2-3 with a walk, was hit by a pitch and hit his 13^th and 14^th doubles. Matt Koch hit his 19^th double. AJ Pettersen was hit by a pitch and hit his 11^th double.

ELIZABETHTON 5, GREENEVILLE 6

The E-Twins had plenty of offense in this game, plenty of base runners, but it wasn’t enough. Al nine E-Twins starters had at least one hit by the sixth inning. Byron Buxton was 2-4 with a walk and his third stolen base. Adam Walker was 2-5 with his seventh double. Jorge Polanco was 2-5 with his second triple. Candido Pimentel was 2-6. Max Kepler was 1-3 with two walks. DJ Hicks was 1-3 with two walks and his sixth double. Travis Harrison hit his fourth home run.

Ricardo Arevalo started for the E-Twins. He gave up four runs on four hits in four innings. He walked one and struckout two. Luis Nunez came on and gave up two runs on two hits and two walks over two innings. He struck out… one. Kaleb Merck pitched the final three innings. He gave up no runs on one hit. He walked one, although it was intentional, and struck out three.

GCL TWINS 4, GCL RAYS 1

Kuo Hua Lo improved to 2-0 with six strong innings. The right-hander from Taiwan did not allow a run. HE gave up just three hits, walked one and struckout five to reduce his ERA to 1.19. Melciades de la Cruz gave up on erun on three hits and a walk in two innings. Alex Muren recorded his fourth save with a perfect ninth.

The Twins had six hits in this game. Aderlin Mejia hit his 11^th double. Dereck Rodriguez hit his 7^th double. Bryan Santy was 1-2 with a walk and his fifth double.

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Players of the Day for Monday, August 20, 2012

Hitter of the Day – Nate Roberts

Pitcher of the Day – Kuo Hua Lo

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A Look Ahead – Sunday, August 21, 2012 Schedule

Rochester @ Pawtucket – LHP Pedro Hernandez (vs Daisuke Matsuzaka)

New Britain vs Portland – LHP Andrew Albers

Ft. Myers vs Bradenton – LHP Cole Nelson

Beloit @ Quad Cities – LHP Jason Wheeler

Elizabethton vs Greeneville – RHP Hudson Boyd

GCL Twins @ 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!