Sunday Afternoon Game Notes

The Twins fell behind early and were not able to catch up despite two solo home runs by catcher Ryan Doumit. That was pretty much it for the Twins offense . Simply, there were very few positives to be found in the Twins’ 1-5 road trip to the west coast. (To be fair, even in good years the Twins haven’t done well on west coast trips.) The loss drops the Twins to 7-20 on the season. There have been a few changes this week, and I can’t help but feel that there are more to come.

[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]

On Monday, the Twins return home and will send Francisco Liriano to the mound against Jered Weaver who will be trying to be the first pitcher in 74 years (Johnny Vander Meer in 1938) to throw back-to-back no-hitters. The Twins will counter by adding SS Brian Dozier to the lineup. Let’s hope for better things in the upcoming week.

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

ROCHESTER – No Game Scheduled

The Red Wings and Buffalo played a double header on Saturday to accommodate the rehab start of Andy Petitte for the Empire State Yankees at Frontier Field. 13,584 fans showed up to watch the game and set the regular-season record for highest attendance at the stadium.

Be sure to check out the blog of one of the newest Red Wings players. Joe Thurston writes Joe’s Blog and his most recent entry was about his transition from Lehigh Valley to Rochester. Check it out here.

NEW BRITAIN 1, PORTLAND 3

BJ Hermsen made his second start for the Rock Cats, and although he pitched well, he took his first loss of the season. The lanky right-hander went the first 6.1 innings and gave up three runs on five hits. He walked one and struck out five. Bobby Lanigan gave up a hit, but got the final two outs of the seventh inning. Brett Jacobson then struck out three in two perfect innings.

The Rock Cats didn’t hit much in this game. However, Aaron Hicks went 3-4. Chris Colabello was 2-4 with his eighth double.

FT. MYERS 13, LAKELAND 3

After weeks of very minimal offense, the Miracle bats broke out on Sunday and set a season high in runs scored and with 18 hits. Shortstop Danny Santana led the way. He went 5-5 with his fifth double and third stolen base. Anderson Hidalgo went 3-5 with three RBI. Jairo Perez was 2-5 with his eighth and ninth doubles. Levi Michael was 2-5 with his first double. Angel Morales and Oswaldo Arcia each hit their fifth double.

Marty Popham got the start for the Miracle and improved to 3-0. He gave up three runs on four hits in six innings. He walked four and struck out just two. Lefty Cole Nelson struck out six in three scoreless innings. He gave up four hits, but walked none. He has been on the active roster less than a week and picked up his second save.

BELOIT 5, KANE COUNTY 3

Jason Wheeler has arguably put up the best numbers of any starting pitcher in the Twins minor league system this year, and he had another tremendous start on Sunday. The lefty threw six shutout innings. He gave up five hits, walked one and struck out four to improve to 4-0 with a 1.91 ERA. Lefty Bart Carter came in and gave up two runs on a hit in 1.2 innings. He walked three and struck out three. Michael Tonkin recorded his first save. He gave up one run on two hits in 1.1 innings. He struck out three.

Eddie Rosario went 2-4 with his 11^th double. Rory Rhodes and Tyler Grimes were each 2-3. In the third inning, the 8^th and 9^th hitters, respectively, hit back-to-back home runs. It was Rhodes’ second of the year. It was Grimes’ first home run of the year. Grimers also added his ninth double.

---

Players of the Day for Sunday, May 6, 2012

Hitter of the Day – Danny Santana

Pitcher of the Day – Jason Wheeler

---

A Look Ahead – Monday, May 7, 2012 Schedule

Rochester @ Pawtucket – RHP Daryl Thompson (vs Daisuke Matsuzaka)

New Britain @ Binghamton – LHP Andrew Albers

Ft. Myers vs Lakeland – LHP Pat Dean

Beloit vs Kane County – RHP Matt Summers

---

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!