Twins Minor League Report (4/24): Weather, Overtime And Leaders

RED WINGS REPORT

Rochester, Syracuse

Box Score

The temperatures hovered right around the freezing mark and there was snow in the air and on the ground in Rochester on Friday. The teams will attempt to play a doubleheader on Saturday

CHATTANOOGA CHATTER

Chattanooga 3, Mississippi 2

Box Score

All series in the Southern League are five-game series. Mississippi had won the first four games of the series, but the Lookouts got some strong pitching, a little power and a clutch hit in the ninth inning to take the final game of the series.

D.J. Baxendale got the start for Chattanooga. The right-hander entered the game with 12.1 shutout innings. In the seventh inning, he got a strikeout to start the inning. That put him at 18.2 scoreless innings to start the season. Unfortunately, he gave up a run before recording the second out of the inning and a second run which tied the game at two. Nick Burdi got the final out of the seventh inning and pitched a scoreless eighth as well.

The game was scoreless through the first five innings. In the top of the sixth inning, Miguel Sano came to the plate with a runner on base and launched his third home run of the season. (Click here to see Sano's home run)

The score remained tied at two until the top of the ninth. Stuart Turner led off the frame with a walk. Stephen Wickens pinch-ran for him. One out later, Jorge Polanco singled Wickens to second base. Max Kepler drilled a single to right field that scored Wickens and gave the Lookouts a 3-2 lead.

Closer Zack Jones came in for the ninth inning. He got a strikeout, a groundout and a soft infield pop out to end the game. It was his third save of the season.

Max Kepler made his second straight start in center field. Byron Buxton is healthy. Doug Mientkiewicz chose to give Buxton another day off, hoping it will help jump-start his season. The manager also switched up his lineup. He flip-flopped Miguel Sano and Travis Harrison, moving Sano down to fifth in the order. Also, after missing two games, Adam Brett Walker returned to the Lookouts lineup.

MIRACLE MATTERS

Ft. Myers 3, St. Lucie 4 (17 innings)

Box Score

If your team is going to play 17 innings – essentially two games in one – you would sure like to win the game. Unfortunately, that was not to be for the Miracle on Friday night as they lost a heartbreaker to the St. Lucie Mets.

Ethan MIldren started and gave up three runs on eight hits. He struck out four batters without issuing a walk. The bullpen took over after that.

Down 1-0 after two innings, the Miracle got a leadoff double from Jason Kanzler. He was bunted to third and after a Niko Goodrum walk, Kanzler scored on an infield single by Aderlin Mejia.

The Miracle were down 3-1 going into the fifth inning. Niko Goodrum led off that inning by crushing his second home run of the season, cutting the deficit to one.

Two innings later, Kanzler got things going again with a leadoff single. After another sacrifice bunt and another Goodrum walk, Aderlin Mejia singled in Kanzler to tie the game at three.

That’s where the game remained through 16 innings thanks to an impressive, workman-like effort by the Miracle bullpen. Tim Shibuya came on and threw three, one-hit innings. He struck out six. JT Chargois struck out two batters in his inning. Brian Gilbert got a walk and a strikeout over his two innings. Brandon Peterson threw two scoreless innings, walking two and striking out two. Alex Muren worked out of trouble with scoreless innings in the 15^th and 16^th.

Madison Boer entered the game in the bottom of the 17^th. He gave up two hits before issuing an intentional pass to Michael Conforto, his third intentional walk of the game. With one out and the bases loaded, Boer gave up a sacrifice fly that ended the game.

Mejia went 3-8 in the game with the two RBIs. Niko Goodrum went 2-5 with three walks and his second home run. Jason Kanzler went 2-6 with a walk and a double.

KERNELS NUGGETS

Cedar Rapids, Kane County

Box Score

Rain washed out this game on Friday night. The Kernels and Cougars will attempt to play two games on Saturday afternoon in Iowa.

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY

Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – DJ Baxendale, Chattanooga Lookouts

Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Dalton Hicks, Chattanooga Lookouts

SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

Syracuse @ Rochester (11:35 CST) – RHP Mark Hamburger and TBD

Chattanooga @ Tennessee (6:05 CST) – RHP Alex Wimmers

Ft. Myers @ St. Lucie (5:30 CST) – RHP Ryan Eades

Kane County @ Cedar Rapids (2:00 CST) – RHP Michael Cederoth & RHP Felix Jorge

TWINS MINOR LEAGUE BATTING LEADERS (through Friday, April 24)

From time to time, I’ll take a look at the leaderboard in the organization. Below are the top five at several offensive categories:

BA: Dalton Hicks (.395), Trey Vavra (.362), Zach Granite (.340), Josmil Pinto (.325), Reynaldo Rodriguez (.319), Nick Gordon (.302)

OBP: Dalton Hicks (.480), Zach Granite (.456), Josmil Pinto (.438), Trey Vavra (.388), Aaron Hicks (.375), Niko Goodrum (.364)

SLG: Trey Vavra (.660), Dalton Hicks (.558), Adam Brett Walker (.556), Aaron Hicks (.490), Zach Granite (.468), Niko Goodrum (.462)

OPS: Trey Vavra (1.047), Dalton Hicks (1.038), Zach Granite (.924), Aaron Hicks (.865), Josmil Pinto (.863), Adam Brett Walker (.832)

Hits: Zach Granite, Dalton Hicks, Trey Vavra (17), Nick Gordon, Zach Granite, Alex Swim (16)

2B: Niko Goodrum (7), Travis Harrison (6), Dalton Hicks (5), Zach Granite (4), 10 tied with 3.

HR: Adam Brett Walker (4), Brock Peterson, Miguel Sano, Trey Vavra (3), 4 tied with 2.

Runs: Zach Granite (16), Trey Vavra (10), Tanner English, Marcus Knecht, Miguel Sano (9), 4 tied with 8.

RBI: Nick Gordon (14), Zack Larson, Trey Vavra (12), Dalton Hicks (9), 4 tied with 8.

SB: Tanner English (6), Zach Granite (5), Zack Larson (4), 4 tied with 3.

Innings: Tyler Duffey (20.2), Kohl Stewart (20.1), Stephen Gonsalves (20.0), DJ Baxendale, Taylor Rogers (19.0), Mat Batts (18.1)

ERA >= 12 IP: Pat Dean, Ryan Eades, Felix Jorge (0.75), Stephen Gonsalves (0.90), DJ Baxendale (0.95), Mat Batts (1.47)

WHIP >= 12 IP: Chih-Wei Hu (0.61), Stephen Gonsalves (0.65), Mat Batts (0.71), Pat Dean (0.75), Tyler Duffey (0.87), Felix Jorge (0.92)

BB/9 > 12 IP: Chih-Wei Hu (0.5), Stephen Gonsalves (0.9), Aaron Slegers (1.2), Tyler Duffey (1.7), Ethan Mildren (1.8), Mat Batts (2.0).

K/9 >= 12 IP: Felix Jorge (14.2), Stephen Gonsalves (13.5), Jose Berrios (12.9), Alex Meyer (12.3), Pat Dean (11.2), Chih-Wei Hu (10.0)

Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss the Friday games or the leader board.