Twins Minor League Report (5/20): Gonsalves Returns, Del Rosario Dominates

Find out everything and more that happened happened in the Twins system on Saturday night, starting with the transactions of the day.

TRANSACTIONS

Check out the transactions through the minor league system on Wednesday:

• The Twins have released catcher AJ Murray and pitcher Michael Cederoth. Both had been in extended spring training this season, on disabled lists.
  
• While we mentioned it in yesterday’s minor league report, Chattanooga officially removed Stephen Gonsalves from the disabled list.
  

RED WINGS REPORT

Rochester 4, Scranton/Wilkes Barre 5 (11 innings)

Box Score

Nick Tepesch made the start for the Red Wings and gave up three runs in the first inning. But he settled in and finished with four runs on five hits over six innings. He walked one and struck out two. Three of the hits were home runs, producing the four runs he was charged with.

Alex Wimmers made his return to the Red Wings and struck out three over two shutout innings. DJ Baxendale came on and threw scoreless ninth and tenth innings. However, with two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning, he gave up the winning run. In his 2.2 innings, he gave up the one run on two hits. He walked three and struck out three.

Byungho Park cut the Wings deficit to 4-3 in the sixth inning with a two-run homer, his second of the season. An inning later, John Ryan Murphy singled in a run to tie the game.

Niko Goodrum hit his fifth and sixth doubles of the year. Daniel Palka went 2-5 with his sixth double.

CHATTANOOGA CHATTER

Chattanooga 0, Biloxi 2 (5 innings)

Box Score

Twins fans have been waiting for almost two months to see Twins Daily's #2 Twins Prospect Stephen Gonsalves. Gonsalves has been impatiently waiting to make his 2017 debut. And then… he had to wait a little longer.

This game started on time. The Lookouts went scoreless in the top of the first inning. Gonsalves made his trek to the mound for the bottom of the first inning, but before the inning began, a torrential rainfall came, causing a delay. However, when the game resumed, Gonsalves was on the mound. In the first inning, he got two ground outs and an infield pop fly. In the second, he caught a comebacker, which should probably be a Top Play nominee.

https://twitter.com/jgonsalves63/status/866146114612862976

Then he fielded a groundball, gave up a double, and then fielded another grounder. He struck out the first two batters of the third inning and then got a line out to end the inning. In the fourth inning, he gave up a walk to start the inning. He then struck out the next batter and got a fly out to left for the second out. Unfortunately, he gave up a two-run homer to Angel Ortega before getting the final out.

That ended the night for Gonsalves. In total, he gave up the two runs on two hits. He walked one and struck out three. 33 of his 57 pitches were strikes.

According to Gonsalves, he had some adrenaline running early. "I had a little adrenaline today, but I kept telling myself I've been here and I've been able to compete well at this level. So I was getting myself comfortable."

He put up solid numbers considering he didn't feel like he had all his pitches working. In fact, in his mind, he only had one of his pitches working.

"Only thing working for me today was my fastball. I couldn't get anything over other than that. Curveball was getting spiked. Slider wasn't sliding. That's what the double was hit off of. And I kept pushing my change ups. I want to say I only three off speed pitches for strikes out of 15. But my fastball command was all I had working tonight, just beating up kids on the hands. I think I went outside twice and one was the home run."

It's that kind of push for perfection and expectations for himself that has pushed Gonsalves up the prospect rankings and up the Twins organizational level.

It also was the end of the game. The Lookouts batted in the top of the fifth. Randy LeBlanc went out to the mound to warm up, but then the rains came again. This time, the game was called. Because the game had passed the top of the 5th with the home team winning, the Lookouts lost 2-0.

The Lookouts offense had just three hits, two by catcher Dan Rohlfing.

MIRACLE MATTERS

Ft. Myers 9, Bradenton 8 (10 innings)

Box Score

For the second time within the last week, Chris Paul played hero for the Miracle. Earlier in the week, he hit a three-run walk off homer. On Saturday night, it was a walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th inning. Paul went 2-4 with two walks and his 12th double. Bradley Strong and Sean Miller each had three hits in the game. Tanner English went 2-4 with a walk and his first homer. Zander Wiel went 1-2 with three walks and his fourth home run.

Dereck Rodriguez started and gave up three runs on seven hits and two walks in five innings. He struck out seven. Jonny Drozd came on for the sixth inning. He gave up five runs (four earned) on five hits and a walk. Williams Ramirez got the next four outs. Sam Clay improved to 5-0 by throwing 2.2 scoreless innings. He gave up three hits, walked one and struck out three to improve to 5-0 and drop his season ERA to 2.25.

As you recall, Sam Clay gave up six earned runs in just ⅔ of an inning in his first outing of the season. Since then, he has thrown 23.1 scoreless innings.

The Miracle extended their winning streak to seven games with the win.

KERNELS NUGGETS

Cedar Rapids 4, Wisconsin 2

Box Score

It was a very nice night in Wisconsin for the Kernels battery. Let’s start on the mound. Eduardo Del Rosario made the start. He gave up two runs on five hits in eight innings. He walked two and struck out eight. Through seven innings, he did not allow a run. Tom Hackimer came in for the ninth. He recorded his sixth save of the season as he had one strikeout in a perfect ninth inning.

Ben Rortvedt was the Twins second-round pick a year ago out of Verona Area High School in Verona, Wisconsin. The Kernels were playing in Appleton which is about 120 miles, or a two-hour drive for Rortvedt’s friends and family. He came into the game hitting just .122. He went 2-3 with a walk and his fourth double, raising his average to .141 on the year. Christian Cavaness went 2-4 with the other RBI. Ariel Montesino added his fifth double.

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY

Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Eduardo Del Rosario, Cedar Rapids Kernels

Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Zander Wiel, Ft. Myers Miracle

SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

Rochester @ Scranton/Wilkes Barre (12:05 CST) - LHP Nik Turley

Chattanooga @ Biloxi (1:05 CST) - LHP Matt Tracy

Bradenton @ Ft. Myers (3:05 CST) - RHP Cody Stashak

Cedar Rapids @ Wisconsin (1:05 CST) - RHP Tyler Beardsley

Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Saturday’s games.