Twins Minor League Report (5/25): Jay Returns, Thorpe Sharp in Second Start

AWARD UPDATE

Jermaine Palacios was named the Twins Minor League Player of the month for April. He hit .393 with a .434 OBP and 17 runs scored for Cedar Rapids in a month where it seemed like every night he was doing something notable.

TRANSACTION ALERT

https://twitter.com/jeje66/status/867932718922833921

RED WINGS REPORT

Rochester, Durham POSTPONED

Another game called off due to rain for the Red Wings. They’ll make this one up on May 30 as part of a doubleheader in Durham in which Rochester will be the home team for Game 2. This was the ninth postponement for Rochester this season.

CHATTANOOGA CHATTER

Chattanooga 5, Montgomery 2

Box Score

Tyler Jay made his 2017 debut, giving up a run on a homer and a pair of walks in the eighth inning. It was his first game action since July 30 of last year. It was also a big night for Nick Gordon, who hit his fourth home run of the season. Why is that significant? It represents a new career high for Gordon, who also walked and scored a run.

Ryan Eades did his best Kohl Stewart impression, surrendering just one run over 5.3 innings despite zero strikeouts and three walks. Randy Rosario was the first man out of the pen and recorded four consecutive outs, three of them on Ks.

The addition of Jay to the Chattanooga bullpen is a huge deal, but what John Curtiss is doing for the Lookouts has been amazing. The Twins sixth-rounder from 2014 recorded his ninth save of the season, getting all three outs via the strikeout. Over 17.2 innings, he has yet to give up an earned run and he’s now up to 25 Ks. With Nick Burdi and now Jay in that same pen, Curtiss is going to continue to be overshadowed in terms of name recognition/prospect hype, but he has been incredible.

Edgar Corcino reached base in all four of his plate appearances, going 3-for-3 with a walk. LaMonte Wade had a RBI double and drew a walk.

MIRACLE MATTERS

Dunedin 5, Fort Myers 4 (Game 1, 9 innings)

Box Score

The Miracle bats knocked rehabbing big league starter J.A. Happ around for three runs on seven hits over his three innings, but eventually lost in walk-off fashion. Bradley Strong had a single and an RBI double off Happ, who finished sixth in AL Cy Young voting last season.

This game was scheduled to go seven innings, but it remained tied at four and went into “extras.” Can it really be extra innings if it’s a nine-inning game? I suppose.

Altogether, the Miracle collected 15 hits. Max Murphy was 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and a walk. Strong, Chris Paul, Nelson Molina, Sean Miller and Alex Perez all had two-hit games for Fort Myers.

Brady Anderson held Dunedin to two runs on four hits and a walk over five innings. Sam Clay was on the mound for an eventful sixth inning. Clay gave up a single, two walks, threw a wild pitch and catcher Rafael Valera was credited with two passed balls in his (Clay's) inning of work.

Alex Muren threw two scoreless innings to lower his ERA to 0.87 (one earned run over 10.1 innings). Anthony McIver was not able to escape the ninth, giving up a walk-off RBI double to Nash Knight (80-grade name).

Zander Wiel struckout in the top of the first and did not take the field in the bottom of the inning. He was also absent from the lineup in Game 2.

Dunedin 2, Fort Myers 1 (Game 2, 7 innings)

Box Score

Lewis Thorpe didn’t have to wait another nearly 1,000 days between starts, and he showed flashes of brilliance yet again for the Miracle. The left-hander made his first start in over two years last Friday, and followed that up with four more innings of one-run ball while striking out six batters.

After throwing 49 pitches in his debut, Thorpe reached 66 pitches Thursday night. The Twins are surely going to be taking baby steps with Thorpe’s return, but the early results are encouraging. He’s throwing 93-94 mph and has only walked two batters over eight innings pitched.

Unfortunately, Fort Myers got swept in the double dip. Murphy and Paul both had multi-hit games again, and Strong drove in the lone Miracle run of the game.

KERNELS NUGGETS

Cedar Rapids 9, Clifton 2

Box Score

Eduardo Del Rosario was very interesting to watch Thursday night. He had some nasty stuff going, striking out nine batters. He also was issued a warning and penalized a couple of balls for going to his mouth, then straight to the ball. To top it off, he was working in a funky quick pitch I hadn’t seen from him in the past. Del Rosario, who turned 22 this week, went six innings and gave up a pair of runs on a two-run homer.

The Kernels also have the early favorite for the next player of the month award winner. Jaylin Davis swatted his eighth home run of May, an opposite-field shot he hit with two strikes. It didn’t even seem like he got much of it, but he muscled it over the fence. He finished 3-for-4 with three RBI.

Lewin Diaz also homered, his seventh of the season. Palacios celebrated his Player of the Month award by hitting an RBI single in his first at-bat of the game. Colton Davis, Andrew Vasquez and Logan Lombana each threw a shutout inning out of the bullpen.

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY

Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Eduardo Del Rosario (6 IP, 9 Ks, 2 ER)

Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Jaylin Davis (hit his MWL leading 11th home run and drove in three)

FRIDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

Rocester vs. Indianapolis, 5:35 CT, Nick Tepesch (3.16 ERA, 1.40 WHIP)

Chattanooga vs. Montgomery, 6:15 CT, Stephen Gonsalves (4.50 ERA, 0.75 WHIP)

Fort Myers at Charlotte, 5:35 CT, Dereck Rodriguez (3.06 ERA, 1.16 WHIP)

Cedar Rapids at Kane County, 6:30 CT, Max Cordy (starting a bullpen game)

Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Thursday's games.