Twins Minor League Report (6/30): Miranda Makes Bid For Cycle, Tebow In Ft. Myers

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

TRANSACTIONS

There were a handful of transactions in the Twins system on Friday.

• Following the Twins loss in Kansas City, Alan Busenitz was optioned to Rochester. Ryan Pressly will return to the Twins.
  
• Felix Jorge, as we learned on Thursday, will be the 26th man and start the night game of the doubleheader.
  
• The Kernels need some starters, so on Friday, they announced the signing of lefty Anthony Marzi, a 24-year-old who has spent the last two year with the New Britain Bees of the independent Atlantic League. To make room for him, infielder Ariel Montesino was sent down to Elizabethton.
  

RED WINGS REPORT

Rochester , Lehigh Valley

Box Score

The Red Wings were postponed by rain for the 11th time this season. Which is crazy! These teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday.

CHATTANOOGA CHATTER

Chattanooga 5, Mississippi 3

Box Score

Dereck Rodriguez was on the mound, and he was also on his game. Through six innings, he gave up just one run on three hits. The lone run came on a Ronald Acuna homer. He was charged with a couple more runs in the seventh before being replaced by Paul Clemens. Rodriguez’s final line was three earned runs on six hits over 6.2 innings. He walked one and struck out six.

He credited pitching backwards as a part of his success on Friday night. “My offspeed was good. I was throwing it behind in the count in hitters counts. A team like this that like to swing a lot.”

Clemens gave up two hits and a walk over 2.1 shutout innings. He struck out two and recorded his first save of the season.

Jonathan Rodriguez went 1-3 with two walks and his ninth home run. It was his third home run in three games. LaMonte Wade went 2-4 with a walk and two runs driven in. Nick Gordon went 2-4, and he stole his eighth base. Edgar Corcino was 2-5.

MIRACLE MATTERS

Ft. Myers 11, St. Lucie 0

Box Score

If you were to only look at this score, you would likely believe that this was a blowout. In the end, I guess it was. However, when the Miracle came to bat in the bottom of the eighth inning, it was a 0-0 game. Eleven runs crossed the plate that half inning to give the final score.

Justin Haley made the start for the Miracle. After one rehab appearance (Monday) in the GCL, Haley worked two innings for the Miracle. He gave up one hit, walked one and struck out two. Then regularly-scheduled starter Lewis Thorpe came on and threw 4.2 innings of shutout ball. Thorpe hasn’t worked much out of the bullpen in his career. He said, “it was different but I enjoyed the experience.”

But Lewis threw the ball real well. He gave up two hits, walked three and struck out five (including a certain former Heisman Trophy winner twice). Regarding his success, he said, “I think spotting my fastball up tonight was really big.”

Michael Theofanopoulos got four outs, two of them on strikeouts. His only blemish was a hit batter (a certain former NFL quarterback). Sam Clay got the final three outs.

The bottom of the eighth was crazy, as you’ll see in the illustration below, but the Miracle found just about every way to score a run in that inning. Singles, doubles, bases-loaded walks, hit batters and a balk. Baseball is a funny game.

But, whether you like it or not, Tim Tebow coming to Hammond Stadium was part of the game’s story. The Tim Tebow Effect is real. The Miracle have averaged 1,748 fans at home games to this point this year. On Friday night, 6,315 fans watched this game.

Thorpe mentioned that he really enjoyed the opportunity to compete against Tebow. He said, “It was fun too see what Tebow had. He competes and that's all that matters. Wish him good luck in his career as a pro baseball player.”

Tebow came into the game having played just three games in the Florida State League. He was 5-9 (.556) with a homer. He had two walks and struck out once. In this game, he was 0-2 with two strikeouts and was hit by a pitch. He also made this catch to rob Zander Wiel of an extra base hit.

https://twitter.com/AMcDevittTV/status/880946472430313472

KERNELS NUGGETS

Cedar Rapids 6, Clinton 2

Box Score

The Kernels took an early lead on Friday night in the fourth inning when Lewin Diaz hit his ninth homer and two batters later Hank Morrison added his second of the year.

Of his homer, Morrison said, "I was looking for a fastball and he threw a hard slider inside that broke right over the middle and just put a good swing on it."

Domenick Carlini was really good through the first five innings. He said after the game, “I think I kept them off balanced for the most part. I got away with some fastballs because they may not have been on time because of the quality offspeed pitches.”

He has been working and talking a lot with Kernels’ pitching coach JP Martinez about putting hitters away. “We discussed getting to the kill counts (0-2,1-2) and putting them away when I have the chance. Too many times I can look back on the season and remember times when I didn't put guys away when I had the chance and it came back to bite me. So I tried to take advantage of those situations.”

He ran into some trouble in the sixth. He got two outs, but gave up two runs in the inning. His final line was two runs on three hits over 5.2 innings. He walked three and struck out seven. Ryan Mason got the final out of the sixth inning, worked a clean seventh, and struck out two of the four batters he faced. Colton Davis struck out two over the final two innings.

Diaz and Morrison were both 2-4 with a homer. Christian Cavaness went 2-5. Travis Blankenhorn’s 13th double drove in two. Caleb Hamilton went 1-3 with a walk. He also stole his first base.

It was a nice win for a team that is still learning itself and coming together, according to Morrison. "It was very important just for the team morale. Winning was something the team did a lot of in the first half! Now that we have a bunch of new players. I think we are just as capable to do so, just have to come together as quick as possible!"

E-TWINS E-NOTES

Elizabethton 12, Kingsport 10 (12 innings)

Box Score

This was about as wild a game as you’ll see. It went back and forth, and needed some extra frames, but the E-Twins came out on top in the end. It looked a little questionable in the ninth. The Twins had a four-run lead, but they gave up four to send it to extra innings.

According to Elizabethton left fielder (and third baseman) Trey Cabbage, "Good crowd tonight, so that always makes it fun, but our guys just love to go out and compete."

In the top of the 12th, Andrew Bechtold gave the Twins an 11-10 lead, singling home Javier who was hit by a pitch and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. Next up was Jose Miranda who had a special night. He came into that at bat 4-6 and needing only a triple for the cycle. He almost got it. He drove in Bechtold and tried to turn it into a triple, but he was thrown out. The Twins were able to hold on to their lead in the bottom of the 12th to win the game.

Jose Miranda certainly led the way. He went 5-7 with two doubles (three on season), a home run and four RBI. He was leading off. The Twins second hitter was Trey Cabbage. He also drove in four runs. He went 2-5 with a walk, and a big three-run homer. It was his second homer of the season. They had RBI opportunities because Andrew Bechtold had a breakout game batting ninth. He recorded his first three professional hits in a 3-5 night. He also walked and scored four runs. Rainis Silva had two hits. Wander Javier was 1-3 with two walks, a HBP and his third double.

Cabbage takes a pretty simple approach with him to the plate for each plate appearance. "At the plate, I just try to do damage every time up to help us get into the best position to win."

Along with his offense, Cabbage also threw out a base runner at the plate.

It wasn’t all good news. Brent Rooker returned to the lineup after missing the previous three games. He went 0-6 with four strikeouts, the Golden Sombrero.

GCL TWINS TAKES

GCL Twins 3, GCL Red Sox 0

Box Score

In the bottom of the first inning, Akil Baddoo led off with a double. He scored when the next batter, Royce Lewis, knocked him in with a double. It was the second of the season for both of them. Two outs later, 17-year-old Victor Tademo hit his first home run of the season. That gives him the same number that he hit last season in 51 games in the Dominican Summer League. Later, Tademo added his first double of the season as well.

That was it for the offense, so it’s a good thing they got some nice pitching performances. Vadim Balan has already thrown six innings over two appearances so far this year. On Friday, his younger brother Petru Balan made his first start as a pro, and it went well. The left-hander went the first four innings without giving up a run. He gave up two hits, walked one and struck out five. Jose Bermudez came on and struck out three over the next three scoreless innings. He gave up three hits and walked one. Lefty Matt Jones pitched for the first time this year. The 2016 draft pick recorded the save with two scoreless innings. He gave up two hits, walked one and struck out three.

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY

Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Lewis Thorpe, Ft. Myers Miracle

Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Jose Miranda, Elizabethton Twins

SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

Rochester @ Lehigh Valley (5:35 CST) - LHP David Hurlbut

Chattanooga @ Mississippi (6:00 CST) - RHP Fernando Romero

St. Lucie @ Ft. Myers (5:05 CST) - RHP Brady Anderson

Cedar Rapids @ Clinton (6:30 CST) - RHP Clark Beeker

Elizabethton @ Danville (6:00 CST) - TBD

GCL Twins @ GCL Red Sox (9:00 am CST) - TBD

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