Twins Minor League Report (6/8): Encarnacion-Strand Continues to Mash, Emmanuel Rodriguez Injured

Let’s see what else happened this Wednesday in the Twins organization.

TRANSACTIONS

• SS Carlos Correa activated from the Covid IL
• Twins designated RHP Juan Minaya for assignment
• Twins selected the contract of RHP Jharel Cotton from St. Paul
• Twins returned SS Jermaine Palacios to St. Paul
• Wichita placed RHP Matt Canterino on 7-day IL
• CF Kennie Taylor assigned to Wichita from Cedar Rapids
• C Kyle Schmidt assigned to Wichita from Fort Myers

SAINTS (AAA)
St. Paul 12, Rochester 2
Box Score

In the battle of the Twins AAA affiliates, the Saints came out on top as they won 12-2 Wednesday night.

Former All-Star Aaron Sanchez made his first start for the Saints after being signed to a minor-league deal on Tuesday. Sanchez threw well in the first inning, allowing a walk but striking out two en route to putting up a zero in his first inning as a Saint.

The Saints' offense welcomed Sanchez with some great run support, as they had an eight-run first inning. The scoring started when Tim Beckham singled, scoring Spencer Steer. The next batter was Jake Cave, who roped a triple off the wall in left-center field, scoring Beckham and Alex Kirilloff. Mark Contreras singled in Cave, and Michael Helman doubled in Contreras to make it a five-run lead. Later in the inning, Steer singled in a run in his second plate appearance of the inning, and one more run scored on an error to make it an eight-run inning.

Sanchez went three innings, allowing two runs on three hits and a walk while striking out four batters. Tyler Thornburg came on in relief of Sanchez and pitched two great innings, not allowing any runs while striking out three. Thornburg picked up his first win of the year in only his second appearance for the Saints.

In the bottom of the fourth, Cave hit his sixth homer of the year and Caleb Hamilton singled in Contreras, who doubled, to give the Saints a 10-2 lead. One inning later, the Saints scored two more runs thanks to a couple of walks, an RBI groundout from Beckham, and a single from Cave.

Mario Sanchez pitched the last four innings for St. Paul to earn the rare four-inning save, his first save of the year. Sanchez didn’t allow any hits and struck out six in his four innings of work. With the win, the Saints improve to 26-29 on the year. Cave and Contreras had three hits apiece to lead the offense, while Steer and Beckham had two apiece.

WIND SURGE (AA)
The Wichita-Arkansas game was postponed due to rain. The two teams will play a doubleheader beginning at 5:05 PM CST on Thursday.

KERNELS (HIGH-A)
Cedar Rapids 12, South Bend 5
Box Score

The Cedar Rapids Kernels rode some hot bats en route to a 12-5 victory over the South Bend Cubs on Wednesday. They got three runs in the first inning thanks to a solo home run by Christian Encarnacion-Strand and a two-run shot by Seth Gray. Starting pitcher John Stankiewicz took the mound with a three-run lead and did his part to ensure that the lead stayed intact. Stankiewicz went four innings for the Kernels, allowing two runs on four hits and a walk while striking out five batters.

In the top of the second, the Kernels continued their hot hitting as Dylan Neuse launched his first homer as a Kernel to give them a four-run lead. Two batters later, Encarnacion-Strand hit his second homer in as many innings to give them a six-run lead.

After two scoreless innings for the Kernels, Wander Javier hit an RBI single in the top of the fifth and Charles Mack followed with a three-run homer to give the Kernels an eight-run lead. Cody Laweryson came on in relief of Stankiewicz and pitched two scoreless innings, skating around three hits while striking out two.

Jeferson Morales hit a two-run bomb in the seventh to give the Kernels a ten-run advantage, his fourth of the year. After they took a ten-run lead, the Kernels put in Tyler Palm who threw an inning in relief, allowing two runs. After that, they called on Orlando Rodriguez to finish the game and he threw the eighth and ninth innings, allowing only one run.

With the win, the Kernels improved to 35-18 on the year. Encarnacion-Strand and Gray each finished with two-hit games and combined to score five runs as they paced the offense in the victory.

MIGHTY MUSSELS (LOW-A)
Fort Myers 3, Daytona 2
Box Score

Unlike the Saints and the Kernels, the Mighty Mussels won a low-scoring affair on Wednesday. Jaylen Nowlin got the start for the Mighty Mussels and was very good, throwing three scoreless innings while allowing one hit and striking out six. He now has 41 strikeouts in 24 and ⅔ innings this year. Jackson Hicks relieved him, throwing two scoreless innings while striking out two.

The game was deadlocked at 0-0 until the top of the sixth when Rubel Cespedes reached on an error by the shortstop, scoring Noah Cardenas and Kala’i Rosario. The bigger news that inning happened when TwinsDaily’s #8 prospect Emmanuel Rodriguez sustained a lower-body injury attempting to advance to third on a dirt ball. He was taken out of the game and the trainer was seen transporting crutches to the dugout.

After Hicks exited, the Mighty Mussels put in Regi Grace for the bottom of the sixth and he pitched out of a jam in the sixth but allowed two two-out runs in the bottom of the seventh. A third run was prevented from scoring when Noah Miller threw a runner out at the plate.

The Mighty Mussels retook the lead for good in the top of the eighth when Rosario doubled in Mikey Perez, who doubled. Malik Barrington pitched the last two innings and dominated, striking out four while not allowing a baserunner.

The Mighty Mussels improved to 35-17 on the year with the win. Rosario led the offense going 2-for-4 with two doubles, and Cardenas reached base three times in the win.

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Mario Sanchez (St. Paul) - 4 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 BB, 6 K, Save(1)
Hitter of the Day – Christian Encarnacion-Strand (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-5, 2 HR (12), 2 R, 3 RBI

PROSPECT SUMMARY
We will again keep tabs on the Twins' top prospects. You’ll probably read about them in the team sections, but if they aren’t there, you’ll see how they did here. 

Here’s a look at how the current Twins Daily Top 20 performed:
#3 - Jose Miranda (Minnesota) - 3-for-4, R, 2B (7), 3 RBI
#7 - Spencer Steer (St. Paul) - 2-for-4, 2B (4), R, RBI, 2 BB
#8 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (Ft. Myers) - 0-for-1, 2 BB
#9 - Noah Miller (Ft. Myers) - 0-for-4
#18 - Christian Encarnacion-Strand (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-5, 2 HR (12), 2 R, 3 RBI

THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
Rochester @ St. Paul (7:07 CST) - RHP Ronny Henriquez (0-2, 8.07 ERA)
Game 1: Wichita @ Arkansas (5:05 CST) - RHP Casey Legumina (0-2, 8.82 ERA)
Game 2: Wichita @ Arkansas (TBD) - Pitcher TBD; will be updated
Cedar Rapids @ South Bend (6:05 PM CST) - RHP David Festa (3-0, 2.63 ERA)
Fort Myers @ Daytona (6:05 PM CST) - LHP Jordan Carr (0-0, 3.00 ERA) (First start with Ft. Myers)

Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Wednesday’s games!

Thank you for reading, and Go Twins!