Twins Minor League Report (6/8): Gonsalves Debuts In FSL

Read on to find out about all the action on Monday night!

TRANSACTIONS

It was known yesterday, but became official today that the Twins have sent shortstop Danny Santana down to AAA, and recalled Kennys Vargas in his place.

Some of the league All-Star rosters have also been released, with pitchers Chih-Wei Hu, Brandon Peterson and J.T. Chargois, along with catcher Alex Swim, representing the Fort Myers Miracle in the Florida State League game to be played on June 20^th.

In the Midwest League, pitchers Felix Jorge, Cameron Booser, and Trevor Hildenberger, along with first baseman Trey Vavra, will represent the West Division squad and the Cedar Rapids Kernels in their game on June 23^rd.

RED WINGS REPORT

Indianapolis 6, Rochester 3

Box Score

It was International League division leaders squaring off as the Red Wings lead the North Division, and the Indians the West Division.

It did not start out well for Rochester, as Indianapolis jumped out to 3-0 lead after the second inning, and made it 4-0 after four. All four of those runs were charged to starter Jason Wheeler, who went on to finish the fifth inning. He allowed those runs on eight hits and two walks, while striking out two.

The Red Wings lineup struggled to get anything going against Indians starter Clayton Richard, who has been a MLB starter for several seasons with the Chicago White Sox and San Diego Padres. He came to the Pittsburgh Pirates organization this year after shoulder surgery limited him to just four starts in the minors in 2014. He appears to be back on his way to the majors as he now sports a 1.69 ERA for Indianapolis.

Over Richard’s seven innings, the Wings managed just five hits and two walks. The lone unearned run came in his final inning, when Richard committed a throwing error to move Jose Martinez to third base and in position to score on a sac fly from Wilkin Ramirez.

In the ninth inning, doubles from Oswaldo Arcia, Eric Fryer and Wilkin Ramirez made the score 6-3, but they weren’t able to do any more damage. Reynaldo Rodriguez was 2-4 on the night to lead the offense, and Ramirez had two RBIs.

In relief for the Red Wings, Logan Darnell allowed two runs on two hits and a walk in two innings. He struck out three. Mark Hamburger and Ryan O’Rourke each pitched a scoreless inning, with Hamburger picking up two K’s.

CHATTANOOGA CHATTER

Chattanooga @ Jackson, Postponed (Rain)

Starter Jose Berrios was looking for a bounce back start after he suffered his worst outing of the year (relatively speaking) in his last one, but he was forced to wait another day due to rain in Jackson, Tennessee. The game will be made up tomorrow as part of a double-header, with both games going seven innings. The first game will start at 5:05 PM CST.

MIRACLE MATTERS

Fort Myers 5, Lakeland 3

Box Score

Stephen Gonsalves was on the mound for the Miracle, making his Florida State League debut. H picked up his first FSL win.

Overall, the start wasn’t as good as his starts in the Midwest League were, but that’s not unexpected with a guy making his first start at a new level. Gonsalves finished 5.1 innings, allowing three runs on five hits and three walks while striking out two, as reported by MiLB.com (or five, if the game report from Miracle play-by-play man Bryce Zimmerman is to be believed). In his final inning, a walk and a two-run home run got the bullpen active, and he left the game with runners on the corners. Alex Muren came on and got the final two outs to keep Gonsalves in line for the win.

The Miracle took a 2-0 lead in the second inning with two-out rally started by Bryan Haar with a single. Marcus Knecht followed with a single of his own and they moved into scoring position on a wild pitch. Chad Christensen brought them home with a single to center field.

Fort Myers added three runs in the top of the sixth inning which was begun with a single from Ryan Walker. FSL All-Star Alex Swim brought him home with his first triple of the season to chase Lakeland’s starter from the game. Mitch Garver greeted his replacement with a single to bring Swim in. Niko Goodrum followed with a single to put Garver on third, and he raced home on Haar's groundout to make it 5-1.

Muren finished the seventh inning before relinquishing duty to Todd Van Steensel, who picked up his sixth save with two innings of scoreless ball. He struck out three according to MiLB.com.

Walker, Goodrum, Haar, and Christensen each collected two hits on the night, and Christensen’s two RBI’s led the team in the victory.

KERNELS NUGGETS

Cedar Rapids 4, West Michigan 2

Box Score

The Kernels completed a come-back victory with a single run in the sixth inning to narrow their deficit to 2-1, and added three in the seventh to take the lead for good.

West Michigan got out to the 2-0 lead in the fourth inning when starter Jared Wilson ran into his first trouble of the night. Up to that point, the only runner for the Whitecaps had reached on an error by Kernels third baseman T.J. White. It was a triple with one out that got the first runner of the game in scoring position. A single brought that runner in for a 1-0 lead, then a single and walk loaded the bases and the second run scored on a wild pitch.

Wilson recovered to pitch scoreless fifth and sixth innings, ending the game with six innings pitched, allowing the two runs on three hits and two walks, while striking out four. The win brought Wilson’s record to 5-1 on the season, and lowered his ERA to 3.10.

When Wilson exited, the game was left up to the unhittable, long-named, and University of California alumni duo of Michael Theofanopoulos and Trevor Hildenberger. Theo went two perfect innings, striking out one to pick up his fourth hold of the season, while Hil pitched a scoreless ninth, walking one and striking out two to pick up his sixth save.

The Cedar Rapids scoring was started in the sixth inning by Nick Gordon, who brought home newly minted lead-off man Edgar Corcina with a single. Corcina had singled and stolen second base to put himself in scoring position.

In the seventh, a two-out, three-run rally was started when Brett Doe was hit by a pitch. This was followed by a White single, a Blake Schmit two-RBI double, and a Brian Navaretto RBI single to make the final score of 4-2.

Gordon, White, and Schmit were all 2-4, with Schmit’s two-run double being the Kernels only extra-base hit of the evening.

DSL TWINS SPECIAL REPORT

DSL Twins 21, DSL Yankees (team 1) 14

Box Score

It’s really hard to make anything out of the young players who make up the roster of the Minnesota Twins Dominican Academy team, but it’s hard not to notice a baseball game score with an NFL-like final of 21-14. The DSL Twins took advantage of sixteen hits and twelve walks to come away with the victory. As a team they were 8-15 with runners in scoring position and four hitters in the lineup racked up multiple hits. There was also just one hitter in the lineup who did not score multiple runs.

Even more notable was the batting line of first baseman and clean-up hitter Jorge Parra, as he hit for the cycle and tallied six RBIs. He was 4-6 on the night as a whole and also scored three runs. Quite a performance no matter the level or competition!

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY

Pitcher of the Day – Todd Van Steensel, Fort Myers Miracle (W, 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R’s, 3 K’s)

Hitter of the Day – Jorge Parra, DSL Twins (4-6, 3 R’s, 2B, 3B, HR, 6 RBI)

TUESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

Indianapolis @ Rochester (6:05 PM CST) – LHP Taylor Rogers (5-3, 3.09 ERA)

Chattanooga @ Jackson, Double-Header (Game 1: 5:05 PM CST, Game 2: 30-45 min after end of Game 1) – RHP Jose Berrios (6-3, 3.25 ERA) and TBD

Fort Myers @ Lakeland (5:30 PM CST) – LHP Mat Batts (0-1, 2.13 ERA)

Cedar Rapids – Scheduled day off.

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