Twins Minor League Report (7/13): Colon Struggles, Gonsalves Ks 9, Javier Homers

Find out everything that happened in the Twins minor league system on Thursday.

RED WINGS REPORT

Lehigh Valley 6, Rochester 1

Box Score

Bartolo Colon, making his first minor league appearance since 2009, had a bit of a rough first inning. He labored, throwing 23 pitches, and gave up a run on a couple of doubles. To be fair, one double was on a ball Mitch Garver, playing left field for just the 11th time, should’ve caught. He had the range to get to the fly ball, but alligator armed the catch attempt. It appeared he may have been bracing himself for a potential impact with the wall.

Colon pitched a 1-2-3 second inning before giving up a solo homer to J.P. Crawford in the third. He then walked the first batter he faced, Dylan Cozens, in the fourth inning. A couple more defensive mistakes allowed Cozens to advance to third. Colon was credited with an error on a pickoff attempt, though I’m sure first baseman Matt Hague would admit he should have caught that ball. Also, J.R. Murphy had a passed ball.

Colon then walked old friend Pedro Florimon (who nearly hit a homer off him earlier) and then gave up a two-run double. Ending on a high note, Big Sexy struck out the final two batters he faced before reaching his pitch count limit.

Colon’s final line on the evening: 3.2 innings, four hits, four runs, two walks, five strikeouts. He threw 76 pitches, 50 for strikes. It was his first outing since June 28 and the game was delayed almost two hours, so you could understand if he was a bit rusty and/or thrown off his regular routine. But still, he did give up a lot of hard contact.

D.J. Baxendale and Alan Busenitz each pitched 1.2 perfect innings with two strikeouts. John Curtiss gave up two runs in the ninth, the first runs he’s surrendered with the Red Wings. Garver was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk. Tommy Field hit a double, drew a walk and drove in the Wings’ only run of the game.

CHATTANOOGA CHATTER

Chattanooga 5, Jacksonville 4

Box Score

The Lookouts entered the bottom of the ninth trailing by a run. LaMonte Wade led off the inning with a single. After Jonathan Rodriguez struck out, Max Murphy drew a walk and T.J. White hit a game-tying double that scored Wade. After Travis Harrison was walked to load the bases, Alex Perez hit a ground ball to first base that managed to score Murphy from third to walk it off.

Stephen Gonsalves struck out nine batters over five innings, giving up three runs (just one earned) on six hits. He didn’t walk a batter for the third time in 11 starts this season. Randy LeBlanc kept his team in the game, giving up an unearned run over three innings. Paul Clemens pitched a perfect ninth.

The Lookouts are now 58-33 (.637).

MIRACLE MATTERS

Game 1: Fort Myers 4, Charlotte 3 (7 innings)

Box Score

The red-hot Miracle were trailing 3-1 heading into the sixth inning, but they rallied back to win it, picking up their seventh straight victory. Tanner English started that comeback rally with a single and Mitchell Kranson delivered the big blow, a two-run double.

Lewis Thorpe struggled, giving up three runs on six hits over four innings. He walked three batters and had three strikeouts. Alex Robinson pitched a perfect fifth and stuck out the side in his FSL debut. Per the team’s Twitter account, he hit 98 mph. Keaton Steele pitched a scoreless sixth before Sam Clay came in and locked down his sixth save.

Brandon Lopez was 2-for-3 with a double, an RBI and a run. Along with his big lead off hit in the sixth, English also drew two walks and stole a base.

Game 2: Fort Myers 5, Charlote 3 (7 innings)

Box Score

Have yourself a day, Tanner English! This time the 2014 11th-round pick finished off a big inning, hitting a two-run triple to cap a big fourth inning. The Miracle scored all their runs in that frame, as Jaylin Davis also hit a two-run triple and Sean Miller had an RBI single.

English also led off the game with a single and stole another base, giving him 15 steals with Fort Myers. He also swiped six bags during his time in Chattanooga, and is 21-for-24 in stolen base attempts this year.

Brady Anderson went five innings, giving up three runs on six hits. He had a pair of strikeouts without giving up a walk. Andrew Vasquez pitched the final two innings, striking out five batters. The big lefty has now thrown 16.2 scoreless innings for the Miracle and has 29 strikeouts against just three walks.

Make that eight straight wins for the Miracle.

KERNELS NUGGETS

West Michigan 3, Cedar Rapids 2 (10 innings)

Box Score

Gorge Munoz led off the sixth inning with a home run. The Kernels manufactured their second run of the inning without the luxury of a hit. Aaron Whitefield walked, advanced to third on an error and scored on a Lewin Diaz sac fly.

Munoz made a pivotal error at shortstop in the bottom of the tenth, which was followed by a walk-off double. Evan Sanders made his second start for Cedar Rapids, holding the Whitecaps to one run over 4.2 innings. Tyler Beardsley surrendered another run over his three innings of work. Hector Lujan suffered the loss. He gave up three hits and struck out two over 1.2 innings.

The Kernels were outhit 12-3. Trey Cabbage hit a double and Ben Rortvedt singled.

E-TWINS E-NOTES

Burlington 5, Elizabethton 4

Box Score

Wander Javier hit his first home run in the United States, a two-run shot that came with two outs in the ninth inning. Andrew Bechtold, a fifth-round pick in this year’s draft, was 2-for-2 with two walks and an RBI. This year’s ninth-rounder, Mark Contreras, was 2-for-4 with a double and scored a couple of runs.

Melvi Acosta gave up five runs over 4.1 innings, but his bullpen was outstanding. Jovani Moran threw 2.2 scoreless innings, giving the 2015 seventh rounder 11.1 shutout innings this season. Jared Finkel pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

GCL TWINS TAKES

GCL Orioles 9, GCL Twins 5

Box Score

Left fielder Roni Tapia was the standout hitter for the Twins, going 2-for-4 with a couple of doubles, three RBI and a run scored. Second baseman Emmanuel Morel also had a pair of hits before he was ejected in the ninth inning after being hit by a pitch.

There were a total of eight hit batsmen and a couple of ejections in this one. The benches cleared at one point. Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press was in attendance, and shared some of the aftermath on his YouTube channel. Mike also shared some video from a chat with GCL manager Ramon Borrego and Royce Lewis yesterday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu6D1cBZRpA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDyxI7VCl5M

Pedro Garcia started and gave up four runs on six hits over 4.2 innings pitched. He got three strikeouts, and while he didn’t walk a batter, he did hit two, threw two wild pitches and was called for a balk. Juan Mojica surrendered five runs in his 2.1 innings (he hit two guys and threw two wild pitches, as well). Jose Bermudez held the Orioles scoreless over the final two innings, but he also hit a batter and threw a wild pitch.

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY

Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day: Stephen Gonsalves, Chattanooga (5 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 1 R, 0 BB, 9 K)

Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day: Tanner English, Fort Myers (3-for-6, triple, 2 BB, 2 RBI, 2 R, 2 SB)

FRIDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

Rochester at Lehigh Valley, 6:05 pm CT, Justin Haley (3.38 ERA, 1.00 WHIP)

Chattanooga vs. Jacksonville, 6:15 pm CT, Kohl Stewart (3.73 ERA, 1.51 WHIP)

Fort Myers at Charlotte, 5:35 pm CT, David Fischer (3.72 ERA, 1.40 WHIP)

Cedar Rapids at West Michigan, 6:00 pm CT, Clark Beeker (2.71 ERA, 1.01 WHIP)

Elizabethton at Burlington, 6:00 pm CT, Charlie Barnes (2.53 ERA, 1.22 WHIP)

GCL Twins vs. GCL Red Sox, 11:00 am CT, TBD

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