Twins Minor League Report (8/26): Way to Go, Willie Joe!

TRANSACTIONS 
Recently signed non-drafted free agent LHP Michael Boyle was assigned to Ft. Myers. 

So was MLB veteran RHP Brock Stewart who has worked his way back to affiliated ball after recovering from injuries the past few seasons? 

SAINTS SENTINEL 
Iowa 6, St. Paul 5
Box score 

Ronny Henriquez has been coming out of the bullpen for the Saints the past couple of months, generally still working multiple innings situations. He returned to the starting rotation this week and put together arguably his best start of the season. The right-hander gave up one run on three hits over five innings. He struck out six batters, and maybe most important for his development, he walked none. 

The bullpen came on and had some moments. Juan Minaya recorded the first two outs in the sixth inning. But, he gave up one run on two walks. Austin Schulfer came on and got the final out of that inning. Jharel Cotton gave up a run on one hit and one walk in the seventh inning. 

Heading into the bottom of the eighth inning, the Saints held a 5-3 lead. Jovani Moran came on and struck out two in the eighth inning. Unfortunately, he gave up three runs on two hits and two walks, and a hit batter to blow the save and take the loss. The outing bumps his Saints season ERA up to 6.00. Just 15 of his 31 pitches were strikes. There are openings in the Twins bullpen, and he certainly isn’t putting up the Triple-A numbers to force the Twins’ hand. 

Matt Wallner went 2-for-4 with a walk and his sixth double since joining the Saints. Jermaine Palacios went 2-for-5. Nash Knight went 2-for-4. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Frisco 2, Wichita 1
Box Score 

Lefty Kody Funderburk gave up two runs in the third inning, and that was it for the Frisco run-scoring on this night. Unfortunately, it was one run more than the Wind Surge were able to muster. 

Funderburk gave up those two runs on two hits and two walks. He struck out four. The bullpen followed with four scoreless, hitless innings. Denny Bentley walked one and struck one out over two innings. Alex Phillips and Steven Cruz each worked one inning. Cruz struck out two batters. 

The Wind Surge batters had twice as many hits as Frisco, but just half as many runs. Wichita had four hits, but the lone run came in the top of the seventh inning in the form of Jair Camargo’s eighth Double-A home run. Austin Martin found three different ways to get on base. He was hit by a pitch, walked, and had a single. He also stole his 31st bag.

KERNELS NUGGETS
Lake County 1, Cedar Rapids 5
Box Score

Cedar Rapids got some great pitching and kept the offense rolling, scoring their five runs in four different innings. 

Let’s start on the mound where David Festa improved to 7-2 with a 2.25 ERA with 5 2/3 scoreless innings. He gave up two hits, no walks, and he struck out six batters. Matt Mullenbach got four of the five batters he faced out. He did hit one batter. Bobby Milacki struck out four batters over the final two innings. The lone run allowed came on a ninth-inning home run. 

It’s been a tough season for outfielder Willie Joe Garry. He missed more than two months with injury, but since his return, the speedster has been playing very well. On this night, he went 3-for-4 with a single, double, and a home run. He drove in two of the Kernel runs and scored three runs. Jake Rucker went 2-for-3 with a walk and was hit by a pitch. 

If not the fewest in the league, the Minnesota Twins big-league club has very stolen bases. On Friday night, infielder Mikey Perez stole his 12th base since joining the Kernels. He had 32 stolen bases in Ft. Myers earlier in the season. 

Here are the organization’s Top 10 leaders in Stolen Bases in 2022: 

  Mikey Perez - 44
  DaShawn Keirsey, Jr. - 34
  Austin Martin - 32
  Michael Helman - 30
  Yasser Mercedes - 30
  Will Holland - 26
  Daniel Ozoria - 20
  Anthony Prato - 20
  Luis Baez - 19
  Noah Miller - 19

MUSSEL MATTERS
Lakeland, Fort Myers (Game Suspended in the 3rd inning)
Box Score

The Mighty Mussels played two games on Thursday but only completed two innings on Friday night due to rain. We’ll have more on this game when it is completed (hopefully on Saturday), but we’ll show you a little of what happened. 

30-year-old Brock Stewart started for the Mussels and went the first two innings. He gave up two runs on just one hit. Immediately following a hit batter in the second innings, he gave up a home run to Mike Rothenberg. 

But all that is the background to a potentially great story. Stewart was drafted by the Dodgers in the 6th round in 2014 out of Illinois State. Just two years after signing, he made his big-league debut. Between 2016 and 2019, he pitched in 36 games for the Dodgers, including 11 starts. He went 6-3 with a 6.05 ERA over 105 2/3 innings. When the Dodgers let him go, the Blue Jays claimed him and he went 4-0 over 10 late-season appearances. After that season, he was selected by the Cubs in the Rule 5 draft, but they let him go in late May of 2020 as the season was in doubt. He pitched in six games for the Chicago Deep Dish of the City of Champions Cup League.  The Dodgers signed him before the 2021 season, but he had Tommy John surgery in May of 2021 and rehabbed the rest of the season. He hadn’t pitched at all this year either, but after a tryout, the Twins signed him in mid-July to a minor league deal. 

Maybe it’s a long shot, but maybe he works his way back and gets to the big leagues in a bullpen role. Those are the kind of stories that are fun to tell when a game is suspended in the bottom of the third. 

Michael Boyle pitched a scoreless top of the third. He is 28 years old and hasn’t pitched since 2019 with the Dodgers’ Double-A affiliate in Tulsa. He’s healthy and attempting to come back. Hopefully we’ll continue to write about him the next year or so and get to know more about his story too. 

Noah Cardenas hit a solo home run in the second inning, his ninth of the year. In the bottom of the third inning, Misael Urbina led off with a double. Ben Ross drove him in with a double. One batter later, Ross stole third base and then scored on a Cardenas single. Kala’i Rosario followed with an RBI double, his 20th two-bagger of the season. And that’s when the game was delayed by rain. 

The teams will attempt to finish this game as part of a modified doubleheader on Saturday late afternoon. That will be a nine-inning game. The regularly-scheduled game will then be a seven-inning game. 

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day –  David Festa (Cedar Rapids) - 5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, (73 pitches, 47 strikes)
Hitter of the Day – Willie Joe Garry, Jr. (Cedar Rapids) - 3-4, 2B (9), HR (2), 3 R, 2 RBI, K

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Here’s a look at how the current Twins Daily Top 20 performed:

#2 - Brooks Lee (Cedar Rapids) - 0-4, BB, RBI 
#4 - Austin Martin (Wichita) - 1-2, BB, HBP, SB (31)
#9 - Matt Wallner (St. Paul) - 2-4, BB, R, RBI, 2 K 
#13 - David Festa (Cedar Rapids) - 5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, (73 pitches, 47 strikes) 
#14 - Edouard Julien (Wichita) - 0-4, 2 K
#16 - Ronny Henriquez (St. Paul) - 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K (67 pitches, 45 strikes)  
#18 - Tanner Schobel (Fort Myers) - 0-2, 2 K
#20 - Kala'i Rosario (Fort Myers) - 1-2, 2B(20), RBI K

SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
Here are the start times and probables for their games. 

St. Paul @ Iowa (6:08 PM CST) - RHP Simeon Woods Richardson
Wichita @ Frisco (7:05 PM CST) - LHP Aaron Rozek 
Cedar Rapids @ Lake County (5:35 PM CST) - LHP Jaylen Nowlin 
Lakeland @ Fort Myers (DH starting at 3:30 PM CST) - TBD, RHP Tomas Cleto

Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Friday's games