Twins Minor League Report (8/29): Lookout! Home Runs!

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

Transactions: Twins sent Hector Santiago on rehab in Rochester, and the Lookouts sent Matt Tracy on a rehab assignment in the GCL. Anthony Marzi was promoted from Cedar Rapids to Fort Myers.

RED WINGS REPORT

Rochester 1 @ Scranton/WB 8

Box Score

It is hard to win a game when you only score one run, and harder yet when you give up eight of them, and so it was as Rochester dropped Tuesday’s game against Scranton. Matt Hague was the only Wings player with multiple hits, 2-4 with a walk. The Wings had no extra-base hits, and walked just twice as a team, against 8 strike- outs. Tough night for Carlos Paulino who was 0-4 with 3 strike outs and he had a throwing error and a passed ball behind the dish.

Hector Santiago went just 2.2 innings, gave up a hit, a run, walked two and struck out one in the first outing of his rehab assignment. Santiago was lifted for Chris Heston, who gave up six runs (five earned) in just 0.2 innings. He gave up five hits, walked two, struck out two, and gave up as many home runs as outs recorded. Luke Bard gave the Red Wings 1.2 innings of one run ball, striking out three. Nik Turley pitched 2.0 strong innings, giving up a hit, and struck out two. Mason Melotakis finished the game, giving up a hit in an inning of work.

CHATTANOOGA CHATTER

Chattanooga 3 @ Jackson 1

Box Score

Chattanooga took a 2-1 lead in the fourth and then hung on the rest of the way, adding an insurance run in the top of the ninth. Even though he was 3-4 with three doubles, T.J. White played second fiddle to his teammate. Jonathan Rodriguez was the hero of the day, 1-4 with a two-run home run, driving in the winning run. LaMonte Wade had a nice day at the dish as well, 2-3 with two runs scored, a double and a walk.

Great night on the bump for Randy LeBlanc. He earned the win moving to 4-4, with 7.1 innings of one-run (unearned) ball. He struck out two, walked one and scattered six hits. Gabriel Moya earned the five-out save, giving up a hit and striking out one. Moya lowered his ERA on the season to 0.80. Moya, if you have forgotten, was the return from the Diamondbacks in the John Ryan Murphy trade. Moya has a 0.71 ERA with the Lookouts over 12 games (12.2 IP), with 16 strikeouts and just three walks. On the year, he has 84 strike outs and only 15 walks. Looking like a pretty nice pickup.

MIRACLE MATTERS

Fort Myers 5 @ St. Lucie 3

Box Score

Fort Myers scored all five of their runs in the fifth inning, but did enough damage against the St. Lucie Mets to earn a road win. Three of the Lookouts nine hits were for extra bases, all doubles, one each from Sean Miller, Mitchell Kranson and Zandier Wiel. Wiel also added a stolen base. The Lookouts should have scored a few more runs on Tuesday night, but were just 1-10 with runners in scoring position. Brent Rooker did not hit a dinger, going 0-3, with a run scored, the first time he has been hitless since August 16th, almost 2 weeks ago.

Starter Sean Poppen earned a win with 5.0 innings of three-run baseball. He gave up six hits, struck out five and walked just one. The Bullpen then did great work the rest of the way, holding the Mets to just one hit for the next four innings. One inning from Michael Theofanopoulos (he gave up the hit), 2.0 innings from Sam Clay, and 1.0 from Tom Hackimer, earning his sixth save of the year. The Miracle pitchers struck out 10 batters on Tuesday night, and walked four.

E-Twins E-Notes

Elizabethton 6 @ Kingsport 3

Box Score

The Elizabethon Twins were electric in the late innings, tying the game with a run in the top of the eighth, and putting the game out of reach with a three-spot in the ninth. The Twins got home runs from Wander Javier (three-run jack in the ninth), Jose Miranda (solo show tin the eighth), and J.J. Robinson (two-run dinger in the fourth). Rainis Silva didn’t have any home runs, but was 3-5 on the night, a pretty good day at the plate, and he’s now hitting .330.

Randy Dobnak put the Twins in a position to win, pitching 5.0 innings, giving up just one run and striking out four. Then Jose Martinez came in, giving up a pair of runs over 2.0 innings and finally, Jovani Moran vultured a W when the Twins took a late lead, as he gave the club 2.0 scoreless innings, walking one and striking out FIVE. Moran has now stuck out five batters in his last four appearances (2.0, 2.0, 2.1, and 2.0 IP respectively), good for 20 Ks against just 2 walks. Moran was a seventh round draftee in the 2015 draft out of Puerto Rico, and has excelled as a closer for E-Town after missing 2016 due to the removal of bone chips in his elbow.

GCL Twins Takes

GCL Rays 2 @ GCL Twins 3 (Game 1)

Box Score

The Twins and Rays played a doubleheader to make up for Monday’s rain out, with each team taking a turn as the home team at the Twins complex on Tuesday afternoon. The home team ended up winning both games!

In Game 1, the Twins used a couple of Rays errors to score some extra runs, taking advantage of what the Rays gave them to get a win, despite going just 2-11 with runners in scoring position. Ricky De La Torre was 2-3 with a run scored, and Jared Akins was 2-3 as a well. Benjamin Rodriguez had the only RBI of the night, an RBI single, part of a 1-2 night with a walk, and a run scored.

Matt Tracy pitched 4.0 innings, on a rehab start from Chattanooga, gave up just 2 hits and one run. He walked no one and struck out six. He was replaced by Blayne Enlow, who earned the win with 3.0 innings of three-hit, one-run baseball.

GCL Twins Takes

GCL Twins 0 @ GCL Rays 1 (Game 2)

Box Score

In Game 2, with the Rays masquerading as the home team, the Twins fell 1-0. Twins bats couldn’t do much, and Alex Robles (2-3, 2B) had half of the team’s hits.

Twins pitchers only gave up two hits in the second half of the doubleheader, but a handful of walks helped the Rays win. Starter Tyler Benninghoff started the game with 2.0 scoreless innings. He faced the minimum, and struck out two. Pedro Garcia was tagged with the loss, as he gave up a run over 3.0 innings, he walked three and struck out four. Zach Featherstone finished the game for the Twins, 1.0 inning, one hit, and one strikeout.

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY

Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Randy LeBlanc, Chattanooga Lookouts

Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – T.J. White, Chattanooga Lookouts

WEDNESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

Rochester @ Scranton/WB (6:05pm) – Adalberto Mejia (0-1, 3.48)

Chattanooga @ Jackson (5:30pm) - TBD

Fort Myers @ St. Lucie (5:30pm) – Clark Beeker (1-1, 9.00)

Burlington @ Cedar Rapids (6:35pm) – Tyler Watson (0-3, 4.84)

Elizabethton @ Kingsport (5:30pm) - TBD

GCL Twins @ GCL Rays (11:00am) - TBD

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