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The Twins got a nice 2-1, 10-inning win in Chicago against the White Sox. Eduardo Escobar, who came to the Twins last July from the South Siders, beat out an infield single to shortstop. Ryan Doumit advanced to third base and then went home when Jeff Keppinger was unable to cleanly catch the one-hop throw from Alexei Ramirez. Finally, Glen Perkins came on to record the save. There were also a couple of one-run games in the Twins farm system. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]A big home run helped Rochester to a win, giving them their first back-to-back wins of the season. The Ft. Myers Miracle also played an entertaining one-run game, but you’ll have to keep reading to see whether or not they won. Byron Buxton’s batting average dropped to .420, but how did the Kernels play? Were the Rock Cats able to bounce back from a big loss a night earlier? Check down below, and please feel free to discuss. Rochester Red Wings 5, Pawtucket Red Sox 4 Box Score It was a back-and-forth game on Saturday afternoon between these two teams. Fortunately, the Red Wings managed to score last on Chris Colabello’s sixth home run of the season. Colabello went 2-4 with that organization-leading sixth home run. Clete Thomas went 2-3 with a walk. Joe Benson was 2-4. Andrew Albers started and really struggled. Typically an aggressive control pitcher, Albers walked three in just two innings. He gave up three runs on four hits and struck out just one. Caleb Thielbar came on pitched well. The lefty gave up two hits and a walk in three scoreless frames. He struck out three. Shairon Martis gave up a solo home run. He gave up just that one run on three hits and a walk in two innings. Tim Wood’s rehab stint continued with his first appearance in Rochester. He had been the International League Relief Pitcher of the Year in 2012 and struck out two on this day. Anthony Slama came in for the ninth and went 1, 2, 3 for his second save of the year. New Britain Rock Cats 1, Portland Sea Dogs 7 Box Score After losing 12-1 on Friday night, it was important for the Rock Cats to get off to a fast start on Saturday afternoon. Danny Santana led off the game with his second triple. James Beresford drove him in with a sacrifice fly. That was about it for the Rock Cats offense. Santana was 2-4. Reynaldo Rodriguez hit his sixth double. Danny Ortiz hit his seventh double. Logan Darnell started for New Britain. The left-hander gave up five runs (3 earned) on seven hits and two walks. In five innings, he struck out six. AJ Achter gave up two runs on four hits and two walks in his 1.2 innings. He struck out two. Aaron Thompson came on and gave up two hits but no runs in 1.1 innings. Ft. Myers Miracle 5, St. Lucie Mets 6 Box Score So Close! On Saturday night, Ft. Myers was inches away from a Miracle win in St. Lucie. Down 6-2 going into the ninth frame, Eddie Rosario singled. Then three straight Miracle hitters walked which cut the lead to 6-3. Another reliever came on and gave up a single to Kennys Vargas to cut the lead to 6-4. Eight and nine hitters, Lance Ray and Andy Leer, struck out. That brought up AJ Pettersen. Pettersen hit a hard ground ball off of a diving first baseman. The single scored one run. However, pinch runner Stephen Wickens attempted to score from second on the play but was thrown out at the plate. The Miracle were that close to keeping the game going, but unfortunately, they fall to 14-2 with the 6-5 loss. Tom Stuifbergen started and gave up just one run through the first six innings. In the bottom of the 7th, a one-out single was followed by a controversial hit batter. The Miracle believed that the ball hit the batter’s bat. With the runner attempting to steal third, the next batter grounded to third base, but Miguel Sano committed his fourth error of the year which loaded the bases. TJ Rivera then hit a bases-clearing double that opened up the game. That was the end of the line for Stuifbergen. In total, he went 6.1 innings and gave up five runs (3 earned) on seven hits. He walked none and struck out five. Adrian Salcedo came in and gave up a run on three hits in 1.2 innings. Miguel Sano went 2-3 with a walk and his fifth double. photo to the right is courtesy of Cedar Rapids Kernels Facebook page. Be sure to "Like" it. Cedar Rapids Kernels 11, Peoria Chiefs 2 Box Score If you can put up crooked numbers on the scoreboard, it’s always a good thing. The Red Wings scored six runs in the first inning and another five runs in the fourth inning to jump out to a huge lead. The Kernels collected 17 hits in the game. Drew Leachman led the offense with a 4-5 day. He was playing for just the fourth time on the season and came into the game hitting .142 (2-14). He now is hitting .316 after missing almost two weeks with a shoulder injury. Niko Goodrum went 2-4 with two walks and had two RBI. Romy Jimenez went 2-4 with his second double and four RBI. He had a bases-clearing double in the first inning. Jhonatan Arias went 2-5, his first two hits of the season. Travis Harrison was 2-4 with a walk. Adam Walker was 2-4. Jorge Polanco was 2-6. Byron Buxton’s batting average dropped to .420 with an 0-4 game. He did, however, walk twice in the long first inning. Lefty Mason Melotakis started and gave up one run on four hits. Unfortunately with the run support he got, Melotakis was only able to go 3.1 innings, in part because of four walks. Steve Gruver came on for an “easy” “Win” but pitched well. The southpaw gave up one run on four hits in 4.2 innings. He walked none and struck out four. Tyler Jones pitched the ninth inning and gave up a hit, but no runs. Please feel free to comment or ask questions below. View full article

While the Twins (and particularly Josh Willingham) were creating fireworks while completing a sweep of the White Sox, there were entirely different fireworks that resulted in the ejection of a top Twins prospect (while he was in his home run trot) and his manager, an ex-Twin. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] There were also several terrific performances by PJ Walters, Nate Hanson, Miguel Munoz and Lance Ray. Drew Leachman celebrated his birthday quite well on the field. Tyler Duffey was back on the mound on Sunday. But the story of the day was in Palm Beach at a High A game. Game 1 - Rochester Red Wings 1, Pawtucket Red Sox 8 Box Score Kyle Gibson made the start for the Red Wings. His line shows that he gave up three runs on three hits and four walks in five innings. However, through five innings, he had not allowed a run. Unfortunately, when he came out for the sixth frame, he gave up a lead-off walk followed by back-to-back singles to load the bases before being replaced by Luis Perdomo. Perdomo gave up a walk, a single and a double before he was replaced by Tyler Robertson. Robertson walked two that half-inning, one intentionally, but allowed only one inherited runner to score on a ground out before inducing an inning-ending double play. Suddenly, the Wings were down by a score of 5-1. Unfortunately, things weren’t much better for the Red Wings in the seventh inning. Robertson walked the first three batters to load the bases before Dan Turpen replaced him. Three more runs scored making it 8-1. The Red Wings managed just four hits. Clete Thomas was 1-2 with two walks. Game 2 - Rochester Red Wings 2, Pawtucket Red Sox 0 Box Score The story of the second game of the double-header was the right arm of PJ Walters. He threw a complete game shutout, allowing two hits and one walk. He struck out five to improve to 1-2 on the season. The Red Wings had six hits in the game. Chris Colabello doubled for the third time. Ray Olmedo hit a 2-run double which produced all the scoring for the Wings in this game. The Red Wings improved to 5-12 with the split on Sunday. New Britain Rock Cats 7, Portland Sea Dogs 8 Box Score BJ Hermsen was back on the mound in a regular season game for the first time this year. Hermsen, the Minor League starting pitcher of the year in 2012, went to big league spring training for the first time this spring. After being optioned out, he strained an intercostal muscle in his rib cage and has been rehabbing since. Hermsen went 4.2 innings and gave up five runs on six hits and two walks. He struck out three. Bobby Lanigan came on in relief and gave up three runs (2 earned) on four hits and a walk in 0.2 innings. Edgar Ibarra struck out three in 1.2 scoreless innings. Michael Tonkin had a quiet eighth frame. Nate Hanson had a big day with the bat. The Eden Prairie High School grad and former Golden Gopher went 4-5 with a double and two RBI. Josmil Pinto went 2-3 with two walks. Dan Rohlfing went 1-3 with two walks. The Rock Cats fell to 8-9 on the season. Ft. Myers Miracle 5, Palm Beach Cardinals 6 (10 innings) Box Score This game was delayed for about two hours because of rain, and it then went to extra innings. There was drama throughout most of this game. Unfortunately, the Miracle lost 6-5 in ten innings on a walk-off home run. The drama started in the fifth inning. Reliever Brandon Creath was in the game, and Miguel Sano came to the plate. The first pitch barely missed Sano’s head. Doug Mientkiewicz came out and told the home plate umpire that Creath should be ejected. The history? Five days earlier, in his most recent appearance, Creath gave up a long grand slam to Sano. Creath stayed in this game, and on a 3-1 pitch, Sano launched a very, very long home run, his sixth of the year. He walked a few steps down the line and then, incited by the Cardinals dugout, started yelling at them as he ran down the line. At that point, the home plate umpire ejected Sano. Mientkiewicz came out and argued. He was ejected. So was left fielder Stephen Wickens. There was plenty of offense for the Miracle. Unfortunately, they left 15 runners on the base paths. Lance Ray went 3-5 with his fourth double. Kyle Knudson went 2-3 with two walks and his second home run. Michael Gonzales went 2-5 with a walk. AJ Pettersen extended his hitting streak to six games with a 2-5 day. Jason Wheeler started and gave up five runs on six hits in four innings. He walked two and struck out two. The bullpen kept the game close. Miguel Munoz gave up three hits in three scoreless innings. Corey Williams gave up two hits in his two scoreless innings. However, in the tenth inning, Nelvin Fuentes came on. He threw one pitch and it was deposited over the fence in left field to end the game. The Miracle fell to 14-3 on the season. photo by Jim Crikket Cedar Rapids Kernels 3, Burlington Bees 2 Box Score The Kernels got terrific pitching and a big hit off the bat of Niko Goodrum to get this tough win. Tyler Duffey made his third straight Sunday start. In this game, he pitched seven innings and gave up two runs on four hits and a walk, with six strikeouts. He improved to 2-1. David Hurlbut came out of the bullpen and recorded his first save. He gave up just one hit and struck out two in the final two innings. After having four hits on Saturday, Drew Leachman celebrated his birthday on Sunday with three more hits. He was 3-3 with a triple and a sacrifice fly. Travis Harrison was 2-4 with his seventh double. Jorge Polanco had a double, his fourth. Byron Buxton was 1-3 with two walks. He stole his sixth base, but he was also caught stealing for the fourth time. Niko Goodrum had just one hit on the day, but it was a two-run single in the seventh that gave the Kernels the 3-2 lead. The Snappers are now 11-5 on the season. Please feel free to comment or ask questions below. View full article