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Though the Twins were off, there was plenty of action in the farm system. Rochester announced today that Byungho Park was placed on the disabled list with tendinitis in his wrist. Heiker Meneses rejoined the Red Wings to take his place on the roster. Luke Bard made the jump from Fort Myers to Chattanooga, which is still playing short-handed. Let’s get right into the seven games, all of which the Twins won.RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 10, Buffalo 4 Box Score Adalberto Mejia picked up his first win in the Twins system with a 6.1-inning appearance. He allowed three runs on eight hits and two walks. Mejia struck out five and threw 103 pitches. D.J. Baxendale got the next five outs. He struck out two. Pat Light finished the game with a spotless 9th inning. The offense was a hit-parade. Byron Buxton hit his 10th AAA double. Wilfred Tovar had four singles. John Ryan Murphy had three hits, including a double. The three-through-six hitters (plus James Beresford) all had two-hit games. Reynaldo Rodriguez scored twice, doubled and drove in a run. Adam Brett Walker hit his 24th home run. Daniel Palka also homered, his 30th in the minors this year. Mitch Garver had two doubles and Beresford had two singles. The Red Wings are 68-55, but still 4.5 games out of the wild card. In an anomaly, if the Red Wings were in the IL South instead of the IL North, they’d have a 13.5 game lead. But they’re not. So they don’t. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 5, Birmingham 2 Box Score A three-run sixth inning gave the Lookouts a final lead after giving it up in the previous half inning. Zach Granite and T.J. White both tripled, driving in runs, and the improved bat of Stuart Turner - two doubles, 3-4 - has helped this club as they approach the stretch run. Levi Michael had a two-hit game. Granite stole two bases, bringing his total to 43 on the season. Felix Jorge put on too many baserunners - eight hits and two walks - but limited damage through six innings, only allowing two runs to score. He struck out six. Alan Busenitz struck out three in two innings of shutout ball. Raul Fernandez picked up the save with a scoreless ninth. The Lookouts improved to 62-58 on the year. They are still in the mix for second-half champs, but even if they fall short in that quest, they could still qualify for the playoffs because - as of now - the first- and second-half champs are the same team. At this point, they’re tied in the pursuit of the second playoff spot. MIRACLE MATTERS Fort Myers 4, Bradenton 3 Box Score Daniel Kihle and Nick Gordon combined for four hits (two each) and three runs to help push the Miracle past Bradenton. Gordon also stole his 15th base of the year (but was caught stealing as well, his 13th). He also committed his 22nd error. Tanner Witt doubled and drove in two runs. Keaton Steele improved to 6-10 on the season. He scattered five hits and a walk over six innings, allowing only two runs. He struck out five. Randy Rosario, who was shifted to the bullpen at the beginning of August, struck out four in two innings. He also allowed two walks, two hits and a run. Nick Anderson picked up his fifth save with a relatively clean ninth inning. At 26-24 in the second half, the Miracle are 2.5 games off the FSL South pace. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids vs Peoria (postponed, wet field) Monday’s tilt between the Kernels and Chiefs was postponed early in the afternoon due to “failure to get the tarp on the field in time and wet field conditions.” The teams will reconvene on Tuesday at 5pm to play two seven-inning games. E-TOWN E-NOTES Elizabethton 7, Bluefield 6 (completion of yesterday’s game) Box Score Elizabethton 4, Bluefield 1 (seven innings) Box Score An interesting day in Elizabethton on Monday. The teams completed the a suspended game from Monday in which the E-Twins led 5-1 in the fourth inning. It ended up much closer than that, but they still held on for the victory. Lewin Diaz and Shane Carrier each homered. Manuel Guzman and Diaz both had two-hit games. Hank Morrison and Amaurys Minier - who pinch hit and then logged two innings in centerfield - each added a double. Domenick Carlini “started” Monday’s game and got lit up to the tune of four runs on five hits and two walks in three innings. Hector Lujan and Patrick McGuff both struck out three and picked up the win and save, respectively. Also of note, Andre Jernigan, who was drafted as a shortstop, caught the entire game. The second game got a little feisty. With the score 3-1 with one out in the bottom of the sixth, Bluefield’s Javier Monson was hit by a pitch to put runners at first and third. The next batter hit a groundball to the shortstop, who fielded it, threw it to Manuel Guzman, who was playing second base, and he relayed it to first for an inning-ending double play. But according to Seth, who knows someone who was at the game, it was a “hard slide into second base” in an effort to break up the double-play. The batter was called out due to interference and the ball - instead of being relayed - was thrown at the runner, Monson, who had slid hard into the base. Apparently Guzman took offense to the hard slide. Both benches cleared and both Monson and Guzman were ejected. Five different hitters had hits, led by the two-RBI effort of Minier. Trey Cabbage scored twice and stole a base. Tyler Wells did well in his 5 1/3 innings. He struck out six and only allowed an unearned run on four hits and a walk. Johan Quezada got the final five outs, two by strikeout, two by a double-play and another by a ground out. The E-Twins are now 28-23. They are half a game behind Johnson City with 16 games left. They only face Johnson City one more time (tomorrow), but play Greeneville, over whom they have a 2.5 game lead over for the wild card spot, the final six games of the season. GCL TWINS TAKES GCL Twins 7, GCL Rays 2 (Game 1, seven innings) Box Score GCL Twins 8, GCL Rays 1 (Game 2, seven innings) Box Score The GCL Twins got two very strong starting pitching performances in their doubleheader on Monday. In the first game, young Canadian Jordan Balazovic earned his first professional win, allowing two runs on five hits in five innings. He struck out one. Clark Beeker also went five innings in the second game. He struck out seven and allowed three hits in five shutout innings. Beeker was making his first start after making ten relief appearances (though most of those appearances were of the multi-inning variety). Juan Gomez, who is converting from catcher, and Matt Jones both pitched scoreless frames in the first game. David Martinez gave up in a run in his two innings of work in the second game. The GCL Twins used almost completely different lineups in their two games, with the exceptions being Aaron Whitefield (leading off and playing CF) and Dane Hutcheon (batting second and playing second). Whitefield stole a base in each game (now has 27) and got two hits in the second game while Hutcheon had a hit and an RBI in each game. Hutcheon also stole his fifth base of the season in the second game. Rehabbing Max Murphy went 2-3 with a double in the first game. Lean Marrero hit his first home run on the season. Roni Tapia added a double. In the second game, Gorge Munoz and Justin Hazard both had two-hit games. Jose Miranda and Brian Olson added doubles. On the season, the GCL Twins are now 26-19, good for first place and a three-game lead in the GCL South. They have 15 games left to play. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Pitcher of the Day – Clark Beeker, GCL Twins Hitter of the Day – Wilfredo Tovar, Rochester TUESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester at Buffalo (6:05 CST) - LHP Nick Greenwood (4-2, 3.40 ERA) Fort Myers at St. Lucie (5:30 CST) - RHP Randy LeBlanc (4-6, 4.27 ERA) Fort Myers at St. Lucie (resumption of suspended game) - TBD Cedar Rapids at Peoria (5:00 CST) - RHP Sam Gibbons (6-3, 4.63 ERA) Cedar Rapids at Peoria (Game 2) - RHP Brady Anderson (0-0, 2.45 ERA) Elizabethton vs Johnson City (6:00 CST) - TBD GCL Twins vs GCL Rays (11:00AM CST) - TBD Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Monday’s games. Click here to view the article

The first month of the minor league season wrapped up on Saturday with plenty of positive signs from the Twins system. Strong pitching has been the key throughout most of the organization but there have also been some hitters who have gotten off to hot starts. As the weather continues to warm-up, it will be interesting to see the direction that will be followed by the Twins' affiliates. So what was the story on Saturday? Strong pitching? Hot hitting? Read on to find out.RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 7, Scranton/WB 5 Box Score Andrew Albers made his return to the Twins organization with his first start for the Red Wings since 2013. The first inning was a little rough as he allowed back-to-back home runs to start the game. He settled down a little from there and finished the game by allowing five earned runs on nine hits in 5.1 innings. Of his 80 pitches, 50 were for strikes and he had one walk. Marcus Walden took over in the sixth and allowed a couple of inherited runners to score. Brandon Kintzler earned his fourth win out of the bullpen after throwing two scoreless frames. Buddy Boshers earned his first save by striking out the side in the ninth. Despite being outhit 12 to 9, Rochester used a pair of three-run innings to separate themselves from the RailRiders. Wilfredo Tovar and Darin Mastroianni both had two hits including a double for each. Tovar had two of the biggest hits for the Red Wings including the game-tying hit in the bottom of the eighth. Kennys Vargas plated the game-winning runs with a single to left. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 0, Montgomery 12 Box Score One hit... that's all the Lookouts could muster up in this one. Like a few other teams in the organization on Saturday, the Lookouts offense was almost nonexistent. Mitch Garver was the lone player to save the team from being no-hit. He went 1-for-2 with a walk. Three batters reached in the bottom of the ninth to load the bases but the Lookouts couldn't push across a run and were shut out for only the third time this season. Omar Bencomo made his first Southern League start and gave up eight runs, four earned, on seven hits with a strikeout and three walks. Mike Strong and Corey Williams didn't fare much better as each of them allowed a pair of runs in their combined four innings of work. All three pitchers allowed a home run and Strong was the only one to strike out more than one batter. Chattanooga finished 3-4 in the last week after Montgomery has taken two of the first three in this series. At this point, the Lookouts are at the bottom of the Southern League North standings but there is plenty of baseball left to play. MIRACLE MATTERS Ft. Myers 1, Charlotte 2 Box Score Felix Jorge continues to pitch well for the Miracle even though the offense hasn't really supported him in many of his starts. Today, the right-handed hurler pitched six strong innings while allowing two earned runs. He struck three and walked one. In both of his losses this season, he has made it through six frames and allowed a total of four runs. John Curtiss and Yorman Landa kept the team in the game as each pitched a shutout inning but the offense didn't show up. Fort Myers squeaked out four total hits and struck out 12 times. The club was limited to one at-bat with a runner in scoring position. Alex Real plated the only run for the team with a solo home run in the fourth inning. Trevor Plouffe is on rehab assignment with the club and he went 1-for-4 with a strikeout. Ryan Walker and Nick Gordon had the team's other hits. The Miracle pitching staff had recorded 32 straight scoreless innings against Charlotte and that streak extended to 33 tonight before a run pushed across the plate. With the loss, the Miracle dropped to three games over .500 at 13-10. Over the last week, the club has gone 5-2 as they sit near the top of the standings in the Florida State League South. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 1, South Bend 5 Box Score As has been the trend for most of this season, the Kernels offense had a tough time getting moving on Saturday night. Only three players managed hits in the game and the team left six men on base (1-for-4 with RISP). LaMonte Wade reached base in three of his four at-bats. Christian Cavaness went 1-for-2 with an RBI and a walk. Sean Miller scored the team's only run after he singled and stole second in the fifth frame. South Bend jumped out to an early lead after some wild plays in the first inning. The first three batters reached after a pair of singles and a throwing error by Miller. Starting pitcher Dereck Rodriguez struck out a batter before a couple of doubles and a wild pitch allowed the inning to continue. The Kernels have only lost 10 games and Rodriguez has been charged with four of those losses even though he only gave up one earned run in this game. He struck out four and walked one in four innings. Mile Nordgren did well in relief by pitching three scoreless frames. He had to dance around five hits and a walk but he continued to put zeros on the board. Michael Theofanopoulos struck out four and walked three in two scoreless innings. It was his fifth straight appearance without allowing an earned run. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day- Felix Jorge, Fort Myers Miracle Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day- Wilfredo Tovar, Rochester Red Wings SUNDAYS'S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester vs. Scranton/WB (12:35 CST)- RHP David Martinez (0-1 4.00 ERA) Chattanooga vs. Montgomery (1:15 CST)- RHP Aaron Slegers (1-1, 3.91 ERA) Fort Myers @ Charlotte (11:35 am CST)- LHP Randy Rosario (2-1, 1.02 ERA) Cedar Rapids vs. West Michigan (2:05 CST)- RHP Cody Stashak (2-0, 1.13 ERA) Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss the Saturday games. Click here to view the article

In Monday night’s Twins game, the team had 14 pitchers on their 25-man roster. That means - do the math with me - they had just 11 position players. That meant a bench of just two players. While in most games, that will be just fine, it’s certainly not an ideal situation over the course of the season. Very soon, the Twins will likely make a move to get down to 13 pitchers which is still more than they would like to have, or than they started the season with. So, which hitters could be on the verge of a promotion to the Twins. How They Got To 14 As Nick wrote on Monday afternoon, the Twins got into this situation with a series of transactions. They activated Danny Santana, recalled Alex Meyer and optioned both Byron Buxton and Max Kepler to Rochester. The other issue right now is the physical status of pitchers Ervin Santana and Tyler Duffey. Duffey was promoted to the Twins to make the start on Sunday in place of Santana who was experiencing a stiff back. If the Twins knew that Santana would be able to make his next start, Duffey could be sent back to Rochester. However, the fact that Duffey took the line drive off of his shoulder means that the Twins couldn’t just send him back to Rochester without making sure he was OK. As much as there are other pitchers in Rochester who could (maybe even ‘should’) come up to the Twins, right now is not the time. Current Situation - Hitters Here are the hitters currently on the Twins 25-man roster: Kurt Suzuki - Catcher John Ryan Murphy - Catcher Joe Mauer - First Base Byung Ho Park - First Base Brian Dozier - Second Base Eduardo Escobar - Shortstop (Third Base, Second Base) Eduardo Nunez - Third Base (Shortstop, Corner Outfield) Oswaldo Arcia - Left Field (Right Field) Eddie Rosario - Left Field (Center Field, Right Field) Danny Santana - Center Field (Right Field, Third Base, Shortstop) Miguel Sano - Right Field (Third Base) (Secondary positions listed in parentheses) No need for a catcher right now.No need for a first base/DH/Corner outfield guy right now.Santana and Rosario can play center field.There isn’t one single position where they don’t have at least 2-3 options, so it’s really just about adding depth, allowing for managerial decisions, feeling more comfortable with substitutions, etc. PROMOTION OPTIONS Darin Mastroianni - 55% - I would say the most likely to be added to the 25- and 40-man rosters would be Mastroianni. He had a tremendous spring training. While he is hitting just .200 (in 71 plate appearances), he’s been on base 35.7% of the time. And, as it relates to the Twins, he would immediately come in and be their second best outfielder, behind only Eddie Rosario. James Beresford - 35% - This is where a blogger can admit his bias. I would really like to see James Beresford get an opportunity with the Twins. Consider, he signed with the Twins in August of 2005. He’s gradually worked his way up the system. Last year in Rochester, he was a midseason and postseason All-Star. He returned to the organization this offseason for the third time when he could have left as a free agent. He has primarily played second base in the last couple of years, but the Twins played him mostly at third base and first base in spring training. He, along with Mastroianni and Juan Centeno, spent the entire spring training with the big league club. Despite a slow start, he is now hitting .288/.333/.385 (.718) with three doubles and a triple. In other words, if the Twins chose to call up the 27-year-old, it would NOT just be a courtesy call-up. He’s earned it. Wilfredo Tovar - 10% - The Twins signed Tovar as a 6-year minor league free agent in the offseason. He is known for his glove at shortstop, but he’s played all three infield spots in his career. In 54 plate appearances this year, he is hitting .292/.358/.333 (.692) with two doubles. He’s also just 24 years old. Also note, Byron Buxton, Max Kepler and Jorge Polanco can’t be recalled to the big leagues for ten days (from when they were sent down) unless a position player were to be added to the disabled list. The Twins may have been surprised when David Murphy decided to opt out of his minor league contract rather than join the Twins, but in my mind, any of the above three players would make more sense to the Twins 25-man roster than Murphy would have. So now it comes down to whether you believe the Twins need to add an outfielder or an infielder for depth. If they want to get down to 12 pitchers again, it’s possible two of these guys could come up for bench depth, but then there would need to be another 40-man roster decision too. Click here to view the article