Article: Twins Minor League Report (5/13): Banner Day Highlighted by Miracle Comeback

[Tom Froemming]

Jose Berrios made his triumphant return to the majors, turning in a performance that got Twins fans’ hearts all aflutter. It was also a banner day in the minor leagues highlighted by a near no hitter, two dramatic comebacks and numerous noteworthy performances. Oh, and everybody won.

Find out what else happened around the Twins' minor leagues on Saturday.Transactions

Michael Tonkin cleared waivers and was assigned to Rochester. Things didn’t go the way he had hoped with the Twins, but he’ll surely be an asset for the Red Wings. Over 118.2 innings in Triple A, he has a 2.65 ERA, 1.045 WHIP, 9.7 K/9 and 5.12 K/BB ratio.

 

RED WINGS REPORT

Rochester 3, Pawtucket 1

Box Score

 

Aaron Slegers completed six no-hit innings for the second time this season, as he and battery mate Mitch Garver led the Wings to victory. Slegers went 7.1 innings, surrendering one run on three hits and a walk while striking out five.

 

Along with helping guide Slegers through a masterful performance, Garver went 3-for-4 and slugged his second homer of the year. The ninth-rounder from 2013 boosted his batting line to .269/.415/.500.

 

Ben Paulsen was 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles and a run scored. ByungHo Park notched his first hit since returning from the DL, and it was a #ParkBang.

 

D.J. Baxendale was the first man out of the pen, recording the final two outs of the eighth. Buddy Boshers retired the first two batters he faced in the ninth before walking cleanup man Sam Travis. Alan Busenitz came in and walked another batter, putting the tying run on base, before striking out the next hitter on a nasty curveball to end it.

 

Busenitz, acquired in the same deal that brought Hector Santiago to the Twins, now has a 2.84 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and 16 strikeouts over 12.2 innings this season.

 

CHATTANOOGA CHATTER

Chattanooga 9, Birmingham 6

Box Score

 

With the Lookouts trailing 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh, LaMonte Wade drew a leadoff walk that sparked a three-run rally. Unfortunately, the Chattanooga bullpen blew that lead, meaning Wade’s services were needed once again in the eighth.

 

Wade lined a leadoff single, stole second base and scored. The Looks batted around, and just for good measure Wade drew yet another walk later in the inning. His OBP is up to .465. Of course, the only reason Wade batted three times in two innings was his Chattanooga teammates were beating up the Barons as well.

 

Edgar Corcino started the game on the bench and still managed to drive in four runs on a pair of hits. Nick Gordon had another excellent night out of the leadoff spot, going 2-for-4 with a walk and two RBI. First baseman Jonathan Rodriguez was 3-for-5 and scored twice.

 

Fernando Romero had a rough first couple of appearances for Chattanooga, but Saturday he pitched into the sixth inning for the fifth-straight start. The 22-year-old gave up two runs in the first inning, but he surrendered just one more unearned run from there. He struck out four over 5.2 innings.

 

The Twins have more relief prospects than you can shake a stick at, which is pretty much all opposing hitters could do in the box against Luke Bard. The No. 42 overall pick of the 2012 draft, Bard struck out the first five batters he faced, gave up a double, then got the next batter on strikes for his sixth K of the evening.

 

Bard has now struck out 31 batters in 18.2 innings. That’s preposterous. Just silly what he’s doing to Southern League hitters right now. Unfortunately, Mason Melotakis allowed that inherited runner of Bard’s to score. Todd Van Steensel tallied two strikeouts of his own in the ninth inning, giving him 20 Ks in 15.1 innings on the season.

 

MIRACLE MATTERS

Fort Myers 7, Charlotte 6

Box Score

 

Down 6-1 heading into the top of the eighth, it seemed Fort Myers needed, well ... a miracle to pull out a victory Saturday night. Turned out all they needed was some rain. With the rain falling the Miracle managed to score four runs in the eighth before adding the game-tying and go-ahead runs in the top of the ninth.

 

Chris Paul was right in the thick of things each of those epic final two innings. A sixth-round pick in 2015, Paul delivered a single to load the bases in the eighth and later came around to score. He followed that up by driving in the game-winning run on a double in the ninth. After a three-hit night, Paul’s average is up to .317.

 

The rain didn’t seem to faze Sam Clay, who held Charlotte scoreless over the final two innings to earn his fourth win out of the bullpen. It was Clay’s 10th consecutive scoreless appearance, a streak that stretches 19.2 innings.

 

Shane Kennedy went 2-for-4 with a triple, a walk and both scored and drove in a pair of runs. Catcher Kevin Garcia also had two RBI, Max Murphy scored twice and stole a base and Zander Wiel went 2-for-5 with his fourth triple of the season.

 

Dereck Rodriguez extended his streak of completing six or more innings to six straight starts. He gave up four runs on seven hits and a walk while striking out four.

 

KERNELS NUGGETS

Cedar Rapids 7, Bowling Green 5

Box Score

 

There was no comeback needed for the Kernels, as they racked up five first-inning runs and piled on another pair of runs in the second. Lewin Diaz was 3-for-5 with his fourth home run, two RBI and two runs scored. Christian Cavaness went 2-for-4 and slugged his second homer, a two-run shot.

 

Clark Beeker, who was cruising through six innings, picked up his fifth win but his performance was somewhat tainted by giving up three runs in the seventh. Colton Davis, Andrew Vasquez and Hector Lujan combined to pitch three scoreless innings in relief. Vasquez, a lefty, struck out four batters, giving him 23 K's in 14.2 innings on the year.

 

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY

Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Aaron Slegers (had a no-hitter through 6.1 innings)

Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Chris Paul (delivered game-winning hit in crazy Miracle comeback win)

 

SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

Rochester at Pawtucket, 12:35 CT, Kyle Gibson (4.50 ERA, 1.17 WHIP)

Chattanooga vs. Birmingham, 1:15 CT, Paul Clemens (4.06 ERA, 1.48 WHIP)

Fort Myers OFF

Cedar Rapids OFF

 

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

 

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[Seth Stohs]

Clay's streak is impressive since his first outing of the year. Nick Anderson started his season with 13.1 scoreless innings, and that ended tonight. 

 

Good day for the Twins organization...

 

And... I'm still waiting for Lewis Thorpe's return. He put on instagram that he was pitching on Thursday, but we shall see. 

[jimbo92107]

I have noticed when ByungHo Park connects, the outfielders just kind of turn around to see how far up into the stands the ball goes. 

 

Mitch Garver is bucking for a promotion. Which of the two Twins catchers has the lowest batting average? Might be time for a swap. 

[Carneal&Gordon]

I wonder how many true "perfect" days the Twins organization have had in the last several years?

 

Great recap Tom, love the video inserts.

 

Forgot Busenitz was in the Santiago trade, good nugget.

[DocBauer]

I have noticed when ByungHo Park connects, the outfielders just kind of turn around to see how far up into the stands the ball goes. 

 

Mitch Garver is bucking for a promotion. Which of the two Twins catchers has the lowest batting average? Might be time for a swap.

 

With all due respect for his work behind the plate to help the Twins, I wonder about a trade of Giminez at some point when a team out there needs catching help.

[DocBauer]

With all the "free Burdi" love out there, I wonder if there shouldn't be some "free Bard" cries out there as well. Maybe not to the majors, but soon to Rochester. I get that injuries curtailed his career early, and even made any sort of career questionable, but he really seems to have found himself.

 

Very glad the organization resisted Romero beginning the season back in A+. He seems to have accepted the AA challenge and is getting better and better. Considering his stuff and potential along with his youth, and previous time missed, I'd be OK if he spent most, if not all season, in AA and just kept working and improving.

[mikelink45]

This site continues to show me great relief pitchers, but it does not seem that the Twins have any belief in them or we would see some of these arms coming to the bigs instead of recycling Boshers and picking up scraps from other teams.  Are we overrating our relief pitcher prospects?  

I know Tonkin had great reviews in the past, but no team would even take him off the wires when we DFA's him - http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/players/playerpage/2027421/michael-tonkin

 

I keep waiting for Burdi and others from these reports to replace Pressly and Breslow.  Please explain to me why the Twins are not using these arms while they are still young.

[bird]

 

With all due respect for his work behind the plate to help the Twins, I wonder about a trade of Giminez at some point when a team out there needs catching help.

 

Yeah, let's pull off another Butera thing, which I think went Sulbaran to Nunez to Adelberto Mejia, correct?

[Tom Froemming]

 

Very glad the organization resisted Romero beginning the season back in A+. He seems to have accepted the AA challenge and is getting better and better. Considering his stuff and potential along with his youth, and previous time missed, I'd be OK if he spent most, if not all season, in AA and just kept working and improving.

Agreed, and it's nice to see him figuring out how to navigate through some trouble. He was so dominant last year he didn't really have to do that often. It looks like he's facing older hitters almost 90 percent of the time, so Double A should be plenty enough of a challenge for him this year.

 

 keep waiting for Burdi and others from these reports to replace Pressly and Breslow.  Please explain to me why the Twins are not using these arms while they are still young.

There are a lot of the top bullpen arms who are coming off some sort of injury and haven't really been used in back-to-back games often, if at all. And I know Pressly has struggled so far, but it's important to put into context that if you put him back in the minors I'm sure he'd put up numbers just as impressive as anybody.

 

People seem a little fixated on Burdi. I get it, he's got triple-digit heat, but in my eyes there are a few other guys ahead of him in the pecking order right now. Burdi only threw three innings last season, and over a grand total of 60.1 innings in Double A he's averaged 5.5 BB/9. He needs to have an extended stretch where he's healthy and throwing strikes. We may be witnessing the start of that stretch (he's down to 2.6 BB/9 so far in 2017), but he has not pitched back-to-back days yet. I'm excited about Burdi, but I really don't expect him up with the Twins until maybe September, if at all this year.

[Tibs]

Interesting start of the year for Aaron Slegers. He has three really good starts giving up 1 earned run in 21.1 IP and three bad starts when he has given up 16 earned runs in 12.2 IP. In two of his good starts he gave up no hits through 6 innings. 

[Mike Sixel]

Why does Burdi need to be healthy for an extended time? He has options. Bring him up, or move him to AAA while healthy.