Article: Twins Minor League Report (9/4): Kranson Leads E-Twins To Game 3

[Seth Stohs]

Happy Labor Day! Welcome to a bittersweet day, the end of the minor league regular season. On Sunday the Miracle played their final game, a morning tilt. Elizabethton played a thriller with their neighbor to the east in Game 2 to set up a big Game 3 tonight. The Kernels will be the only other Twins affiliate advancing to the playoffs. We’ll have one more regular-season Twins Minor League Report for games on Monday, but don’t worry, we’ll cover the Kernels and E-Twins in the playoffs as long as they’re going.Find out everything that happened in the Twins minor league system on Sunday.

 

RED WINGS REPORT

Rochester 5, Lehigh Valley 4

Box Score

 

With no playoff hopes to play for, the Red Wings put together a solid performance and came away with their 81st win of the season.

Omar Bencomo provided a quality start. The right-hander gave up two runs on six hits over the first six innings. He walked one and struck out four. Alan Busenitz came on and gave up one run on two hits and a walk in 1.2 innings. Edward Mujica gave up a run on a hit over the final 1.1 innings. He struck out two and recorded his 26th save of the season.

 

Tanner English had another solid game at the top of the Red Wings lineup. He went 2-4 with a walk and his first double. He also stole his second base. Kennys Vargas went 2-3 with a walk and his 16th double. Leonardo Reginnato went 2-4 with his third double. The double cleared the bases in the Red Wings big four-run 8th inning. Mitch Garver went 2-2 with two walks and his fifth double. Adam Brett Walker knocked his fifth triple.

 

 

CHATTANOOGA CHATTER

Chattanooga 5, Jackson 8

Box Score

 

Ryan Eades made his final start of the season. He gave up five runs on four hits, four walks and a hit batter over four innings. He struck out four. Luke Bard walked three and hit a batter over two innings, but he didn’t give up a hit or a run. He struck out two. Randy Rosario got the final two innings. He gave up three runs on four hits. He walked two and struck out four.

 

Niko Goodrum led the offense. He went 3-3 with a walk and his tenth double. He stole two bases. TJ White stayed hot. He went 2-3 with a walk and two runs driven in. Dalton Hicks went 2-4 with his 27th double. Zack Granite stole his 55th base.

 

 

MIRACLE MATTERS

Ft. Myers 5, Bradenton 2

Box Score

 

The Miracle ended their 2016 season with a 9:35 am start time. Keaton Steele ended his 2016 season strong. For the seventh straight start, he put together a quality start. The right-hander gave up two runs on four hits over seven innings. He walked two and struck out seven. John Curtiss and Nick Anderson finished out the win as each threw a scoreless inning in relief. For Anderson, it was his 10th save with the Miracle.

 

Daniel Kihle, batting ninth, led the Miracle offense. He went 3-3 with a walk, his fourth double and his second home run. AJ Murray went 2-4 including his fourth home run of the year. It was his second straight game with a homer. Alex Perez was also 2-4. Christian Ibarra added his fifth double.

 

The Miracle ended their season 70-68.

 

 

KERNELS NUGGETS

Cedar Rapids 0, Wisconsin 5

Box Score

 

Sam Gibbons took the mound for the Kernels. The right-hander gave up five runs (3 earned) on eight hits and two walks in seven innings. He struck out five. Andrew Vasquez struck out three over two perfect innings in relief.

 

JJ Fernandez went 3-4. Casey Scoggins was 2-5 with his sixth double. Christian Cavaness added his third triple.

 

 

E-TWINS E-NOTES

Elizabethton 8, Johnson City 7

Box Score

 

The E-Twins traveled the four miles from their ballpark to Johnson City for Game 2 of the first round of the Appalachian League playoffs. Following a Game 1 loss at home, the Twins were in a must-win situation. This game went back and forth, but the Twins live to see another day, a Game 3 on Monday night with the winner advancing to the Appy League championship series.

 

Tyler Wells has been terrific of late. However, he gave up six runs on seven hits and a walk in just 3.1 innings in this game. In the third inning, former Gophers standout Matt Fiedler launched a three-run homer to give Johnson City a 4-1 lead.

 

The Twins scored four runs in the top of the fourth on a series of hits and JC errors. The big hit was a two-run double off the bat of Mitchell Kranson.

 

Ryan Mason replaced Wells and was charged with one run on four hits and a walk over the next 3.2 innings. With a one-run lead, Ray Smith turned to his closer Patrick McGuff. McGuff gave up two hits but no runs over the final two innings to notch the save and send the series to a Game 3.

 

Kranson led the offense. He went 3-5 with that double and four big RBIs. Caleb Hamilton had another good playoff game. He was 3-4 with a double. Shane Carrier added a solo home run in the fifth which tied the game at six. Ben Rortvedt was 2-5 with a double.

 

In case you were wondering, with the GCL season complete, Aaron Whitefield has been sent to Tennessee to help the Twins on their playoff run. Alex Kirilloff was again out of the Twins lineup with his shoulder injury.

 

 

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY

 

Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Omar Bencomo, Rochester Red Wings

Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Mitchell Kranson, Elizabethton Twins

 

 

MONDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

 

Rochester @ Lehigh Valley (12:35 CST) - LHP David Hurlbut

Chattanooga @ Jackson (2:05 CST) - RHP Felix Jorge

Ft. Myers - Season Over

Clinton @ Cedar Rapids (2:05 CST) – RHP Eduarldo Del Rosario

Playoffs Round 1 Game 3: Elizabethton @ Johnson City (5:00 CST) - RHP Clark Beeker

GCL Twins - Season Over

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

 

Click here to view the article

[bird]

E-Town faces long odds with their young players against that veteran group the Cardinals have put together at Johnson City.

 

You see, most of the players, as you'd guess, have birth years of 1994 and 1995. For example. the Cards have 9 '94 guys and 8 '95 guys, including their 10th rounder from Minnesota who was born early in '95. The Twins also have 17 guys here.

 

The Cards have twice as many older players, guys born before '94 (10) than the Twins (5).

 

On the young side, the Cards have 3 '96 guys, the Twins 6, and the Cards have 2 '97 guys while the Twins have 3. 

 

[Seth Stohs]

That said, Clark Beeker has been quite good. In August, he made three relief appearances before moving into their rotation. For the month, he went 1-1 with a 1.52 ERA, a 0.85 WHIP, and 5 BB/26 K in 23.2 innings. So they probably have the right guy going for them. 

 

But yeah, the E-Twins do have a younger team than usual in the Appy League. Too bad Kirilloff hasn't been able to play.