Twins Minor League Report (6/8): Encarnacion-Strand Continues to Mash, Emmanuel Rodriguez Injured

[Andrew Mahlke]

Two Twins’ affiliates had huge offensive days. Christian Encarnacion-Strand continued his torrid season. Jake Cave had a big day. Spencer Steer reached base four times. Emmanuel Rodriguez suffered an injury.

Let’s see what else happened this Wednesday in the Twins organization.

TRANSACTIONS

• SS Carlos Correa activated from the Covid IL
• Twins designated RHP Juan Minaya for assignment
• Twins selected the contract of RHP Jharel Cotton from St. Paul
• Twins returned SS Jermaine Palacios to St. Paul
• Wichita placed RHP Matt Canterino on 7-day IL
• CF Kennie Taylor assigned to Wichita from Cedar Rapids
• C Kyle Schmidt assigned to Wichita from Fort Myers

SAINTS (AAA)
St. Paul 12, Rochester 2
Box Score

In the battle of the Twins AAA affiliates, the Saints came out on top as they won 12-2 Wednesday night.

Former All-Star Aaron Sanchez made his first start for the Saints after being signed to a minor-league deal on Tuesday. Sanchez threw well in the first inning, allowing a walk but striking out two en route to putting up a zero in his first inning as a Saint.

The Saints' offense welcomed Sanchez with some great run support, as they had an eight-run first inning. The scoring started when Tim Beckham singled, scoring Spencer Steer. The next batter was Jake Cave, who roped a triple off the wall in left-center field, scoring Beckham and Alex Kirilloff. Mark Contreras singled in Cave, and Michael Helman doubled in Contreras to make it a five-run lead. Later in the inning, Steer singled in a run in his second plate appearance of the inning, and one more run scored on an error to make it an eight-run inning.

Sanchez went three innings, allowing two runs on three hits and a walk while striking out four batters. Tyler Thornburg came on in relief of Sanchez and pitched two great innings, not allowing any runs while striking out three. Thornburg picked up his first win of the year in only his second appearance for the Saints.

In the bottom of the fourth, Cave hit his sixth homer of the year and Caleb Hamilton singled in Contreras, who doubled, to give the Saints a 10-2 lead. One inning later, the Saints scored two more runs thanks to a couple of walks, an RBI groundout from Beckham, and a single from Cave.

Mario Sanchez pitched the last four innings for St. Paul to earn the rare four-inning save, his first save of the year. Sanchez didn’t allow any hits and struck out six in his four innings of work. With the win, the Saints improve to 26-29 on the year. Cave and Contreras had three hits apiece to lead the offense, while Steer and Beckham had two apiece.

WIND SURGE (AA)
The Wichita-Arkansas game was postponed due to rain. The two teams will play a doubleheader beginning at 5:05 PM CST on Thursday.

KERNELS (HIGH-A)
Cedar Rapids 12, South Bend 5
Box Score

The Cedar Rapids Kernels rode some hot bats en route to a 12-5 victory over the South Bend Cubs on Wednesday. They got three runs in the first inning thanks to a solo home run by Christian Encarnacion-Strand and a two-run shot by Seth Gray. Starting pitcher John Stankiewicz took the mound with a three-run lead and did his part to ensure that the lead stayed intact. Stankiewicz went four innings for the Kernels, allowing two runs on four hits and a walk while striking out five batters.

In the top of the second, the Kernels continued their hot hitting as Dylan Neuse launched his first homer as a Kernel to give them a four-run lead. Two batters later, Encarnacion-Strand hit his second homer in as many innings to give them a six-run lead.

After two scoreless innings for the Kernels, Wander Javier hit an RBI single in the top of the fifth and Charles Mack followed with a three-run homer to give the Kernels an eight-run lead. Cody Laweryson came on in relief of Stankiewicz and pitched two scoreless innings, skating around three hits while striking out two.

Jeferson Morales hit a two-run bomb in the seventh to give the Kernels a ten-run advantage, his fourth of the year. After they took a ten-run lead, the Kernels put in Tyler Palm who threw an inning in relief, allowing two runs. After that, they called on Orlando Rodriguez to finish the game and he threw the eighth and ninth innings, allowing only one run.

With the win, the Kernels improved to 35-18 on the year. Encarnacion-Strand and Gray each finished with two-hit games and combined to score five runs as they paced the offense in the victory.

MIGHTY MUSSELS (LOW-A)
Fort Myers 3, Daytona 2
Box Score

Unlike the Saints and the Kernels, the Mighty Mussels won a low-scoring affair on Wednesday. Jaylen Nowlin got the start for the Mighty Mussels and was very good, throwing three scoreless innings while allowing one hit and striking out six. He now has 41 strikeouts in 24 and ⅔ innings this year. Jackson Hicks relieved him, throwing two scoreless innings while striking out two.

The game was deadlocked at 0-0 until the top of the sixth when Rubel Cespedes reached on an error by the shortstop, scoring Noah Cardenas and Kala’i Rosario. The bigger news that inning happened when TwinsDaily’s #8 prospect Emmanuel Rodriguez sustained a lower-body injury attempting to advance to third on a dirt ball. He was taken out of the game and the trainer was seen transporting crutches to the dugout.

After Hicks exited, the Mighty Mussels put in Regi Grace for the bottom of the sixth and he pitched out of a jam in the sixth but allowed two two-out runs in the bottom of the seventh. A third run was prevented from scoring when Noah Miller threw a runner out at the plate.

The Mighty Mussels retook the lead for good in the top of the eighth when Rosario doubled in Mikey Perez, who doubled. Malik Barrington pitched the last two innings and dominated, striking out four while not allowing a baserunner.

The Mighty Mussels improved to 35-17 on the year with the win. Rosario led the offense going 2-for-4 with two doubles, and Cardenas reached base three times in the win.

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Mario Sanchez (St. Paul) - 4 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 BB, 6 K, Save(1)
Hitter of the Day – Christian Encarnacion-Strand (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-5, 2 HR (12), 2 R, 3 RBI

PROSPECT SUMMARY
We will again keep tabs on the Twins' top prospects. You’ll probably read about them in the team sections, but if they aren’t there, you’ll see how they did here. 

Here’s a look at how the current Twins Daily Top 20 performed:
#3 - Jose Miranda (Minnesota) - 3-for-4, R, 2B (7), 3 RBI
#7 - Spencer Steer (St. Paul) - 2-for-4, 2B (4), R, RBI, 2 BB
#8 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (Ft. Myers) - 0-for-1, 2 BB
#9 - Noah Miller (Ft. Myers) - 0-for-4
#18 - Christian Encarnacion-Strand (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-5, 2 HR (12), 2 R, 3 RBI

THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
Rochester @ St. Paul (7:07 CST) - RHP Ronny Henriquez (0-2, 8.07 ERA)
Game 1: Wichita @ Arkansas (5:05 CST) - RHP Casey Legumina (0-2, 8.82 ERA)
Game 2: Wichita @ Arkansas (TBD) - Pitcher TBD; will be updated
Cedar Rapids @ South Bend (6:05 PM CST) - RHP David Festa (3-0, 2.63 ERA)
Fort Myers @ Daytona (6:05 PM CST) - LHP Jordan Carr (0-0, 3.00 ERA) (First start with Ft. Myers)

Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Wednesday’s games!

Thank you for reading, and Go Twins!

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[FlyingFinn]

Great games by all the teams. That's the good. The very bad is Canterino to the IL and Emmanuel Rodriguez on crutches. OUCH!

[In My La Z boy]

Very promising next wave coming in 2-3 years with the play in Low and High A ball so far this year. We also still have some major league talent in St Paul with Kirilloff, Steer, Beckham and Cave. It will be interesting to watch as the trade deadline approaches and how we look to improve the major league pitching staff for a late season run. We have some excellent talent 2-3 years away, and we have some major league depth at corner outfield and middle infield.

[Dman]

St Pauls first three hitters although newcomers all have OPS's in the 1.000 range. Cave has been on fire recently and Contreras and Hamilton are pretty good hitters themselves.  The offense has been on fire since the Steer promotion.

CES seems to have found his power stroke again and that is good to see.  Big night for the hitters at high A.

If Rodriguez is out for a while I wonder if Ft Myers can keep up their current winning pace.  He is a huge part of the offense and with Miller slumping other players are going to have to step up.  Pitching should keep them close.

[mikelink45]

So sad to see Rodriguez and Canterino go down - a real setback for both.  I know that Canterino has been treated to limited innings and pitches, but obviously that is not enough to prevent an injury.  

The Saints offense is great and players are waiting for a call up, but with the Twins lineup now set I do not see where these players will fit into the MLB roster. 

[roger]

Hurts that Rodriguez will miss some time as I see him as someone who could move quickly up the ladder to the Twins.  But what really hurts is Canterino going on the IL.  Any word on what the injury is, how long he is expected to be out?  This kid just can't seem to get healthy and put a full year under his belt.  It's a shame, damn shame.  

Loved seeing Rosario with another big night.  Hopefully, he will continue hitting well and put his early season slump behind him.

[Trov]

Sad to hear E-Rod needed help off field.  Lets hope it is not a major injury but only miss a few weeks at most.  He was set to get moved up to High A I bet soon.  

[RJA]

I hope Canterino only has a short setback and that the Rodriguez injury is less severe than it looks.  Hate to see young players fighting injuries.  The Twins do have a talented bunch of young hitters--Lewis, Larnach, Kirilloff, Miranda, Steer, and Celestino.  Now that Wallner is starting to rock, and with CES showing great promise, it looks like more are on the way.  The young pitching also looks great with Ryan, Ober, Winder, Duran, Jax, Alcala, and Canterino, but five of them are injured.  The future looks bright so long as they can get and stay healthy.  I do think at least one of the young guys will be traded for pitching by the deadline.  

[nicksaviking]

Hope it's only a sprained ankle for Rodriguez. 7 Day IL for Canterino is only an illness, so that's good news.

[PDX Twin]

It's really wonderful to see Cave getting hot in time to join the Twins' roster!

[puckstopper1]

Mario Sanchez is quietly putting together a nice start to his season.  While he won't get a lot of love from some on this site because of his low K/9 totals, having a WHIP of 1.0 is one indication he is getting the job done IMO.

[Doctor Gast]

I am happy that Cave is doing well at StP. I don't have anything against Cave, I think he's an OK back up corner OF. But my gripe is with management that they wanted him as a back up at CF for so many years. He blocked FO from going out and getting a legit CF back up from outside the organization and even inside the organization, I deemed better.

If Cave is promoted to the club. I'll have nightmares of Cave put in CF ahead of Celestino and Gordon. Again I'm happy for Cave and wish him well there. Yet I don't ever see him realisticly called up with all the players that have been allowed to shine ahead of him. Keep him in AAA or trade him for a RP

 

[Dman]

42 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

I am happy that Cave is doing well at StP. I don't have anything against Cave, I think he's an OK back up corner OF. But my gripe is with management that they wanted him as a back at CF for so many years. He blocked FO from going out and getting a legit CF back up from outside the organization and even inside the organization, I deemed better.

If Cave is promoted to the club. I'll have nightmares of Cave put in CF ahead of Celestino and Gordon. Again I'm happy for Cave and wish him well there. Yet I don't ever see him realisticly called up with all the players that have been allowed to shine ahead of him. Keep him in AAA or trade him for a RP

 

With what Celestino is doing I don't think you have to worry about Cave coming back and given the Twins brought up Contreras instead of Cave shows that he will really need to shine to get another chance.  He really is just a break glass in case of emergency option and I could see him moving on at some point if a rebuilding team will give him a chance.  He is a good player but I think he is a very marginal MLB player at least IMO.

[High heat]

Is CES and Steers the real deal?  I mean it’s now Mid June.  CES going to be moved up to Wichita shortly?