Twins Minor League Report (5/14): No-No for the Moms!

[Ted Schwerzler]

Fort Myers kicked off Mother’s Day action in the Twins farm system. Notching a combined no-hitter was quite the way to show off during an early start.

Image courtesy of Fort Myers Mighty Mussels

SAINTS SENTINEL 
Indianapolis 15, St. Paul 3
Box Score

Having worked as a reliever earlier in the year, Jordan Balazovic took the ball to start for St. Paul on Sunday. He went 3 2/3 innings while allowing five runs on four hits. Only three of the runs were earned, however, and he gave up just a single walk while striking out four. He was nearly perfect through the game's first three innings. 

Looking for an early lead, the Saints got on the board in the first when Matt Wallner lifted a sacrifice fly to score Edouard Julien. Mark Contreras continued his hot hitting later in the frame and singled in Kyle Garlick to make it 2-0. A five-run 4th inning for Indianapolis had the Saints looking up at a deficit, but Wallner brought them closer when he hit his fourth homer of the season in the 5th inning.

After Austin Schulfer worked a scoreless 1 1/3 innings, Ronny Henriquez came on for St. Paul. He gave up a run on three hits. The Saints had four innings to crawl out of a three-run hole. Unfortunately, Indianapolis added again in the 7th inning and the deficit was 8-3. Despite loading the bases in the bottom of the 8th inning, St. Paul couldn't push a run across. Whatever slim chance they may have had in the 9th inning was dashed as Indianapolis followed the Twins lead and put up a seven-run frame. All of the runs came against Josh Winder.

Elliot Soto and Edouard Julien struck out before Kyle Garlick grounded out in the bottom half to end the game. Of the seven hits, Contreras was the only one to generate a pair.

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Cancelled - Rain

The Wind Surge won all five games of the series against Frisco. Infielder Yunior Severino was named the Minnesota Twins minor league hitter of the week after he batted .444 with four homers.

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 2, Quad Cities 0
Box Score

Jordan Carr worked the Sunday matinee for the Kernels, and he was sharp across six innings. Allowing no runs on four hits and two walks, Carr also punched out six batters to lower his season ERA to 2.25.

Both sides were scoreless through four innings, and then Cedar Rapids jumped to a lead. Tanner Schobel recorded his second triple of the year and drove in Emmanuel Rodriguez to make it 1-0. Kala’i Rosario followed with his ninth double of the season, and the Kernels found themselves leaving the frame with a 2-0 lead.

The Kernels wound up with six hits on the day, but the two runs they scored in the 5th inning were all they needed for the win. Rosario was joined by Jeferson Morales with a pair of hits.

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 3, Tampa 0
Box Score

Getting in a morning game for Mother’s Day, Fort Myers turned to Cory Lewis, and he did not disappoint. Working 5 2/3 innings, he didn’t allow a batter to reach while punching out seven. That was just the beginning of an amazing day as A.J. Labas, Gabriel Yanez, and Ben Ethridge took over to complete a combined no-hitter.

 

The Mighty Mussels scored in the 3rd inning when Jorel Ortega singled in Yohander Martinez. They added in the 5th inning when Andrew Cossetti’s single turned into a throwing error that allowed Martinez a chance to scamper home again. Wrapping up the scoring, Dalton Shuffield and Cossetti swiped bags on a double steal with the former running home on a throwing error.

Fort Myers only got four hits, but when your pitching is as dominant as it was, there was never a doubt. Lewis has been impressive while being an arm that displays a knuckleball but being able to do much more than act as a soft tossing type. The relievers backing him up today held down the Tarpons lineup, and while the combined no-hitter would have been cool, displaying command to lock in a perfect game could have been the icing on the cake. Only a wild pitch on a strikeout allowed a Tampa batter to reach.

Headed to Lakeland this week, Fort Myers will certainly bask in this one a little bit. They finished the series with a sweep. It was their fourth no-hitter across the past three seasons.

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Cory Lewis (Fort Myers) - 5.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K
Hitter of the Day – Matt Wallner (St. Paul) - 1-3, 2 RBI, HR(4)

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 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (Cedar Rapids) - 0-3, R, 2 BB, 2 K
#5 - Edouard Julien (St. Paul) - 0-4, R, BB, 3 K
#8 - Jose Salas (Cedar Rapids) - 1-3, K
#9 - Louie Varland (Minnesota) - 6.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 7 K
#11 - Matt Wallner (St. Paul) - 1-3, 2 RBI, HR(4)
#14 - Noah Miller (Cedar Rapids) - 0-4, K
#16 - Jordan Balazovic (St. Paul) - 3.2 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
#17 - Ronny Henriquez (St. Paul) - 1.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, BB
#18 - Tanner Schobel (Cedar Rapids) - 1-4, R, RBI, 3B(2), BB

TUESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul @ Columbus (6:05PM CST) - TBD
Arkansas @ Wichita (7:05PM CST) - TBD
Peoria @ Cedar Rapids (6:35PM CST) - TBD
Fort Myers @ Lakeland (5:30PM CST) - TBD

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

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[ashbury]

18 minutes ago, Ted Schwerzler said:

Getting in a morning game for Mother’s Day, Fort Myers  ...

Nicely pitched game though, LOL.

[FlyingFinn]

Great pitching from our A level clubs. Jordan Carr had some good game last year. If he can be more consistently good, that would be great. Anyone know if he's got the stuff to have a chance to make it up to the Twins? Obviously, he isn't on our top 30 prospect list right now. Lewis continues to dominate at Fort Myers.

If Gallo goes on the IL, Contreras may get a few days with the Twins. He probably would knock Rodriguez off the 40 man and then be a candidate to be DFA'd as well after Kepler is healthy, if the Twins need that 40 man spot.

[Linus]

Balozovic only gave up 3 earned runs …….in 3 .2 innings. That would be pretty much an era of 9. Come on let’s get a little less homer in our reports. 

[FlyingFinn]

2 minutes ago, Linus said:

Balozovic only gave up 3 earned runs …….in 3 .2 innings. That would be pretty much an era of 9. Come on let’s get a little less homer in our reports. 

He had 3 great innings and then blew up in the 4th (no clue of the quality of the hits). That was aided by his own error. Maybe still ramping up but his trend this year is to pitch 2 or 3 good innings and then lose it that next inning.

[ashbury]

3 hours ago, FlyingFinn said:

He had 3 great innings and then blew up in the 4th (no clue of the quality of the hits). That was aided by his own error. Maybe still ramping up but his trend this year is to pitch 2 or 3 good innings and then lose it that next inning.

Which, if nothing else, suggests a floor of "very good reliever."  That makes him useful, and gives him a career.

It's the starters who always give up first-inning runs, and then settle down, who bug me.  What exactly are you supposed to do with the guy, just accept being down 3-0, and then depend on the offense to catch up and the bullpen to be close to perfect, after he wobbles through four more innings of tightrope-walking?

[blindeke]

Saints score should be fixed... It was 15-3.

[Seth Stohs]

4 hours ago, FlyingFinn said:

If Gallo goes on the IL, Contreras may get a few days with the Twins. He probably would knock Rodriguez off the 40 man and then be a candidate to be DFA'd as well after Kepler is healthy, if the Twins need that 40 man spot.

If Gallo goes on the IL, they would just call up Wallner since he's on the 40-man roster already and that would be simple. 

[Jocko87]

1 hour ago, Seth Stohs said:

If Gallo goes on the IL, they would just call up Wallner since he's on the 40-man roster already and that would be simple. 

Or Garlick if they had a couple lefties coming around.

[2wins87]

12 hours ago, FlyingFinn said:

Great pitching from our A level clubs. Jordan Carr had some good game last year. If he can be more consistently good, that would be great. Anyone know if he's got the stuff to have a chance to make it up to the Twins? Obviously, he isn't on our top 30 prospect list right now. Lewis continues to dominate at Fort Myers.

I think the label "crafty lefty" would be apt. From statcast last year he topped out around 90, and I think he was throwing a mid 80s sinker though it was often classified as a change. Curveball/slider were decent.

K rate wasn't good last year but is higher this year so maybe he's added some stuff. 

[Dman]

Amazing that that the Fort Meyers pitchers walked no one the entire game. I think that stands out to me more than anything. They only K'd 9 guys so the ball was in play a fair bit but Tampa couldn't buy a hit.  Interesting that our hitters K'd 13 times but also walked 7 times so they were working counts but could not manage an extra base hit just singles.  Hard fought game on both sides but a no hitter pretty much trumps everything in baseball unless you give up walks and or have a huge error there is no way to score runs. 

The top of that lineup with Ortega, Shuffiled and Cossetti has to be tough for opposing teams.  Although they did leave a lot of men on base in clutch situations this time out.  Some nice bats that need to move up the end of this month for sure.

[mikelink45]

Balazovic remains a puzzle.  I suspect he will be brought up the Twins pen since at least half of it is in turmoil and not that reliable, but his future sure changed last year. 

I agree that Wallner comes up first but I would love to see Contreras get some game time, he  has earned it, but seems like one of those organizational career minor leaguers. 

[gman]

Balazovic was dominating the first 3 innings with his fastball at 96-97 with a few 99's thrown in, nine up nine down. The start of the 4th had a fly ball clang off of Wallner's glove and the batter was given a triple. Very iffy at best. The next batter reached out and knocked a single into left. A good hit on  a pitch outside the strike zone. The next batter I think the computer squeezed him on a walk. A grounder thrown into center( Balazovic) misplayed which Contreras and Wallner took turns bobbling in the outfield 2 runners scored. Batter taking third. He was cruising until the fourth. A learning experience for him. But some better defense would have helped a lot. Again he was dominating, but I do think his non fastball pitches need sharpening up. Still spring training games for him.