Twins Minor League Report (9/10): Keaschall Provides Power for Kernels

[Seth Stohs]

Sunday marked the final day of our Twins Daily minor league reports showcasing the team's four full-season affiliates. The Mighty Mussels' season is complete. Find out how they ended their season, and how the other Twins affiliates played on Sunday, and how many could reach the playoffs still. And yes, a couple of the 2023 draft picks had big games again! 

It's that time of year again. On Sunday, the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels and the Cedar Rapids Kernels regular seasons came to an end. The Kernels will begin their playoff run on Tuesday after winning their division titles in the first and second half. Wichita has one more week remaining in their regular season, and they are very much still in the hunt for a playoff spot. The Saints still have a couple of weeks remaining. 

Here are the records of the Twins and their six affiliates through games on Sunday. Check out the records of the Twins and their affiliates. 

Minnesota Twins: 73-66
St. Paul Saints: 79-58
Wichita Wind Surge: 62-69 
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 82-50
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 67-64 

Let’s get to the report. As always, please feel free to discuss and ask questions. 

TRANSACTIONS
Before the games on Sunday, the Twins placed Jorge Polanco on the Bereavement List. They called up OF Gilberto Celestino to take his roster spot. 

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 2, Louisville 3 (10 innings)
Box Score
The Saints and Bats needed one extra inning to decide a winner in this game. 

St. Paul got a first-inning run when Brooks Lee knocked his fourth Saints home run. In the fourth frame, Yunior Severino hit his eighth Saints home run (and 32 homers overall). 

Blayne Enlow started things for the Saints on Sunday. He gave up one run on two hits (one homer). Patrick Murphy came in and provided five scoreless innings. He gave up five hits, walked one and struck out two batters. Jordan Balazovic gave up one hit and walked two batters and got two outs in the eighth inning. Cole Sands came in with two on and two out and got the final out of the inning. He gave up one run in the bottom of the ninth inning to send it to extra innings. After the Saints went scoreless in the top of the 10th inning, Sands gave up the unearned run in the bottom of the inning to take the loss. 

Trevor Larnach hit his 12th and 13th doubles with the Saints. He was the lone batter to have more than one hit. Chris Williams went 1-for-3 with a walk and his 13th double. 

The Saints have two weeks remaining in their schedule. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 3, Corpus Christi 2
Box Score
The offenses were quiet through the first eight innings. As the game turned to the ninth, the Wind Surge scored two runs in the top of the inning and held on for the one-run win. 

The Wind Surge got on the board in the sixth inning when Alerick Soularie hit his 10th home run of the season to tie the game at 1-1. 

Fast-forward to the top of the ninth inning. With one out, Alex Isola walked, and Ben Ross ran for him. Seth Gray singled to right which allowed Ross to advance to third base. Jake Rucker followed with his 20th double of the season to drive in Ross and push Gray to third base. Willie Joe Garry singled to score Gray and give one extra insurance run. 

Jaylen Nowlin started and gave up one run on two hits and two walks and two hit batters in 2 1/3 innings. Isaac Mattson struck out three batters over the next 2 2/3 innings. He gave up just one hit. Curtis Taylor struck out four batters over the following 2 2/3 scoreless innings. Miguel Rodriguez got the final out of the eighth inning on a strikeout. He also struck out three batters in the ninth inning. He did give up two singles in the ninth, and an unearned run scored on an error, but he came up big with two strikeouts to end the game. 

Rucker went 3-for-4 with two doubles. Yoyner Fajardo went 3-for-4 with his 23rd double and seventh triple. Gray went 2-for-4. 

The Wind Surge have one more week of regular season play. They are currently just ½ game out of a playoff spot in their division. 

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 5, Wisconsin 8
Box Score
The Kernels regular season came to an end with an overall record of 82-50 and titles in the first half and the second half. They will start their playoff run on Tuesday. 

2023 draft pick Luke Keaschall led the Kernels offense. He went 3-for-5 including his first High-A home runs. He had a solo homer off of a rehabbing Brewers pitcher, lefty Aaron Ashby, in the first inning. Then in the fifth frame, he hit a two-run homer. Carson McCusker added his seventh Kernels home run. He also had seven home runs in his short time in Fort Myers. Jose Salas went 2-for-4 with his 13th double. Noah Miller went 2-for-5. Misael Urbina hit his 18th double. 

Alejandro Hidalgo started and gave up two runs on three hits and three walks over two innings. He had one strikeout. Jackson Hicks came in and gave up three runs on five hits. He recorded three outs. AJ Labas worked an inning and gave up three runs on two hits and three walks. He also threw two wild pitches. Matt Swain saved the bullpen a bit by working three scoreless innings. He gave up just one hit and hit one batter. Jarret Whorff pitched a scoreless eighth. 

The Kernels will travel to Peoria for Game 1 on Tuesday. Then they will have Wednesday off. Game 2 will be Thursday in Cedar Rapids, and if a Game 3 is necessary, the Kernels will host that game on Friday. 

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 3, Bradenton 5
Box Score
The Mighty Mussels season comes to an end with a loss and a record of 67-64. They will not make the playoffs this year, so their season is done. It’s possible a couple of these players will join the Kernels for their playoff run. 

Manager Brian Meyer went with Johnny Wholestaff in this season finale. Ben Ethridge started and gave up one run on three hits and a walk in three innings. He struck out three batters. He issued a walk to start the top of the fourth inning. He left with an injury and Develson Aria came in and got just one out. However, the lefty walked two batters and hit a batter. Zach Veen came in with the bases loaded and allowed two of the inherited runners to score. Veen recorded five outs without being charged with his own run. He had two walks. Down 3-0, a Nate Baez single drove in Ricardo Olivar in the bottom of the fifth inning to make it 3-1. Then two innings later, Walker Jenkins drilled a triple down the right field line to drive in Jay Harry with the team’s second run. Jenkins then scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Olivar. 

Nolan Santos walked two over two scoreless innings. Ty Langenberg came on for the eighth inning. He gave up two runs on three hits and two walks. He got the first two outs in the top of the ninth frame, but with the bases loaded, he was replaced by catcher Kyle Schmidt came in and got a ground out for the final out. 

Jenkins went 2-for-5 in the game with his third triple. Assuming that is his final game of his debut season, he ends it by hitting .362/.417/.571 (.988) with five doubles, four triples and three home runs. In his 12 games with theMighty Mussels, he hit .392/.446/.608 (1.054) with two doubles, three triples, and a homer.

Nate Baez went 2-for-4 with a walk. Kyle Schmidt - along with slamming the door on a Marauders ninth inning rally - had three walks in the game as a batter. Ricardo Olivar went 1-for-3 with a walk and his 28th double. 

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Hitter of the Day – Luke Keaschall (Cedar Rapids) - 3-for-5, 2-HR(2), 2 R, 3 RBI 
Pitcher of the Day – Patrick Murphy (St. Paul) - 5.0 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, BB, 2 K, 68 pitches, 49 strikes (72.1%)

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on the new Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Wednesday. 

#1 - Brooks Lee (St. Paul) - 1-for-5, HR(4), R, RBI
#2 - Walker Jenkins (Ft. Myers) - 2-for-5, 3B(3) R, RBI, 2 K
#7 - Austin Martin (St. Paul) - 1-for-4, BB, 2 K
#8 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 0-for-4 
#10 - Luke Keaschall (Cedar Rapids) - 3-for-5, 2-HR(2), 2 R, 3 RBI
#13 - Kala’i Rosario (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-5, 3 K
#14 - Yunior Severino (St. Paul) - 1-for-4, HR(8/32), R, RBI, 1 K
#16 - Jordan Balazovic (St. Paul) - 0.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 0 K, 17 pitches, 5 strikes (29.4%)

TUESDAY’S SCHEDULE AND PITCHING PROBABLES
St. Paul @ Iowa (6:38 PM CST) - TBD
Midland @ Wichita (7:05 PM CST) - TBD   
Playoffs: Game 1: Cedar Rapids @ Peoria (6:35 PM CST) - TBD 

Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Sunday’s games or any other Twins minor league topics! 

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[Mike Sixel]

Why not promote Jenkins to play more? Great debut either way!

[Seth Stohs]

2 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Why not promote Jenkins to play more? Great debut either way!

Danny De Andrade was not in the Mussels lineup today. Maybe he's moving up to the Kernels. 

[jkcarew]

Balazovic’s season was disappointing. Again.

A lot of guys to be excited about though. Thought De Andrade had a real nice somewhat under-the-radar season in the FSL having just turned 19 in April.

How do insiders view his defense at Short, Seth?

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, jkcarew said:

Balazovic’s season was disappointing. Again.

Really? He exceeded my expectations.

[pierre75275]

Sawyer Gipson-Long started for the Tigers today. Went 5 innings, gave up 2ER struck out 5 didn't walk anybody. Got the win. It was his major league debut.

Good for that young man.

 

[roger]

I don’t know what more Jenkins could have done.

[jkcarew]

46 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Really? He exceeded my expectations.

A 1.562 WHIP and 6.02 FIP with the Twins…and 1.704 WHIP and 5.4 ERA (not counting the 3 of 5 batters that reached against him in his final performance today) at St Paul? This for a 25 year old ranked prospect exceeded your expectations? He spent pretty much the whole season not having a clue where any of his pitches were going.

The only thing there to hang your hat on is that the entire season was a relatively small sample with only 66 innings total.

 

[DJL44]

2 hours ago, jkcarew said:

A 1.562 WHIP and 6.02 FIP with the Twins…and 1.704 WHIP and 5.4 ERA (not counting the 3 of 5 batters that reached against him in his final performance today) at St Paul? This for a 25 year old ranked prospect exceeded your expectations? He spent pretty much the whole season not having a clue where any of his pitches were going.

He had nearly a month where he contributed positively in the bullpen in the major leagues. I didn't think that would happen. I expected he would pitch himself off the roster and end up in some other organization by July. He hasn't been a "ranked" prospect in quite a while.

[Jocko87]

With Ft Myers done where does Paddack go on the next rehab step?  Been quiet since he pitched. 

[Karbo]

I'd love to see Jenkins move up to Cedar Rapids for a few games.

[Doctor Wu]

Meanwhile, Luke Keaschall is looking VERY good. Didn't know much about him before the draft, but he is looking like a great pick. 

[Omgbenji]

Seth et al. Thanks for another season of minor league reports. Best part of the site for me.

Is it just me, or does this look like an absolutely ferocious draft class? If we had only gotten Jenkins, I think it would still be a success, but there are just SO many promising dudes in our class. This could be such a boon for this farm system!

[wabene]

34 minutes ago, Omgbenji said:

Seth et al. Thanks for another season of minor league reports. Best part of the site for me.

Is it just me, or does this look like an absolutely ferocious draft class? If we had only gotten Jenkins, I think it would still be a success, but there are just SO many promising dudes in our class. This could be such a boon for this farm system!

COVID loaded this draft class for everybody. Lucking into the 5th pick gave the Twins a leg up and they proceeded to take full advantage. 

[terrydactyls]

I took would like to see Jenkins promoted.  Why not?  One more week shouldn't faze an 18-year old.  

Is it my imagination or have the names of Jose Salas and Noah Miller been showing up in these recaps fairly often over the last month?

[jorgenswest]

When does the fall instructional camp start? I would guess that might be more valuable to any of the drafted players. 

[DJL44]

51 minutes ago, terrydactyls said:

I took would like to see Jenkins promoted.  Why not?  One more week shouldn't faze an 18-year old.  

The Kernels have Urbina in LF, Rodriguez in CF and Rosario in RF. Jenkins won't start over Rodriguez and he's only played CF so far. That means he would probably only DH for the Kernels. I'm not opposed to that.