Twins Minor League Report (4/17): Game-Winning Homer Among Two More Hits for Ben Ross

[Seth Stohs]

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge (photo of Ben Ross)

TRANSACTIONS
Right-handed pitchers Cory Lewis and Kyle Bischoff started their rehab assignments with the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels on Friday.  

The Twins also announced that Royce Lewis will begin a rehab assignment with the Saints on Saturday. 

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 7, Lehigh Valley 4
Box Score
Zebby Matthews has had a rough start to his 2026 season. He’d be the first to tell you that. He was back on the mound for the Saints on Friday night. He bent, but he really didn’t break in this outing. He went the first four innings. He gave up two runs on six hits and a walk and a hit batter. With all of those runners on base, the two runs he allowed came on solo home runs by IronPigs DH Felix Reyes. He got out of some situations with five strikeouts. 

Grant Hartwig came on and gave up two runs on two hits and a walk over two innings. Matt Bowman started the seventh inning. He gave up two hits, but no runs, in 1 2/3 innings. Three of the five outs he recorded came via the strikeout. Zak Kent got the final four outs without giving up a run to record his first Saints Save. 

The Saints did a very nice job of answering the Reyes homers. Reyes homered in the top of the first inning. The Saints responded with three runs in the bottom of the first. Kaelen Culpepper led off with a walk. He scored ahead of Alan Roden who hit his third homer of the season.   

With two outs, Kyler Fedko drilled his fourth homer of the season to make it 3-1. 

Reyes hit another solo homer in the top of the third inning. The Saints came back with three in the bottom of that frame. As he had in the first, Culpepper led off the third with a walk. He stole second. Roden walked. With one out, Emmanuel Rodriguez lined a single to right to drive in Run #4. Fedko drove in Roden on a fielder’s choice. Rodriguez scored on an Eric Wagaman ground out. 

The Twins added a single run in the bottom of the fourth frame. Guess who got things started? With two outs, Culpepper singled. 

Then in what may or may not be an interesting move*, Orlando Arcia pinch hit for Alan Roden. Arcia came through with a double to drive in Culpepper with the seventh run. 

*No, not an interesting move after all. Earlier in the game, Roden had an awkward slide into home and jarred his shoulder a bit. Sounds pretty minor but will likely miss a game or two as a precaution. 

Culpepper went 1-for-2 with two walks and a stolen base. He scored three runs. Roden was 1-for-1 with a walk and his third homer. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 5, Springfield 4
Box Score
It was a pretty quiet night at the plate the Wind Surge. Then right after the 7th Inning Stretch, the Surge put a four on the board to take a lead and held on for the one-run win.

Garrett Spain gave Wichita a 1-0 lead in the second inning with his third home run of the season.  

However, Springfield scored the next four runs. Ty Langenberg started and gave up two runs on six hits and two walks over five innings. Alejandro Hidalgo worked the next two innings. He gave up two runs in the top of the seventh. 

Ricardo Olivar led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a walk. Jose Salas followed with an infield single. A back moved runners to second and third, and then a passed ball allowed Olivar to score the team’s second run. Andrew Cossetti walked, and then Salas scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Kyle DeBarge. 

Down 4-3, guess who came to the plate? That’s right. Ben Ross. He had increased his hitting streak to 13 games earlier in the game. This time, he came through in the best way possible. Ross lined an opposite field homer to give Wichita the 5-4 lead, a lead they held on to for the final two innings. 

Ross is now hitting .480/.552/.900 (1.452) with six doubles, five homers and 14 RBI. He is also 7-for-8 on stolen base attempts. He also has more walks than strikeouts (8-to-7). He was the Twins 5th round pick in 2022 out of Notre Dame in Ohio, a strong Division II program. He is known for his great infield defense, so it’s nice to see more in his offensive game too. 

William Fleming tossed two scoreless innings to record the save.  

KERNELS CHRONICLE 
Cedar Rapids 11, Quad Cities 8
Box Score
Nine total runners crossed home plate in the first inning. Quad Cities scored first in the first inning and then three more in the third inning. The Kernels scored four runs in the first inning and one more in the second frame. 

However, the Kernels pitchers put six straight 0s on the board. Down 8-5, the Kernels scored a run in the bottom of the sixth when Rayne Doncon scored on a passed ball. 8-6. 

In the bottom of the seventh, Eduardo Tait doubled to drive in Marek Houston who reached on an infield single. 8-7. 

With two outs, Brandon Winokur hit his first triple of the season. 8-8. 

With one out in the bottom of the eighth, Jay Thomason singled. With two outs, he moved up to second. Jaime Ferrer walked. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch, and then Houston walked to load the bases. Tait came up big again, dropping a two-run single to center. Khadim Diaw drove in Houston with a single. 11-8. 

Marek Houston was 2-for-4 with a walk and three runs scored. Eduardo Tait was 2-for-4 with a walk, his third double, and three RBI. Khadim Diam was 2-for-5 with two RBI. Jay Thomason also had two hits. Rayne Doncon hit his second home run of the season in the four-run first inning. In the second inning, Jaime Ferrer hit his second homer of the season. 

Adrian Bohorquez had a rough start, but three errors behind him did not help. He gave up eight runs (4 earned) on four hits and four walks in 2 1/3 innings. He struck out four.

Ivran Romero came into the game with one out in the top of the third inning and runners on second and third base.  He gave up a sacrifice fly before getting out of that inning. However, he went 3 2/3 scoreless, hitless innings. He had six strikeouts and two walks. Sam Rochard went 1 2/3 scoreless innings. Eston Stull got the final four outs, three of them on strikeouts. 

MIGHTY MATTERS
Ft. Myers 2, Lakeland 5
Box Score  
Cory Lewis made the start, rehabbing from a shoulder issue that showed up right at the beginning of spring training. Lewis got one out, but he gave up two runs on two hits and two walks. He left the game with a trainer, so that certainly isn’t ideal. 

Kyle Bischoff, making his first rehab appearance, gave up a walk and struck out two batters over 1 1/3 scoreless innings. 

Merit Jones was the regularly scheduled starter for the day. He came in and worked 4 1/3 innings. He gave up one run on two hits and a walk. He struck out one batter. Xavier Kolhosser gave up two runs on two hits and a walk over the final three innings. He struck out four batters. 

The Mussels scored single runs in the third and fourth innings. In the third inning, Eduardo Beltre put Fort Myers on the board. He hit it 104.1 mph at 32 degrees, and it traveled 406 feet for his third home of the season. 

In the fourth frame, Ramiro Dominguez, who was just added to the Mussels roster two days ago, hit a ball 100.3 mph at 27 degrees, and it traveled 369 feet, well beyond the wall in left field. Dominguez, you may recall, was the Twins Daily FCL Hitter of the Year for 2025. He was 1-for-3 with a walk and his first homer. He also made a great defensive play at second base.   

The Mussels had eight hits in the game. Ryan Sprock had three of them, and one of the team’s seven walks. 

PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Hitter of the Day  
Ben Ross (Wichita): 2-for-3, BB, 2B(6), HR(5), R, 2 RBI. 

Pitcher of the Day 
Ivran Romero (Cedar Rapids): 3 2/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, 52 pitches, 34 strikes (65.4%)

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

#1 - OF Walker Jenkins (St. Paul) - Did Not Play 
#2 - IF Kaelen Culpepper (St. Paul) - 1-for-2, 2 BB, 3 R, K, SB(3) (batted first, played SS)
#3 - OF Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 1-for-3, BB, R, RBI, K (batted fourth, played RF, then CF)
#4 - C Eduardo Tait (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-4, BB, 2B(3), 2 R, 3 RBI (batted second, DHd)   

#5 - LHP Connor Prielipp (St. Paul) - Did Not Pitch
#6 - LHP Dasan Hill (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Pitch
#7 - OF Gabriel Gonzalez (St. Paul) - 0-for-4, K (Batted third, played 1B, then RF)
#8 - LHP Kendry Rojas (St. Paul) - Did Not Pitch
#9 - SS Marek Houston (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-4, BB, 3 R, SB(3), 2 K (batted leadoff, played SS)
#10 - RHP Charlee Soto (Cedar Rapids) - Injured List
#11 - RHP Riley Quick (Ft. Myers) - Did Not Pitch
#12 - RHP Andrew Morris (Minnesota) - Did Not Pitch
#13 - 3B/CF Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, BB, 3B(1), RBI (batted 4th, played CF).
#14 - 3B/SS Quentin Young (Ft. Myers) - 0-for-5, 4 K (batted second, DHd)
#15 - RHP Marco Raya (St. Paul) - Did Not Pitch
#16 - OF Hendry Mendez (Wichita) - 0-for-3, BB, 2 K (batted fourth, played LF)
#17 - 2B/OF Kyle DeBarge (Wichita) - 0-for-3, SF RBI (batted first, played SS)
#18 - RHP C.J. Culpepper (Wichita) - Starts Saturday. 
#19 - C/OF Khadim Diaw (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-5, R, 2 RBI, K (batted third, played CF).
#20 - RHP James Ellwanger (Ft. Myers) - Did Not Pitch

UPCOMING PROBABLES
Saturday:
Lehigh Valley @ St. Paul (2:07 pm CT) - Andrew Bash (0-1, 1.64 ERA)
Springfield @ Wichita (4:05 pm CT) - C.J. Culpepper (0-1, 3.38 ERA)
Quad Cities @ Cedar Rapids (1:05 pm CT) - RHP Jason Doktorczyk (2-0, 3.60 ERA)
Lakeland @ Ft. Myers (5:05 CT) - RHP Reed Moring (1-0, 0.00 ERA) 

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 11-9
St. Paul Saints: 8-10
Wichita Wind Surge: 7-6
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 7-6
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 8-5
FCL Twins: 0-0 (season begins Monday, May 4)
DSL Twins: 0-0 (season begins Monday, June 1) 

Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the rosters, and discuss today’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related!

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[twinstalker]

Thank you for this.  It's great.

[FlyingFinn]

Has Ben Ross set a new TD record for being hitter of the day for the most consecutive days!!

[jmlease1]

Good for Ben Ross! I'd say the only reason he's not getting an early call up to Saint Paul is they don't have anywhere for him to play right now; you don't want to take playing time away from Culpepper, and it's reasonable to want to hang on to Arcia for a while longer if there's a need for another infielder in MLB right now. But he's making a damn good argument for promotion and you love to see it. Of course, he's never hit like this before, so it's also fair to see how much he can keep it up.

Houston seems to be settling in pretty well at Cedar Rapids. I'm happy to see him hitting. (He's oddly been terrible against LHP this season, but I'm guessing it's just small sample size noise)

Hope it's nothing serious with Roden. I'd like to see him get another opportunity in MLB; he seems to have little left to prove in AAA.

Cory Lewis can't catch a break it seems. He was a fun story a couple of years ago and had shoved his way into the team's plans as a starter, and it's all fallen apart for him. Rotten year last year and struggling to get healthy. Dang. Hope he can get healthy, get back on the mound and find himself again.

[rdehring]

Got a good smile from your lead, Seth.  Thanks!

Loved Houston and Tait both going 2-4 with a walk and a bunch of rbi and runs.  But what caught my eye was Houston's stolen base.  Is great seeing he has reasonable running ability to go with his world class defense. 

Ross needs to move up in the next few weeks or month.  That would open a spot for Houston in Wichita.  But that means Culpepper needs to make his move to allow those moves to happen.

[D.C Twins]

Tait.... Wow! 

I hope that they are aggressive with his promotions when appropriate similar to Jenkins. 

If Ross keeps this up, we can have visions of a Culpepper/Ross left side of the infield for the Twins in the next year or two (yes... I'm out on Lewis for future planning)

 

[Major League Ready]

They played Roden in Center with Rodriguez in RF and Fedko in LF.  Are they preparing for Roden to back up Buxton in CF?  Roden and Martin are both better options than Outman.  Not as good defensively but much better offensively.  Eventually Jenkins or Rodriguez will get that role.  First as a BU but Buxton probably gives way to one of them in the not-too-distant future.  For now, spare us from Outman and let Roden / Martin / Kriedler fill that role.

It was also good to see Gonzalez getting time at 1B last night.

[Jeff K]

I am looking forward to the next re-ranking of Twins Prospects.  Of course, I'm referencing Ben Ross.  Wow!

[Major League Ready]

I have been watching most of the Saints games and Culpepper will be a big upgrade defensively at SS.  While I have never been high on Lee, his recent offensive improvement complicates the issue.  We don't want Culpepper playing a part-time role and pulling Lee when he is hot makes no sense assuming Lewis will be back soon.  Would they consider playing Lee or Keaschall at 2B?

I also like the idea of bringing up Roden.  Outman is DFAed.  Roden and Larnach play the corner OF positions and Martin plays 2B.  Keaschall or Lee to 1B, Bell is the DH.   Walner may need to be sent down and Clemons might need to be cut in this process as well.

[ashbury]

If Ben Ross is dreaming, it's a kangaroo kourt fine of $1000 to whoever wakes him up!

[DarrenPS]

Merit Jones had 5 strikeouts btw not 1 as mentioned. Clearly we like him, we drafted him twice!

[Bangkok Twins Fan]

22 hours ago, D.C Twins said:

Tait.... Wow! 

I hope that they are aggressive with his promotions when appropriate similar to Jenkins. 

I agree. I think Tait should, and will be, one of the players who moves quickly up the system.