Twins Minor League Report (4/30): Fort Myers Mussels Its Way to Franchise Record 24 Runs

[Seth Stohs]

Image courtesy of William Parmeter (Mussels hitters)

Sorry this is posted so late. I spent nearly 90 minutes online with MLB dot TV customer service as I have not been able to watch a Twins game on Twins dot TV for four days in a row. And after 90 minutes, we still have no resolution. Frustrating. 

TRANSACTIONS   
RHP Travis Adams saw his rehab stint come to an end as he was optioned to the Saints where he’ll continue to work to return to 100% and return to the Twins. 

The Saints also activated RHP Raul Brito from the development list.  

Fort Myers activated RHP Justin Mitrovich, their ninth-round pick from the 2025 MLB Draft. Get to know more about the Elon alum in his Twins Spotlight.  

Finally, RHP Angel Castillo was released from the DSL roster.                                                                                                                  

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 3, Iowa 1  
Box Score
The Saints had just two hits in this game but four a way to earn a win at home against Iowa. One big reason, of course, is pitching. Let’s start there. 

Matt Bowman played the role of the opener in this game. He tossed two scoreless innings despite giving up three hits. 

Mike Paredes played the role of the bulk pitcher. He tossed five scoreless innings and struck out four batters. He gave up two hits and a walk.  He earned his first Triple-A win.   

Raul Brito was charged with an unearned run in the eighth inning, and Drew Smith earned the save with a scoreless ninth inning. 

With two outs in the bottom of the third inning, Noah Cardenas knocked his first home run of the season to give the Saints a 1-0 lead. 

The Saints used a bit more creativity to score their next runs. With one out in the bottom of the fifth inning, Orlando Arcia reached on an infield single. Aaron Sabato followed with a walk, and Tanner Schobel was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Cardenas walked to make it 2-0 Saints. Kaelen Culpepper was next. He flew out to right, deep enough for Sabato to score the third run. On the relay, Schobel was thrown out at third base to end the inning. 

Infielder James Triantos went 2-for-4 and is now hitting .317. He’s a Top 10 Cubs prospect. Former Gophers star Brett Bateman led off and played center field for the Cubs. He was 1-for-3 with a walk and a double. Jonathan Long is also a Top 10 Cubs prospect, and he was 2-for-4. 

The Saints had six walks, and Emmanuel Rodriguez accounted for half of them.                                                                                   

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 3, Arkansas 11
Box Score
The Wind Surge had a rough game on Thursday night, right from the start. Sam Armstrong gave up two runs in the first inning. The Surge evened it up in the bottom of the inning, but Arkansas scored five in the top of the second inning. Armstrong was charged with seven runs on five hits, two walks, and two hit batters. He gave up four home runs. 

Jarrett Whorff came in for the third inning. He gave up three runs on three hits and a walk over two innings. Darren Bowen wired two innings. He gave up one run on a solo home run. Kyle Bischoff tossed two scoreless innings, and Luis Quinones added a zero in the ninth inning.   

In the bottom of the first inning, Kyle DeBarge reached on a throwing error by the pitcher and got all the way to third base. Kala’i Rosario walked. Hendry Mendez reached on an infield single to shortstop which loaded the bases. With one out, Ricardo Olivar lined a single that drove in two runs. 

The other Wichita run came in the third inning. Billy Amick and Olivar walked to start the inning. Jose Salas got in by an infield single to load the bases. Andrew Cossetti came up and flew out to center field. Amick scored. All three base runners tried to advance, but Salas was thrown out at second. 

Wichita managed their three runs on just three hits, but they also had seven walks. Rosario had three of those walks. 

KERNELS CHRONICLE 
Cedar Rapids 7, West Michigan 5
Box Score
West Michigan jumped out to a fast start. They scored five runs over the first two innings. From that point, it was all Kernels. They scored at least once in the next five innings and the final seven runs of the game. 

Eli Jones started and gave up five runs on eight hits over the first three innings. It’s nice to see that he ended his day with a scoreless innings (little things). He had six strikeouts and no walks. He struck out the last two batters he faced. 

After that, however, Cole Peschl threw two scoreless innings. Ivran Romero had two strikeouts in a scoreless inning. Eston Stull struck out six batters over the final three innings to record his first save of the season. 

Rayne Doncon and Andy Lugo led off the bottom of the third inning with a walk and a single, respectively. Jaime Ferrer drove in Doncon with a double. With one out, Eduardo Tait drove in Lugo with a single. 

Rayne Doncon knocked his third homer of the season with one out in the bottom of the fourth to make it a 5-3 game. 

Brandon Winokur led off the fifth inning with his fifth double. Khadim Diaw walked. After Danny De Andrade reached on a force out, Jay Thomason singled in Winokur with the Kernels fourth run. De Andrade scored on a Doncon sacrifice fly to tie the game a 5-5. 

With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Marek Houston hit his third home run of the season to give the Kernels’ their first lead of the game. 

Doncon continued his productive game with an RBI single to drive in Khadim Diaw with the seventh run. 

Doncon went 2-for-2 with a walk, two runs, and three RBI. He had a sacrifice fly and a homer. Diaw went 2-for- with two walks. Houston was 2-for-4 with a walk and a homer. 

MIGHTY MATTERS
Ft. Myers 24, Daytona 8
Box Score  
This is one of those games that you can never expect. Seemingly every season, every team will have one of those games where the offense scores a huge number of runs. Good teams and bad teams. But 20 is something different. The franchise’s previous high in runs scored was 22 runs in August of 2012. Since 2020, the Mussels have reached 19 runs once. It is the third time that the Mussels have scored 15 or more runs. In addition, they had 21 hits which is also a Mussels record. 

Of the nine starters, only Yasser Mercedes went hitless, but he walked three times. All nine batters reached base at least two times. Bruin Agbayani reached base five times. He was 4-for-6 with a walk. He scored five runs and drove in three. Byron Chourio went 4-for-6 in this game.

Irvin Nunez went 3-for-6 with his first triple and first home run of the season. He had six RBI and three runs scored. Jayson Bass went 3-for-6 with a walk, his third homer, three runs and five RBI. 

Ramiro Dominguez had two doubles and two walks in the game. Quentin Young had two hits. JP Smith had one hit and two walks. He scored four times. 

Harry Genth went 2-for-4 with two walks and a double. He scored three runs. Oh, and he needed just three pitches to get the final two outs. 

Matt Dalquist started for the Mussels. He gave up three runs (1 earned) on five hits and a walk in 4 1/3 innings. He had eight strikeouts. Brent Francisco gave up three runs on eight hits over 2 2/3 innings. He had four strikeouts. Jake Murray gave up two runs on two hits and two walks in 1 1/3 innings. He had two strikeouts. Harry Genth came on and got the final two outs of the game. 

PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Hitter of the Day  
Bruin Agbayani (Fort Myers): 4-for-6, BB, 5 R, 3 RBI
Irvin Nunez (Fort Myers): 3-for-5, BB, 3B(1), HR(1), 2 R, 6 RBI, K
Jayson Bass (Fort Myers): 3-for-6, BB, HR(3), 3 R, 5 RBI, K
Rayne Doncon (Cedar Rapids): 2-for-2, BB, HR(3), 2 R, 3 RBI

Pitcher of the Day 
Mike Paredes (St. Paul): 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, 68 pitches, 43 strikes (63.2%)

 

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) - 0-for-3, SF RBI, K (batted first, played SS)
#3 - OF Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 0-for-1, 3 BB, CS(2) (Batted second, played RF).
#4 - C Eduardo Tait (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-5, RBI, K, E(3) (batted second, played C)
#5 - LHP Connor Prielipp (Minnesota) - Did Not Pitch
#6 - LHP Dasan Hill (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Pitch
#7 - OF Gabriel Gonzalez (St. Paul) - 0-for-4, 2 K (batted third, played 1B)
#8 - LHP Kendry Rojas (St. Paul) - Did Not Pitch
#9 - SS Marek Houston (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-4, BB, HR(3), R, RBI, K, E(3), CS(1) (batted leadoff, played DH)
#10 - RHP Charlee Soto (Cedar Rapids) - Injured List
#11 - RHP Riley Quick (Ft. Myers) - Did Not Pitch
#12 - RHP Andrew Morris (Minnesota) - 1 1/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, 19 pitches, 13 strikes (68.4%) 
#13 - 3B/CF Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-5, 2B(5), R, 3 K (batted third, played CF)
#14 - 3B/SS Quentin Young (Ft. Myers) - 2-for-7, R, 3 K (batted fifth, played 3B)
#15 - RHP Marco Raya (St. Paul) - Did Not Pitch.  
#16 - OF Hendry Mendez (Wichita) - 1-for-4, K (batted third, played DH)
#17 - 2B/OF Kyle DeBarge (Wichita) - 0-for-5, R, 2 K (batted first, played 2B)
#18 - RHP C.J. Culpepper (Wichita) - Did Not Pitch.
#19 - C/OF Khadim Diaw (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-2, 2 BB, R (batted fourth, played DH)
#20 - RHP James Ellwanger (Ft. Myers) - 60 IL (right elbow sprain)

UPCOMING PROBABLES
Friday:
Iowa @ St. Paul (6:37 pm CT) - RHP John Brebbia (0-0, 3.95 ERA)
Arkansas @ Wichita (6:35 pm CT) - Ty Langenberg (0-1, 3.80 ERA)
West Michigan @ Cedar Rapids (6:05 pm CT) - RHP Michael Ross (1-1, 5.73 ERA)
Ft. Myers @ Daytona (5:35 pm CT) - RHP Merit Jones (0-1, 1.93 ERA)

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 14-18
St. Paul Saints: 13-16
Wichita Wind Surge: 13-11
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 11-13
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 16-8
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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[AceWrigley]

Those have to be the ugliest jerseys ever.